Parishes across the Diocese of York are invited to explore the ‘Covenant for Christian Healing’, affirm its vision, and consider how its commitments could shape their worship, pastoral care, and community life as they seek to live and share Christ’s Story.
The Covenant emerged from Reframing Healing for our Time: Faith, Health & the Human Condition, a symposium held at York St John University in partnership with York Minster in the summer.
The event marked the 800th anniversary of the canonisation of St William of York, whose shrine became a major medieval centre of pilgrimage and prayer for healing. It also followed the publication of Breaking not Broken by the Revd Canon Timothy Goode, which challenges traditional assumptions about disability, healing, wholeness, and human flourishing.
Speakers from a variety of disciplines, including theology, healthcare, and disability studies, explored how a Christian understanding of healing can address the realities of illness, disability, trauma, and social fragmentation without reinforcing harmful ideas of perfection or cure.
The Revd Canon Timothy Goode, Canon for Congregational Discipleship and Nurture at York Minster, said: “The Covenant for Christian Healing is offered as a theological offering to encourage faithful reflection and practice. It is intended to be read, discussed, and lived, helping churches and communities reframe Christian healing as the restoration of dignity, relationship, and hope rather than simply the pursuit of a cure.
“This Covenant as not offered as a destination, but rather as a basis for healthy and safe conversations about healing and healing ministry. My hope is that it will help churches, communities and healthcare practitioners imagine Christian healing afresh through the wounded Christ, in whom every human life is honoured, every person belongs, and hope is never extinguished.”
Healing is not the same as cure
The Covenant begins with a clear statement: healing is not synonymous with cure.
It describes healing as God’s work within the reality of human life, restoring dignity, belonging, relationships, justice, and hope. It rejects the idea that human worth depends on physical, cognitive, or social standards of perfection and recognises that healing may include living faithfully within suffering.
Shaped through dialogue between theologians, healthcare practitioners, clergy, disabled people, pastoral practitioners, and people with lived experience, the Covenant is offered to encourage deeper reflection and practice within the Church.
From reflection to practice
Alongside ten theological statements, the Covenant offers ten practical commitments. These include speaking truthfully about healing, listening to lived experience, shaping worship that makes space for lament and hope, removing barriers to participation, and offering attentive, non-coercive pastoral care.
Parishes are invited to use the Covenant as a starting point for reflection and action, helping them become Christlike communities where every person is valued, barriers to participation are removed, and healing is approached with truth, compassion, and hope.
