The Community of Christ the Healer

What is the OSL?

The Order of Saint Luke is a Christ-centered, international and inter-denominational healing ministry comprised of clergy and laity who belong to healing communities (both in person and on-line). Members share in fellowship and learning to receive and grow in the healing ministry of Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit to the glory of God the Father. As we are being healed through Jesus Christ, we are also being trained to offer prayer in our communities and beyond. This is our focused mission and ministry.  We welcome Christians from all churches to join with us in this mission.

The objective of the International Order of St. Luke the Physician (OSL) is to bring about among all Christian clergy, medical personnel, and lay people, an increased understanding of spiritual healing and wholeness as an essential part of the teaching and practice of Jesus Christ as set forth in the New Testament. OSL encourages Christians to realise that all believers may have an active part in Jesus’ healing ministry.

The OSL in South Africa

The Order of St Luke (OSL) has been around in some form or other since 1932 and in a range of countries. A mere hundred years or so is a short time in the life of the church, but the movement of communities with a specific mission and gift from God, in which the OSL stands, is an ancient one. And as with all things with God, it is given to each generation to faithfully articulate our inheritance for the present time.

That re-articulation will at once be brand new, and at the same time bear the family resemblance, as it were. In the 1940s and 50s there was a vibrant ministry of the Order of St Luke in Kearsney, KZN called The Healing Homes of Africa, pioneered by the Rev’d Edward Winckley DD. OSL. The ministry of the Community of Christ the Healer seeks to re-dig the deep wells of the Holy Spirit from those days, while drawing on the things the OSL has learned since about the healing presence of Jesus, and the experiences and testimonies of our members.

While the OSL began with people who worshipped in the Anglican church, the OSL has long since come to be shaped and enriched by people from different ways of expressing our Christian Faith and love for Jesus – and this is something we truly celebrate, because we need each other. The OSL is now fully ecumenical.

When the Community of Christ the Healer comes together to study, pray and share fellowship, we do so as an OSL Healing Community and our founders, Anders and Kate Litzell, have been members of the Order of St Luke since 2019. Membership in the OSL is personal and open to be discerned by all members of the Community.

Below you will find Anders and Kate’s story of how they found their way into the OSL:

The below video is a brief introduction to the OSL by Rev’d Sarah Bronos; OSL’s Director for Online Ministry.