In the 20th century one aspect of the long interrelationship of the Church with medicine and healing was a debate between those who entered into a critical dialogue with the medical profession on matters of common concern (centred mainly in the work of Robert Lambourne and Michael Wilson at Birmingham University), and those who promoted a more informal emphasis on pastoral care though anointing and the laying on of hands.
The emphasis on spiritual healing was encouraged by the expansion of the charismatic movement, which was, in part, a plea for a more holistic view of humanity. Morris Maddocks became a passionate practitioner of Christian healing and gave up his suffragan bishopric to promote it more fully.
Morris Henry St John Maddocks was born in 1928, the son of Canon Morris Maddocks. He was educated at St John’s School, Leatherhead, and, after National Service, Trinity College, Cambridge. After ordination training at Chichester Theological College, he served his title at St Peter’s Church Ealing, where his vicar, Prebendary Henry Cooper, was a leading figure of the Guild of St Raphael, which was the Anglo-Catholic society committed to Christian healing.
After a further curacy at Uxbridge, he moved to Yorkshire as Rector of Weaverthorpe. Three years later he became Vicar of St Martin’s, Scarborough. He was chaplain to the local theatre, and one effect of his ministry was his connection with The Black and White Minstrel Show. Maddocks prepared nine of the cast for confirmation. His church also hosted the BBC programme Songs of Praise, and he developed a group who met at the vicarage to pray for the sick.
In 1971 he was appointed by Donald Coggan to be suffragan Bishop of Selby; a post which he held until 1983. However, his commitment to the healing ministry began to dominate his work. In 1975, with his wife, he established the Acorn Christian Healing Trust, now based at Bordon in Hampshire, and he and his wife travelled extensively speaking on healing.
Advertisement
This became such a dominant concern that at the age of 55 he resigned from Selby and he moved to Somerset to work full time through the Acorn trust and as adviser on health and healing to the Archbishops.
In 1981 Maddocks published his book The Christian Healing Ministry. While not a book of academic merit, it was very popular and went through several editions. He wrote a further five publications relating to the healing ministry. He was chairman of the Church Council for Health and Healing in 1982-85. The work of the trust was developed by his successors with a significant emphasis on the importance of listening in the healing process. In 1987 Maddocks moved to Chichester where he participated in the cathedral community as a canon and as an assistant bishop.
A man with a great gift for friendship, Maddocks was very musical, like his wife Anne Miles, who was church organist. She predeceased him in 2006. They had no children.
The Right Rev Morris Maddocks, chairman, the Churches’ Council for Health and Healing, 1982-85, was born on April 28, 1928. He died after a heart operation on January 20, 2008, aged 70