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services more than I wanted to be a researcher. As a researcher who is not a churchmember that person could be „drawn into the fold‟ as Barr (1993) observes. In additionto this, as a born again Christian and a church member, this methodology posed manychallenges.An awareness of the inequity (Taylor 2002) and power relationship between the researcherand the researched as well as my desire to make the relationship as equitable as possiblemade me acutely aware of privacy of the healing relationship between the healer and thehealed. It felt like I was intruding on a very private communication between the minister,the person seeking healing and God. People were willing to talk (mention) spiritualhealing, but not really to take the time to be interviewed. It was very time consuming tospend time „hanging around‟ and listening to people before you can let them know exactlywhy you are seeking their attention. For example; one Sunday I went to church to make anappointment with the minister, who did not phone me during the week as he promised. Hedid remember when he saw me and gave me a date immediately. I was in the service fortwo hours. The service was due to finish at 2.30 pm. It finished at 4:00pm. The time wasused as an opportunity to observe the service on a superficial level and record myobservations.It is difficult to be in the service and not to participate, unless I go to the service with theintention to observe and not to participate. When I do this there is a sense of loss, I feelrobbed of an opportunity to worship. The difficulties arise when I am part of a churchservice and I want to be engrossed in the activities. The frustration from not being able tobecome wholly engrossed (participate) in the activities (Church service) and observe at thesame time was overwhelming. Some of the details of the service were missed and this is77
not necessarily addressed through the interviews as the interviews were semi-structuredand probably not as formal as those used in Jaye‟s (2001) methodology in her study ofPentecostal and secular doctors. Jaye used an ethnographic approach and relied on acombination of participant observation and formal interviews. On the other hand, somedetails are addressed through the interviews such as „At the URC (Church) the healer willalways find out from the person if they have been to their GP or advise the person seekinghealing to go to their GP‟ (respondent 6). These are the words of a church elder, someonewho has inside knowledge of how a United Reform Church healer/minister is trained toconduct themselves when administering healing. This is not always true in practice asdifferent ministers who operate in different ways conduct the healing services. Someministers operate according to the written instructions whilst others operate according tothe „leading of the Holy Spirit‟ It is difficult to say whether respondent 6 is talng frompersonal experience or from the teaching.3.6 Validity and reliabilityAs the research was designed to use interviews and observation as the data collectionmethods, it was assumed that by triangulation of the data, the issue of validity could beassessed according to the level of correspondent links between the data collected throughdifferent methods. Wengraf (2001) suggests that the issue of validity is about thearguments which are used to justify inferences from the data. There are some inferencesfrom the interview data that correspond with those from literature and observation,although this does not make it easy to apply the results as an empirical indicator toapplicable to a different population at a different point in time. According to Wolcott(1990) „Validity in qualitative research relates to description and explanation and whethera given description fits given explanation‟. Wiseman and Watt (2006) set out some useful78
Page 1:
Greenwich Academic Literature Archi
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AcknowledgementsI extend much grati
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Chapter 3: Methodology 633.1 Introd
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7.3 Prayer as Health Seeking Behavi
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CHAPTER ONEINTRODUCTION AND CONTEXT
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healing, bricolage and the use of s
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To remedy these gaps in the discour
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do with me‟ so she sent me to sch
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Interestingly, after 30 years of pr
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listening to a group of people that
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that I felt within the Black majori
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Chapter 3 describes the methodology
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espondents‟ perception of sufferi
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CHAPTER TWOLITERATURE REVIEW2.1 Int
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themes, it became necessary to revi
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suggests a combined approach where
Page 36 and 37: and healing as a kind of self-impro
Page 39 and 40: eports that the English believed th
Page 41 and 42: According to Davey et al (2002) ill
Page 43 and 44: deviant behaviour. The difference b
Page 45 and 46: church concretised the ideas of rel
Page 47 and 48: theology. It is no accident that th
Page 49 and 50: concept of culture we inevitably do
Page 51 and 52: When we look at the effect of cultu
Page 53 and 54: to help us to understand the totali
Page 55 and 56: information about the association a
Page 57 and 58: when emotional wounds are healed or
Page 59 and 60: climatic conditions, shelter and a
Page 61 and 62: cancers has been documented by Phil
Page 63 and 64: concepts of reality and destiny are
Page 65 and 66: healer intentionally through a proc
Page 67 and 68: attachments that meet humans' funda
Page 69 and 70: distinguish from mental disorders.
Page 71 and 72: take a phenomenological and ethnogr
Page 73 and 74: coming but her method is not primar
Page 75 and 76: from posters on the church notice b
Page 77 and 78: Healing services in both churches f
Page 79 and 80: Qualitative method can, however, be
Page 81 and 82: 3.5 Problems of participant and non
Page 83 and 84: difficulties that were to be presen
Page 85: isolating experience was certainly
Page 89 and 90: It may not be possible for all the
Page 91 and 92: signed to their awareness and appro
Page 93 and 94: Consequently the practice relating
Page 95 and 96: problem free. Ethnography requires
Page 97 and 98: ecommended by the Pastor. When they
Page 99 and 100: The greater proportion of females i
Page 101 and 102: difficulties involved in constructi
Page 103 and 104: musical Pentecostal style of worshi
Page 105 and 106: The different emphases in soteriolo
Page 107 and 108: literature may remain in its infanc
Page 109 and 110: does not mean „Pentecostal‟ nor
Page 111 and 112: church, the cultural differences we
Page 113 and 114: umbrella of churches. The leaders c
Page 115 and 116: local autonomy, the majority of Con
Page 117 and 118: The post-1905 Pentecostals saw thei
Page 119 and 120: the Holy Ghost). Interestingly the
Page 121 and 122: the churches they are busy breaking
Page 123 and 124: friends started to meet in the home
Page 125 and 126: such as COGIC, have developed a str
Page 127 and 128: the church group to strangers. In t
Page 129 and 130: and illustrate the oral tradition o
Page 131 and 132: 4.8.1. Description of the inside of
Page 133 and 134: The order of service below is based
Page 135 and 136: forgiving note may signify partial
Page 137 and 138:
Table 3 Organisational hierarchy of
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One of the original churches which
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communion table. To the right of th
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Minister used an acronym to illustr
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GloriaPrayer for grace or collectSc
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service whilst URC church attendees
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mainstream Christianity, their doct
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on the project and make requests to
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made to integrate the white people
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‗Garlic is good for reducing high
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4.13 ConclusionThis chapter began w
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organization. This role can only be
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5.3 The Authority and Power of the
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to become approved (professional) m
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majority. In recent years with Brit
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leadership although it is about aut
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Azusa Street outpouring in 1906. Af
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other who wal sorderly, and not of
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Although the Holy Spirit was presen
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Respondent 3 covered topics includi
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Respondent 10 (below) has similar v
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of rejection by the host community
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ehaviour model. In this situation,
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and they feel. It is not everybody
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many sections of society. It also s
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people. These qualities, however, a
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came across as though he was presen
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very important for this.On occasion
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CHAPTER SIXSUFFERING AND HEALING6.1
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mind body and spirit implies that i
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suffering. Most of these situations
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Respondent: Not for my sister she h
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man to repent and return to the cre
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clotting treatment. After the treat
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gift of miraculous powers go with t
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What I teach on this matter is, tha
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The bible does not condemn, forbid
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possibility of impending change in
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prayer or they are rested. What is
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„Whatever the educational attainm
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„The message of Job is a comfort
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he has questioned God‟s purposes
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pray for them. In the words of seve
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demonic forces. Explanations of spi
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In the observation example quoted a
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employed by the mother had she live
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healing. Worthington et al. (2007)
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in the account of a young mother in
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y not having a normal relationship
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and not related to any one cultural
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prayer to ma e me better‟, as tho
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Non-academic, or „popular‟ Chri
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when the healer petitions God in pr
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health and the ways in which hospit
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showing lethargy in praying, failin
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know when you have stomach ulcer yo
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ministers like Harris (2002) 3 . Th
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Healing services in the URC are mor
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Respondent: You have to have the gi
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psychological effect of knowing her
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Chapter 2, without taking some posi
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Prayer for distant healing takes pl
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Although prayers for healing are sa
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The healing services also include f
Page 265 and 266:
The method and processes of closing
Page 267 and 268:
7.7. ConclusionThis chapter has exa
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This chapter was born out of observ
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website (http://www.stonybrookmedic
Page 273 and 274:
For those who reject traditional Ch
Page 275 and 276:
hands on the forehead of each perso
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The minister also invited the rest
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service closed with silence accompa
Page 281 and 282:
In this respondent‟s‟ account,
Page 283 and 284:
Below are brief parts of extracts p
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service was when the speaker came t
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observed believed the aura of the h
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Ministers/healers of these two cong
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constituent of worship even where t
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to herself, and argues that music h
Page 295 and 296:
could not read or write. Such music
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linking the psychic/mythological an
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group coordination through rhythmo-
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People can become so involved in a
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visual and auditory areas which act
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Campbell (1998) argue that as music
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The extracts from fieldwork notes b
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In COGIC the singing is accompanied
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when I was ill. Then my mum died th
Page 313 and 314:
The passage cited from Respondent 1
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CHAPTER TENCONCLUSION AND RECOMMEND
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etween health professionals and chu
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The initial aim of the study: „to
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part of worship services a priority
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health professionals and spiritual
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are culturally conditioned rational
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professionals. Despite the differen
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prominent amongst people who attend
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ReferencesAchterberg, J., (1985) Im
Page 333 and 334:
Bentham, J., (2001ff, originally 18
Page 335 and 336:
Department of Health, (1999) Saving
Page 337 and 338:
Hall, S., (1985) “Religious Ideol
Page 339 and 340:
Katz, J. J., (1990) Metaphysics of
Page 341 and 342:
http://emedicine.medscape.com/artic
Page 343 and 344:
Pullar, P., (1988) Spiritual and La
Page 345 and 346:
Comparative Perspective, Berg, Oxfo
Page 347 and 348:
International, London and New York.
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