Foremost faith healer visits

Press, 15 September 1988, Page 5

Foremost faith healer visits

The Rev. Theodore Perera is one of the world’s foremost faith healers — but he dislikes the term, with its connotations of flashy American-style television ministries and spectacular cures. Mr Perera, a Methodist minister who founded a home of healing in his native Sri Lanka in 1971, has travelled-the world for the last 12 years on his healing ministry, “bringing the good news that Jesus still heals today,” he said. He was not a faith healer, however, but a servant of the Lord, who brought healing by making people whole in body, mind, spirit and relationships, he said. “We say, ‘Don’t seek healing, seek Jesus Christ’,” he said. While some people did have genuine “spectacular” cures, said Mr Perera, he did not encourage that in his own ministry. He spoke of his own miracle cure from blindness, which struck through glaucoma, in 1982, and was diagnosed as irreversible. He prayed for his sight, then felt “a soothing touch” on his eyes while conducting a service — but even then resisted the temptation to shout, “I’m cured!” His sight returned gradually over the next few days, he said. Mr Perera, who was last in New Zealand in 1977, arrived in New Zealand yesterday on a six-week visit, for prayer meetings and to speak at area conferences of the Order of St Luke the Physician. He will conduct prayer and healing meetings at Hororata today, at Rakaia tomorrow, and in Christchurch and Rangiora at the week-end. .> «*