A “Lazarus Weekend” is an intensive time of inner healing. It was developed by Archbishop Chuck and Mrs. Olivia Jones many years ago to help people be healed of obstacles blocking their spiritual, and emotional growth. Lazarus Weekends are offered by the Cathedral of Christ the King In Selma, AL, and by the Institute for Christian Renewal (ICR) and Trinity Church for people in the Northeast USA.
What follows is a person testimony of a life changing experience through a Lazarus Weekend. Dawn Dickerson (Christ the King, Sharpsburg, GA) has been kind enough to share this very personal story with us:
I was told about Lazarus Weekends years ago by a woman that I strongly admire, she had shared a personal experience about the weekend in a small group we were part of. I was a bit intrigued but never gave it another thought until recently. After hearing about Lazarus, the next few years of my life were torn by divorce, both mine and my parents, a split in my immediate family, renewed hatred from abuse I received when I was young, resentment towards family members that I had looked up to, and many poor decisions that had made my life very difficult.
In the midst of one of my struggles, I had a conversation with two different friends in the Charismatic Episcopal Church that suggested and urged that I pray about God’s will, and that I consider going on a Lazarus Weekend. I made every excuse I could think of in the weeks after. I was a single mom and couldn’t justify leaving for 4 days, I couldn’t afford to miss anymore work since I had been without work for 3 months, I couldn’t afford the registration fee or hotel expenses, I had already gone through 3 transformation classes, and thought I had all the tools I needed to “find myself with God”. Well, after realizing that the weekend of Lazarus my daughter was with her father, I had the week off from work, one friend offered to pay the registration fee and another friend offered to pay to share a hotel with me in Selma — I had no other excuses to avoid going. It was clear that God had cleared the path for me to be there and that there was no way out of it short of deliberately defying His word to me.
I showed up that Thursday afternoon having no idea what to expect. The day before leaving for Selma, I had completed my 6 pages of homework. (There were only a handful of questions, but I found I had more to release than I originally thought.) I had also completed a family history chart that listed all of my ancestors and there past religious convictions/sins/losses.
Thursday evening was a sermon from Archbishop Charles Jones that is, even after listening to the CD and hearing it again, is still a blur. Then there was Friday. Friday started the true digging into my soul and clearing newly till ground for God’s seeds, so to speak. Now, I’ll be honest with you, when I was told we were going to have a healing service that evening where the Bishop was going to “burn our family past at the altar,” I thought ok, that’s just corny symbolism — but whatever makes them happy. What I didn’t take into consideration was the expectation of the Holy Spirit being present during that time. I went into the service very cold and numb, and not understanding the power of God and the capabilities of the Holy Spirit to work in me through the intercession of those around me.
As the service started, I slowly became engrossed in what Archbishop Jones had to say, and found myself praying and feeling truly burdened by all that I’ve ever done in my life to fall from God’s way. I found myself grieving for my ancestors and for their sins. As the service progressed, we walked our family charts up to the altar, the Archbishop took each one and crumbed them up in his hands, laying them into a large silver bowl, pouring holy oil and wine over them, and then lit them on fire. As they burned, we entered into intense prayers of repentance and forgiveness. I was so overwhelmed that I found myself sobbing at the feet of my friend, unable to control my tears. Later that night, there were various words given to me by complete strangers that could have only been through God. They spoke to me as if they knew my whole life, or had read my homework papers and knew my thoughts. I have to say that this was my first time of truly being open to God’s word for me.
Cindy, Dawn and Dan
The following morning we shared great fellowship and food (the breakfasts and lunches alone are worth the trip!) then went to the chapel for more teachings from Archbishop Jones. After a brief time there we formed small groups, each Lazarus participant is given 2 to 4 mentors and sent into a private area. In this private area, there is praying, laughter, joking, crying, anger, venting, scripture reading, words spoken over the participants — more praying, counseling, soul searching, forgiveness, more crying — and that’s all before lunch. I can tell you that God is definitely present during the entire weekend, and that he speaks through the faithful that are there to minister and lead us. I was given many prophetic words, both for me and my future, as well as for my daughter. My personal group was with Dcn. Gary, and a husband and wife team (Dan and Cindy White) that traveled all the way from Illinois to be mentors for the four days. God allowed a lot of my healing to be through laughter, and Dcn. Gary was a great facilitator of that!
Sunday was the closure of Lazarus and an appropriate celebration of life within God’s kingdom. The service included incredible songs of worship, beautiful banners being waved throughout the church, great prayers and of course, Holy Eucharist – the sharing in our Father’s table.
After the weekend concluded, we were all invited to join Archbishop Jones, his family and others from the Cathedral of Christ the King, for dinner at a local restaurant. We stayed there for hours, laughing and having great fellowship. It was a very light ending to an extremely heavy two days.
For more information about Lazarus Weekends contact Archbishop Chuck Jones at (334)872-9997 or email to: bishopcwj@idacec.org, in the Northeast, contact Canon Mark Pearson at (603)382-0273 or email to: canonmark@verizon.net
