Emily Gardiner Neal in 1975.
Source: Wheaton Archives & Special Collections

Emily Gardiner Neal was born in 1911 to a well-to-do family and reared in New York City. She was educated at a private high school for girls in New York City and the David Mannes College of Music, also in New York. She intended to become a concert violinist. Emily’s parents were openly atheistic, and what Emily knew of Christianity was from hearsay. In 1930, Emily married a Naval Academy graduate, Alvin Neal. He too was an atheist. Emily later related that during their courtship they spent many hours talking about the possibility of God’ existence – a sign of their religious longings.

After his required time in the peace-time Navy of the 1930’s, Alvin became a businessman and moved his family to Argentina and later the Netherlands West Indies. But before the beginning of World War II, the family returned to the United States and settled in Pittsburgh. At the outbreak of the War, Alvin reentered the Navy and served as an officer aboard the aircraft Carrier USS Ranger.

How she became a Christian and an anointed minister of healing prayer is an amazing story of God’s providential choreography. In 1954, her neighbor asked her to drive her to an Episcopal church for a healing service, as her own car was in repair. Emily did the favor and stayed for the service. What she saw utterly amazed her, there seemed to be several instant healings, including a large goiter disappearing. Despite what she had seen, Emily suspected some sort of fraud in the healing service and determined to carefully examine the issue of spiritual healing with all of the reporting and critical skills she had developed. Her objective was to expose as fraudulent the healing claims being made by Christian healing ministers of the era.

The diagnosis had been based on an extensive series of X rays, bronchoscopy, and sputum tests – all positive. As a result, the patient scheduled for resection of five ribs and removal of the affected lung.

Shortly before the operation was to be performed, the patient attended a healing service and claimed a cure. When returned to the hospital for final examination prior to surgery, a repetition of the previously conducted tests revealed no evidence of lung cancer. He was dismissed from the hospital, and is today in robust health. The medical explanation was, again, mistaken diagnosis.[5]

On one occasion Alvin accompanied Emily to an interview of a patient cured of cancer. Emily related what happened in the car after the interview: “I heard Alvin clear his throat and say: ‘You know, there may be something to this work you’re doing, after all. Did You notice the radiance – the strange luminosity of that man’s face? I don’t know how to explain what I felt in him. All I’m sure of is that that man been touched by something I don’t know anything about.’”[6]

Alvin came to fully support her healing ministry.

Mrs. Neal’s book, A Reporter Finds God should be considered among the top dozen works in the literature of Christian healing. Her concern for the skeptically minded of her day was manifested in her careful attention to the data of documented healings and her methodical procedures. Her story of leaving skepticism behind would be an eye opener to today’s generation of skeptics.[7] (Hint: it would make an excellent gift to a skeptical/agnostic relative or friend – readily available at used book sites).

A Reporter Finds God was immensely successful, it was reprinted at least 15 times by 1965. After its launch Emily decided to learn more about Christianity, not just the healing ministry. She entered seminary and completed a degree in theology. Mrs. Neal then attended the Pittsburgh Pastoral Institute and was permitted to take courses open only to clergy, such as pastoral counseling. In fact, she became an effective and active Christian counselor for the rest of her life.

Shortly afterward, Mrs. Neal was invited to her first healing mission in Wisconsin. There she was asked to participate in the laying on of hands. It was the first time for her. Her respect for the Church’s authority prompted her to phone Bishop Pardue, her bishop in Philadelphia, to ask what to do – he gave her permission to do so, and this began her personal healing ministry.

In 1957 the editor of Prentice Hall asked her to write her second book, and the result was God Can Heal You Now, which came out in 1958.[9] Mrs. Neal’s orthodoxy and healing anointing was widely recognized and requests to speak and to lead healing missions poured in. This served to distance her from her career as a successful magazine writer. She tried to resist the pull away from being a reporter which she enjoyed doing and had done so well. But the love of the Lord drew her to His work. The Lord Is Our Healer [10] was published in 1961 and her recognition as an outstanding author and speaker of the healing ministry continued to grow.

Along with three bishops, three priests, and two physicians she served on the Joint Commission on the Ministry of Healing appointed at the 1961 General Convention of the Episcopal Church to study the Church’s ministry of healing. The Commission’s report, which strongly affirmed the reality and need of the Church’s healing mission, was submitted to the General Convention of 1964, was unanimously approved by both the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies. This proved to be a boost to the prestige and acceptability of the healing ministry among Episcopal clergymen. Of course, the report was no guarantee that the liberal-Sadducaical clergymen, of which there were many in the Episcopal Church, would accept or act upon the report. As it turned out, the Episcopal Church continued to be a denomination where many of its churches had no healing ministry at all and mostly continued their journey to destructive liberal theologies.

In 1966, she was asked by The Rev. Dr. John Baiz to lead weekly healing services and counsel at Calvary Church in Pittsburgh. This she did for ten years, along with traveling widely on missions throughout the United States and abroad and continuing to write books about healing prayer. Mrs. Neal’s theology has many parallels with the that of Mrs. Agnes Sanford, and much influenced by her work. For instance, Emily practiced inner healing prayer in her counseling ministry. Mrs. Neal also followed Mrs. Sanford in appreciating the value of sacramental confession in healing. Also, like Mrs. Sanford, Mrs. Neal welcomed the charismatic renewal and its boost to the healing ministry, but like her mentor expressed reservations about its sometimes over-exuberant manifestations.[11]

The works of these two women overlapped and might be classed among the first generation of orthodox Christian works on healing that were readily available to the public. True, the whole generation Anglican/Episcopal clergymen and women such as Pearcy Dearmer and Ethel Banks had done great work, as did the multiple Pentecostal healers from the 1900s on. But they published in the era before WWII, when most American cities did not have even a single bookstore, and books had to be ordered by mail, thus their works were limited in circulation. But in the post-War era, bookstores and the paperback industry exploded and the book of Mrs. Neal and Mrs. Sanford were able to reach mass audiences.[12]

Mrs. Neal moved in 1976 to Cincinnati, where she lived on the grounds of the Convent of the Transfiguration, an Episcopal community of nuns. She was ordained a deacon in January 1978. In Cincinnati, she served on the staff of St. Thomas Episcopal Church as Deacon, leading weekly healing services and counseling. At the Convent she also functioned as deacon and led a monthly healing service and counseled weekly. In 1987, the Episcopal Healing Ministry Foundation was formed. This allowed Mrs. Neal and several of her Episcopal friends to specifically carry out the work of training and equipping Episcopalians in the healing ministry. She served as its president until her death on September 23, 1989.

PR

This chapter is an excerpt from William De Arteaga, Anglican Healing Awakenings: Saints, Heroes, and Villains (Christos Publishing, 2024). Used with permission.

Notes

[1] Emily Gardiner Neal, A Reporter Finds God Through Spiritual Healing (New York Morehouse-Barlow,1956). To date there has been no book length biography of Mrs. Gardiner Neal. I have depended for biographical information on two sources, Anne Cassel’s brief article in Sharing, “Emily Gardiner Neal’s Story,” (Dec. 1989) 18-22, and the biographical fact sheet found at the archives of Wheaton College, “Emily Gardiner Neal.” https://archives.wheaton.edu/repositories/5/resources/1019 Sourced 1/10/2024.

[2] Mrs. Neal’s numerous books are readily available on Amazon and on online used book sites such as abebooks.com. A very useful anthology of her Christian writings is Emily Gardiner Neal, Anne Cassel, ed. The Reluctant Healer: One Woman’s Journey of Faith (Colorado Springs: Shaw, 1992).

[3] William James, Varieties of Religious Experiences (New York: Modern Library, 1902).

[4] See my discussion of this in my work, Agnes Sanford and Her Companions, Chapter 23.

[5] Neal, A Reporter, 37.

[6] Emily Gardiner Neal, In the Midst of Life (New York: Hawthorn, 1963). 23.

[7] See for instance “Forward to a skeptic,” in: Emily Gadiner Neal, Where There is Smoke; The Mystery of Christian Healing (NY: Morehouse-Barlow, 1967) 5-14.

[8] I have written extensively on the pivotal importance of Mrs. Sanford and her writings. See The Pneuma Review articles which summarize my work on her. “Agnes Sanford, Apostle of Healing,” The Pneuma Review, Posted June 15, 2016. http://pneumareview.com/agnes-sanford-apostle-of-healing-and-first-theologian-of-the-charismatic-renewal/

[9] Emily Gardiner Neal, God Can Heal You Now (Englewood-Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1958).

[10] Emily Gardiner Neal, The Lord is Our Healer (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1961).

[11] Neal, Our Healer, 39.

[12] WWII changed that through the massive publication of quality books as cheap paperbacks for the GI’s and created a large reading public. Applebaum, Yoni. “Publishers Gave Away 122,951,031 Books During World War II” The Atlantic, September 10, 2014. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/09/publishers-gave-away-122951031-books-during-world-war-ii/379893/

This article is a chapter from the Rev. William De Arteaga’s forthcoming book, Saints, Heroes and Villains of the Anglican Healing Awakening.

To my knowledge no other Anglican church, or any other church, has such an effective and robust ministry of healing and deliverance as The Falls Church Anglican of Falls Church, Virginia (Ok, just a bit confusing, “Falls Church” is the name of the town, and “The Falls Church Anglican” refers to the church in the town of Falls Church).[1] At this church the healing, deliverance, and intercessory prayer ministries are woven into the core of church life.

Its clergy and members understand their calling as a “three streams” congregation. That is, a church where the different aspects of liturgical and sacramental worship, evangelical preaching and Christian good works, and the gifts of the Spirit operate and interact among various groups and ministries, according to their preferences and needs. To be specific, the gifts of the Spirit operate mostly among the healing and intercessory prayer ministries, and a few home groups, but not in the main liturgical services.

The town of Falls Church, Virginia, is a suburb of Washington DC., and many of the parishioners are executives, government employees, and current or former military personnel. Its parishioners and its excellent staff make it one of the most prominent churches in the greater D.C. area.

The Falls Church building in 2009. Originally built in 1769, with evidence of repairs to the structure (note the newer brick under the first floor windows) after the American Civil War.
Image: Wikimedia Commons

The historic Falls Church was established during the colonial period. Its first building arose in 1732. Later, George Washington was a warden of the church in the 1760s and oversaw the construction of the brick church building to replace the original wooden structure. The Falls Church served as both a church and recruiting station for the American Army during the War of Independence. Later, the church served as a Union hospital during the Civil War, as Northern forces quickly took over the territory around Washington, D.C.

After that terrible conflict, The Falls Church was restored to its original status, but did not really thrive, and Sunday attendance dropped to less than a hundred. But in 1935 the Rev. Watkins was called as rector, and by the time his tenure ended (1945) church attendance was in the 300s.[2] The Falls Church grew steadily from that time as the population of Washington D.C. continued to grow as World War II morphed into the Cold War with the Soviet Union.

However, The Falls Church did not become the prominent church it is today until the pastorship of the Rev. John Yates, who came in 1979. He and his wife were both from devoted Christian homes.[3] The Rev. Yates’ mother was prominent in CFO circles in the 1950s and 1960s, and her son John accompanied her at those CFOs on several occasions.[4]

A brief review essay from Christian historian William De Arteaga on the tremendous changes taking place in the worldwide Anglican Church.

Roger E. Olson, “Something Interesting Is Happening in the Worldwide Anglican Communion (And Why It Matters to Non-Anglicans)” (June 28, 2018).

Canterbury Cathedral
Image: Peter K. Burian / Wikimedia Commons

The article by professor Roger Olson if both informative and insightful. As an Anglican priest I especially appreciate how Olson, a Baptist, has grasped the essence of what has transpired in the now splintered Anglican churches. I would go further than Olson’s analysis and say that the Anglican churches are now divided into two irreconcilable denominations. The Western or Northern Anglican churches, versus the Anglican churches of the Global South. The latter group were planted by English missionaries who truly believed the Bible and were orthodox in doctrine. The more liberal clergy stayed at home to ruin their churches with unbelief.  My denomination, the Anglican Church of North America, has cast its lot with the churches of the Global South.

As an Episcopal lay person thirty years ago I saw the rampant apostasy in many Episcopal churches, and most of its clergy. Many of us put up a “good fight” for orthodoxy, but left to form orthodox (and often charismatic) congregations when it was obvious that the fight was lost.

Reviewed by William De Arteaga

Related Articles from William De Arteaga:

“An Appreciation of Martin Luther: On Why Many Denominations Do Not Destroy the Unity of the Church” (October 31, 2017).

“Wolves or Tares?” (November 14, 2006).

In this review essay, Father William De Arteaga responds to Episcopal Bishop Edward Little’s article “Living with Tares: Why I stay in a Church that has seriously strayed from biblical teaching” that appeared in the March 2006 issue of Christianity Today.

“Real Christianity is Growing in the USA” (April 16, 2018).

“The Ancient Poisons: Discernment Heresies of the New Testament” (January 18, 2018).

“An Apostate Church?” (August 22, 2017).

See also London Vicar Rachel Marszalek’s reports on the 2017 Anglican renewal convention, New Wine: “New Wine 2017: The Irony of Experience” and “New Wine 2017: Elephants Explored.”

Those who only know Bill De Arteaga from his scholarly work will find this little book, less than 150 pages, to be a delightful romp. Unlike his columns in The Pneuma Review or previously published books these two scripts are works of fiction and something completely different. Here are two unrelated plays suitable for parish wannabe actors. Both, in the church drama tradition, are entertaining and didactic, in that order. Following each script are comprehensive endnotes in which Bill takes the reader deep into historic and theological weeds explaining material which many will find new, even surprising.

“One Day at St. John’s” consists of three acts with three scenes each. The cast includes a contemporary parish priest and an old friend, the church secretary and half a dozen members of the laity. In a variety of natural settings we in the audience are treated to a banquet of spiritual gifts – including but not limited to speaking in tongues, miraculous healings and an exorcism – all moving along as naturally as the waitress bringing food in the restaurant scene.  Nearly twenty pages of serious endnotes document the significance and validity of these and other spiritual events with solid theological references. These notes furnish more than enough material for program notes as well as resources for a study group.

The other play, “Joseph ben Jacob, the Dreamer”, is much shorter and takes place prior to the birth of Jesus. This is a two-act play with a larger cast, and most of the action takes place over the course of a month. Joseph (yes, that Joseph) is a widower about 32 years old, preparing to wed Mary (who will become mother of Jesus) not yet eighteen. He is a man of deep spiritual sensitivity, dedicated to serving the Lord, but the shock of discovering that his new bride-to-be has turned up pregnant has an unimaginable impact on his faith. The denouement is too poignant to describe in this review, but you can be sure it is nothing like the reader can imagine. Most of the action takes place during the days leading up to their wedding, which opens Act 2. The final scene, which is quite short, takes place 33 years later. No spoilers from me, but know it ends prior to the crucifixion so the reader/audience member is spared that terrible ending.

Again there are extensive endnotes, rich with historical references. De Arteaga’s principal expertise is early church history and many readers will discover historic details that give new energy to old familiar biblical themes. Incidental New Testament details let us know that Joseph and Mary were a typical Jewish couple with several children in addition to Jesus, and Joseph probably died some time before Jesus’ earthly ministry. This little play gives new energy to one of the oldest and most beloved stories of biblical origin. Together with the first play this little book is a breath of fresh air in a sometimes stuffy old place.

Reviewed by John Ballard

Father Bill De Arteaga with Pastor J. C. Church

This year the accent was on Church unity and the growing ecumenical dialogue across churches and denominations. J. C. Church, pastor of Victory Church in Columbia SC, began the conference with a presentation about America’s cultural decline and the Church’s responsibility to form a united front to reverse this trend before God’s judgement falls on the nation.

Next, the African American evangelist and pastor, Brondon Mathis, brought a hopeful message about revival through round the clock prayer meetings. He described how his church, inspired by the International House of Prayer pattern, has brought revival and a radical decline of crime, to Columbus, Ohio.

Then Matteo Calisi, a prominent Catholic Charismatic layman from Italy and a person who regularly graces CLF meetings, reported on the ongoing breakthroughs in Pentecostal-Roman Catholic dialogue and reconciliation. Calisi is especially enthusiastic about Pope Francis’ ecumenism, for instance, his willingness to ask forgiveness for past Catholic persecution of Pentecostals and other Protestants. Pope Francis recently asked forgiveness from the Calvinists in France, the Hussites of Austria and the Check Republic, and Italian Pentecostals for their suffering and persecution from Catholics. Some readers would be aware of Calvinist and Hussite persecution, but few would know that the Italian Pentecostals suffered grievously under the Fascist dictatorship of Benito Mussolini. Sadly, the Catholic Church refused to speak a single word of protest – unlike its continuous attempts to shelter the Jews.

CLF participants praying for Oral Roberts University president, Billy Wilson.

In fact, as the Rev. Calisi reports, Pentecostal-Roman Catholic relations are at an all-time high. The Pope has directed that Catholic evangelization be suspended towards Protestant Believers, but rather focus on the unchurched. As Calisi added more details of the ongoing Catholic-Pentecostal reconciliation, I recalled how different all this is from when I was a boy in Catholic school – we thought all Protestants were doomed to hell – and they returned the favor!

After this upbeat presentation we had a jarring counter-point given to us by Fr. Timothy Cremeens, an American Orthodox priest and dean at the Cathedral of the Orthodox Church in America in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Fr. Cremeens is a person well connected with the Greek, Ukrainian and Russian Orthodox churches in America and overseas. He bluntly stated that Orthodox-Roman Catholic or Orthodox–Protestant dialogue of any sort will go nowhere. The recent meeting of the Russian Orthodox primate with Pope Francs in Cuba was all political show and no substance.

Left to right: Bishop Lerullo (Uganda), Father Bill and Carolyn De Arteaga, Bishop Sean Larkin (UK).

This year the Charismatic Leaders’ Fellowship (CLF) met on February 23 to the 26, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at the Oral Roberts University campus. The weather outside was cold and icy, and in fact about one third of the registered participants could not make it in. But the atmosphere inside the conference was warm with the Holy Spirit.

For those of you who are not familiar with the CLF, it is the descendent of the Charismatic Concerns Committee, an important leadership group that was, among other things, instrumental in warning and ending the discipleship controversy of the 1970s. Every year the CLF brings issues of current importance to the attention of its members to inform them and to receive their discernment.

The theme for this year was “Muslims, Jews, and the Kingdom of God.” The lead speaker was Pastor Emmanuel Doulat, a native of Pakistan and convert to Christianity. After sharing his witness, Doulat proceeded with his analysis of Islam as a religion. His thesis was that the Koran is not really a “revelation” since there is absolutely nothing new in it about God or the spiritual world. Rather, the Koran is a mish-mash of elements of Judaism, Christianity and several religions that occupied the Arabian Peninsula at the time. The elements taken from the Gospels did not include the centrality of the cross or that Jesus is the son of God – both of which are denied in the Koran.

In his second talk Pastor Doulat shared the successes that Christian Church in Pakistan is now having in attracting new believers and converts from Islam in spite of the dangers involved. He shared pictures of his own revival/healing meetings in Pakistan. The key is to talk about Jesus, whom Muslims already esteem as prophet and healer, and then heal the sick in Jesus’ name. It is important to say nothing negative about Islam. That is against the law in Pakistan, as in most Islamic countries, and would put the evangelist in danger.

Emmanuel Doulat

Doulat’s insight dovetails my understanding that the Koran is a mediumistic (non-incarnational) document. [1] That is, unlike the books of the Bible, where the Holy Spirit inspired various writers, yet respected their personalities, vocabulary and viewpoints, the Koran is the product of mediumistic dictation. In mediumship the host person is bypassed and a spirit brings forth a “revelation” without use of host’s history, vocabulary or personality. Usually the host is entranced and does not remember what the invading spirit said. Muslims claim that the angel Gabriel whispered to Mohomet the verses of the Koran which he then repeated and these were subsequently written down. This is mediumship. Thus, since the Koran is a mediumistic document, it is necessarily demonic in origins, and like most all mediumistic works, unoriginal – the point of Pastor Doulat presentation.

A report from the 2014 Anglican Diocese of the South Intercessory Prayer conference by William De Arteaga. The conference was convened at Holy Cross Anglican Church in Loganville, Georgia, from August 27 – 28, 2014.

I had the privilege of speaking and participating in the intercessory prayer conference sponsored by the Anglican Diocese of the South (ADOTS). This is a diocese within the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). I will describe he conference below, but need first to clarify what ACNA is and how it formed.

The ACNA is made up mostly of ex-Episcopalians who were fed up with the heresy and apostasy of the Episcopal Church. The lamentable state of the Episcopal clergy came about (as with other mainline denominations) because the seminaries accepted de-mythologizing and other liberal theologies as normative. At the same time they increasingly disdained and marginalized the views that the scriptures are true. This implied that the supernatural world pictured in the Bible, as in angels, demons, healing and exorcisms, is also mythological. As liberalism gutted the Gospels and the creeds, what remained were various fashions of psychology and philosophy which were self-labeled as “progressive” theology. This liberal cluster of non-beliefs attached to traditional forms of liturgy, vestments, feast days, etc., and passed itself off as Christianity. The steady, and now, precipitous decline the Episcopal Church and other mainline denominations is the natural result of the triumph of liberal theology over Bible orthodoxy.

But within the Episcopal Church there were many laypersons and clergy who were orthodox, read the scriptures naturally (without de-mythologizing) and who practiced an evangelical faith. This was often combined with the gifts of the Spirit which came into many Episcopal Churches via the ministry of Agnes Sanford and the Charismatic Renewal of the 1960s. The evangelical and Spirit-filled congregations battled to keep the rest of the denomination orthodox. As the 1970s turned into the 1980s it was apparent that the battle was turning against orthodoxy. The Seminaries remained stubbornly liberal and dismissed the Charismatic Renewal as a passing fancy, and continued to churn out apostate or weak-faith clergy.

The 1990s saw many Episcopal clergymen and congregations leave the church into continuing churches. That is, churches which retained the liturgy and Book of Common Prayer as the basis of their worship but separated from the Episcopal church and hierarchy.^[1] After 2003, the exodus became a torrent. At that time there was no single entity to receive these orthodox exiles.

When this author left St. Jude’s Episcopal Church in Marietta Georgia, in 2003, with about a third of the congregation, we were received for Episcopal cover by the Anglican Bishop of Bolivia, the Very Rev. Francis Lyons. He was an American missionary, orthodox and highly charismatic. He ultimately took under his wing dozens of exiled congregations. It was understood that this was a temporary and abnormal situation, waiting for a better resolution. Then ACNA was formed under the leadership of Bishop Robert Duncan, from the diocese of Pittsburgh, and the congregations under Bishop Lyons transferred to ACNA. Bishop Lyons subsequently handed over his charge to a Bolivian Anglican bishop, and joined Archbishop Duncan’s staff in Pittsburgh.

See the report from William De Arteaga:

Anglican Diocese Of The South Intercessory Prayer Conference 2014

Wednesday, August 27, 2014 at 7:30 AM – Thursday, August 28, 2014 at 12:00 PM (EDT)

Beginning at 9:00 am Wednesday, you can live stream the conference.

Long instructions: point your browser to hcanglican.org. Find the “WORSHIP” drop down menu (near the top of the page, second tab on the far right). Then click “Live Streaming.” To get full screen, tap maximize.

Event to be held at:

Holy Cross Anglican Church
3836 Oak Grove Rd SW
Loganville GA 30052
Eventbrite

What is the Anglican Diocese Of The South?

The Anglican Diocese of the South (ADOTS) is part of the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA). This body came about through the disenchantment that many orthodox Episcopalians felt with their mother church. A large faithful remnant of Episcopalians left around 2003 and joined with others who had left even earlier. By 2008, the ACNA was full formed and functioning under its own presiding Bishop (the Very Rev. Robert Duncan) of the diocese of Pittsburgh. The ACNA takes a strong stand on biblical orthodoxy, as expressed in adherence to the traditional creeds. It terms itself a “convergence church.” This means it values and adheres to three streams of Christianity: the liturgical, the evangelical and the charismatic. Individual churches have differing manifestations of convergence. Some are very traditional and liturgical, others more charismatic/Pentecostal. All are evangelical.