Rev. Stephen Parsons

David Clark | Reverend Ronald Gauss | Michael D. Langone | Dwight Lysne | Reverend Richard Mapplebeckpalmer | Nipun Mehta | Rev. Stephen Parsons | Jordan Riak | Rabbi Dr. J.D. Sandberg | Wayne and Gerri Stowman | Beth A. Swagman, MSW | Ben Volman | Everett Worthington, Ph.D.
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Rev. Stephen Parsons aged 57, is a working Parish Priest in the Church of England (Episcopalian) with a special interest in the Christian ministry of healing.After writing a book on the ministry of healing in 1986 entitled The Challenge of Christian Healing he has continued to maintain an interest in the subject, the theory and the practice, up till today.He took on the editorship of a small magazine in 1991 for an ecumenical body in Britain called the Churches' Council for Health and Healing which sadly closed down in 1999 for financial reasons.It was while editing this magazine and writing a second book Searching for Healing in 1995 that he became aware of the widespread abuse of the healing gift particularly when practised by Christians who come a conservative or fundamentalist background.They are of course not the only ones to misuse this power.His latest book explores the issue of power abuse in conservative churches in Britain and the ideological background to this abuse.It is of course not only found when healing is being offered but occurs whenever there is an ideology present which allows no dialogue or consultation between leaders and led.Thus power abuse can be financial, emotional, sexual or spiritual.In his book Ungodly Fear, he tells a number of true stories from the UK scene illustrating how ideologies can be used to repress individuals in a variety of ways.The overiding common factor in each case is an emotional vulnerability which causes a strong need to belong to the group that is the setting for abuse.
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Stephen explores a number of psychological models that would appear to explain this vulnerability and some of these center on the idea of 'regression' that occurs to individuals under stress.

In addition, Rev. Parsons is an adviser on the ministry of healing to the Bishop of Glouucester and also acts as the adviser on spiritual deliverance issues in the area.His great passion is to have the issue of spiritual abuse seen as something wider and broader than merely sexual abuse whether of women or children.He would like the issue of power in the church to be thoroughly understood and researched by everyone from the bishop and leaders downwards.He is currently working on the issue of the psychological and sociology of the Church congregation

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