An investigation into the phenomena and practices of spiritual ...

American sociologists (Ehrenreich 1989, Gilbert 2002, Beeghley 2004) make it clear thatnot only were the majority of Pentecostal churches born out of working class, low paidworkers and those at the bottom of the scale, but they remain a significant class markerthere. Such a class character of the church is apparent in Britain too.4.5 How the URC has developed its view of the biblical warrant for SpiritualHealingThe URC sees itself as in the „Reformed Tradition‟ (Bendedict 2002) seeng to recoverand purify the original teaching of the Christian church. Their interest in healing in thelater 20 th century may have been prompted by emulation of the charismatic churches, but ithas to be justified, and therefore shaped, by their own understanding of Christian tradition,and the nature of Pentecost. Within the Christian tradition, it is possible to view thebeginning of the Christian church as rooted in what happened at Pentecost andsubsequently developed through the evangelism of Saint Paul in the Middle East, theBalkans and Italy. The Biblical record suggests that there were several people fromdifferent places and from different cultures who were gathered in the one place and thenwent back to their home or fresh places to continue delivering the gospel, as recorded inActs, Romans, Ephesians and Corinthians. It is the visitation of the Holy Spirit that unitedthe people and made them one under the umbrella of Christianity. From a review of theepistles themselves, there were no uniform patterns of leadership in the early church. Acts13 indicates that the church in Antioch was led by teachers and prophets.The structure of the church has its roots in a Jewish type of organization with a head ofcommittee and a responsible shepherd or pastor at local level. From the inception of the101