A Letter to Jay
Neil Macdonald, 16/12/2002
On Thursday, I went to Burrswood for the first time. This rather unusual hospital on the border between East Sussex and Kent, with glorious views out across the Ashdown Forest, was started by Dorothy Kerin, who was born in 1889. In the New Year of 1912, at the age of 22, she was already seriously ill with tubercular fever, and within a few weeks, peritonitis had set in, followed by delirium and regular haemorrhages. By the beginning of February, her doctor had ceased all treatment, as he considered that it was now useless. He felt she had suffered enough to kill half a dozen people. She continued, blind, deaf and semiconscious, for a further two weeks. On Saturday 17th February, her family were advised that she could not live through the next day, yet on that Sunday, she raised herself up in her bed, told her mother that she was well, and wanted to get up. By the following day she had eaten substantially, and was already putting on weight. Subsequent medical examinations were to reveal a body that had been made whole once more. Like the experience with my asthma, this healing process was immediate and thorough. It was also something that simply should not happen.
The London Evening News reported the facts of the case "without comment", but Dorothy Kerin never doubted that her spectacular recovery was due to the power of Jesus, and today the Church of Christ the Healer, attached to the hospital and built through her inspiration, is a focus for healing services. Clive, a retired doctor and member of my congregation, had asked me some time ago if I would like to go there with him, and the date we had fixed turned out to be propitious in view of the way my life had been stretched in the course of the past few weeks. We had coffee, attended the service, at which we both received a laying on of hands, and then had lunch, sharing our table with one of the most forthright elderly ladies either of us had ever encountered. She was a Scots version of Lady Bracknell, and she proceeded to ask me: "And what is your experience of the Holy Spirit? As Fr Bill put it later - with a laugh - "Talk about starting with an easy question!”
The answer I gave was about the healing of my asthma, which had a number of parallels with Dorothy Kerin's own experience, including the very real suffering that preceded it, which was far worse for her than it ever was for me, and the intense feeling of being loved and validated. Both of us had felt ourselves close to God. The lady accepted this, following which she trained her guns on poor Clive. In Dorothy Kerin's case the healing was the trigger for her own ministry, which involved loving and helping people, many of whom were to become her friends, not just in this country, but around the world. This did not start immediately, for she was to take the next seventeen years in preparation for her public ministry, during which she spent a great deal of time in prayer and reflection, had a number of visions, and received the stigmata.
Dorothy Kerin's building of the church at Burrswood had begun with her summoning the local builder. She proceeded to tell him that God had told her to build a church on the rose garden, and that he was part of God's plan. To his initial protestations that the job would be far too big for his firm, she replied that God would provide him with the knowledge and strength to build it. She also told him that he was to come to her for money when he needed it. She hadn't actually got the money, but God would provide it. She went on to tell him that the church would be completed within a year and would be paid for. Somehow he sensed that he would build it, and he did. He later acknowledged that Dorothy Kerin was like Churchill in managing to achieve the impossible. She took a personal interest in all the detail, and would herself bring the workmen their refreshments. The church was in fact completed eleven months after the foundation stone was laid, and by that time the money that was needed to pay for it had been raised in full. She didn't actually need to appeal for funds, as people from all over the world contributed freely, mainly in thanks for the healing they had received at her hands. Even so, much of my sympathy lies with the builder!
I did have one reservation about Burrswood. When the messengers of John the Baptist asked Jesus what he was really about, he replied: "Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor (Luke 7:22 - my italics)." It costs money to stay at Burrswood, and whilst a special low rate is offered to those who cannot afford more, I suspect that finances would be stretched if a lot of people took advantage of this. I am conscious that many of the homeless people who approach the charity I help with would benefit from the kind of holistic approach that is on offer at Burrswood, but there is little prospect of them receiving it, certainly not in such beautiful surroundings. Yet at Christian Care Association we, too, aim to offer a listening ear, advice and support, and are motivated by practical Christianity. We make no charge for our services, although we do aim to recover some incidental expenses like phone calls and laundry costs. The paradox is that the project we have that is nearest to Burrswood in its approach - a three-stage drug treatment facility - will be funded by the State and not by the "faithful". Yet I came away from Burrswood feeling greatly relaxed, and spiritually recharged, and I look forward to going back there in the New Year.
Dorothy Kerin, an Anglican, saw herself as God’s “little piece of pipe-work”: she was only ever the channel for the healing that people received, never the source of it. She was always very conscious of her need to be obedient to God, to wait upon Him and to listen, and only to act when she had received a clear signal to do so. Her very active public ministry was grounded in a consistent and extensive life of prayer: she managed to integrate the ways of both Martha and Mary to a remarkable extent. Her approach is instructive to all of us. Towards the end of her life, she told the congregation at St Martin-in-the Fields: “Today I stand here all unworthy and sinful as I am and dare to say to you in the presence of God and all the company of heaven that I have seen Jesus. I have heard His voice, I have felt His touch and I know that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever”.
