wfn.org | WCC NEWS: Healing not the same as curing says disabled person

["WCC Media" <Media@wcc-coe.org>]

World Council of Churches - News Release
Contact: +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org
For immediate release - 11/05/2005

HEALING NOT THE SAME AS CURING SAYS DISABLED PERSON

     Free photos available at
     www.mission2005.org

For disabled persons, healing does not first and foremost mean being
cured. Rather, it has to do with restoration to and inclusion in the
community. Churches willing to heal disabled people must fully assume
their mission to include them.

The coordinator of the Ecumenical Disability Advocates Network (EDAN),
Samuel Kabue of Kenya, made this point in Athens today while speaking to
the 9-16 May 2005 Conference on World Mission and Evangelism (CWME).

Kabue, who was born blind, explained that "To those who have been disabled
since birth* disability and sickness are two very different things, and
healing [understood as cure] applies to sickness, not to disability."

The church needs to define healing in the widest possible sense, Kabue
suggested. While curing has to do with reconstruction of the physical
body, "disability is a social construct and healing is the removal of
social barriers".

Another issue, said Kabue, is that healing in relation to disabled people
is often assumed to mean eradicating disability "as if it were a contagious virus", or as promoting "virtuous suffering as a way to a greater faith
in God".

Some churches closely relate disability with illness and sin. For them,
"When prayers for healing do not yield the desired result, the victim is
the one blamed for having no faith."

Yet "Jesus chose to use healing to unite disabled people with the rest of
the society," Kabue stressed. "Prior to his time, they were excluded,
ignored and considered unclean."

Jesus did indeed cure sick people. But, according to Kabue, that "was only
a means to an end. What was and still is most important in our reconciliation message is the acceptance, inclusion and restoration into the mainstream of the society."

The full text of Samuel Kabue's address is available on our website at:
www.mission2005.org > Resources > Speeches

Growing out of the WCC's 8th assembly in 1998, EDAN's primary objective is
to support the work of individuals, churches and church organizations
concerned with the issues affecting disabled people globally. EDAN
website: http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/jpc/disabil.html

Conference website: www.mission2005.org

Additional information: Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363
media@wcc-coe.org

Sign up for WCC press releases at
http://onlineservices.wcc-coe.org/pressnames.nsf

The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches, now 347, in
more than 120 countries in all continents from virtually all Christian
traditions. The Roman Catholic Church is not a member church but works
cooperatively with the WCC. The highest governing body is the assembly,
which meets approximately every seven years. The WCC was formally
inaugurated in 1948 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Its staff is headed by
general secretary Samuel Kobia from the Methodist church in Kenya.