What Mother Julian Corrie Broadus Actually Did
If you've been digging through mainline Anglican archives, you've probably run into the name Julian Corrie Broadus at some point. She was a significant figure in the healing ministry tradition within the Episcopal Church during the early twentieth century, and her approach quietly reshaped how several dioceses thought about pastoral care, liturgical healing rites, and the role of women in sacramental ministry at a time when that was still controversial. The work isn't widely discussed outside of seminary stacks and regional church history societies, but the impact is measurable. I first came across her materials when researching liturgical adaptations for a congregation that wanted to move beyond the standard Book of Common Prayer healing prayers. Most parishes don't even know these alternatives exist. I spent about three weeks going through microfilmed journal articles, bishop correspondence, and a handful of unpublished manuscript notes from the Diocese of Virginia records before I got a clear picture of what she was actually doing. The summary version is simpler than the research process, which is usually how it goes with anything from this era.
The Quiet Revolution Of Mother Julian Corrie Broadus Healing Faith Through Mainline Anglican Ministry
Broadus operated from a specific theological premise that was relatively uncommon in mainline Anglicanism at the time. She believed that healing ministry wasn't primarily about dramatic miraculous events or charismatic displays. It was about structured, repeatable pastoral practice rooted in the sacramental tradition. That meant laying on of hands, anointed prayer, and communal intercession were all recoverable elements of ordinary parish life, not exceptional occurrences reserved for evangelistic revivals. She wrote extensively against the idea that healing faith required either extreme piety or unusual spiritual gifts. In her view, any baptized person could participate in a healing ministry simply by following the established liturgical forms. Her methodology had several distinct components. First, she developed a set of collects and prayers for anointing that drew directly from the sixteenth-century prayer books rather than relying on newer charismatic formulations. This was a deliberate choice. She felt the older language carried more theological weight and avoided the pitfalls of prosperity gospel thinking that had started seeping into American Anglicanism through certain revivalist streams. Second, she emphasized community involvement. Healing services weren't led solely by clergy. Laity participated in intercessory prayer, reading, and the preparation of oil. Third, she insisted on documentation. Every healing service needed written records, not for glorification but for pastoral accountability and theological reflection.
How It Works in Practice
Setting up a Broadus-style healing ministry in a contemporary parish involves several concrete steps. It's not complicated, but it does require commitment because it challenges the typical American Anglican habit of avoiding any discussion of physical healing during regular worship. Start with the liturgical framework. You need to adapt existing Book of Common Prayer rites or compose new ones that match her approach. The key elements are: a penitential rite, a scripture reading focused on healing passages from the Gospels and epistles, the laying on of hands by clergy and designated lay ministers, anointing with oil blessed specifically for that purpose, and a communal prayer of intercession. Broadus preferred the oil to be blessed by the priest during the service rather than pre-blessed, because she saw the blessing as an integral part of the rite rather than a preparatory step. Training is the next practical concern. Broadus required all participants in her healing ministry to complete a basic course in pastoral theology and counseling basics. She understood that people bringing sick individuals for healing often carried guilt, unresolved grief, or misguided expectations. Without proper training, lay participants could inadvertently cause harm through inappropriate promises or insensitive questioning. I found her syllabus notes in the archives and they included topics like understanding chronic illness, recognizing when medical care is contraindicated, and basic trauma-informed conversation techniques. That last one is interesting because it shows she was thinking about this decades before trauma-informed care became a standard term in church circles.
Get the Full Details
Scheduling matters too. She typically held healing services on the first Sunday of each month, deliberately separate from the regular Eucharist but still within the broader worship context. This avoided the impression that healing was some kind of add-on spectacle while also ensuring it received consistent attention. Congregations that tried to fold it into regular Sunday services often saw participation drop because people treated it as optional background content.
A Real Problem I Encountered
When I was helping a parish in North Carolina implement this approach, I hit a specific problem that Broadus herself had warned about but that nobody seems to read the warning carefully enough. The issue involves family dynamics during healing services. A woman came in requesting prayer for her elderly mother who had advanced dementia. The mother's other children and a few adult grandchildren attended the service and openly expressed skepticism during the intercessory prayers. One grandson said something along the lines of "we're not sure this is helping" right while the anointing was taking place. The mother, who could still hear and process, became visibly distressed and the entire atmosphere shifted negative. Broadus's solution, as documented in her own correspondence, is straightforward but requires advance planning. She mandated that anyone requesting a healing service sign a consent form acknowledging that the service is a pastoral act of prayer, not a medical intervention, and that all participants should commit to a posture of respect regardless of personal beliefs. More importantly, she recommended that families be counseled individually before the group service takes place. The parish I was working with hadn't done this, and it showed. After implementing a mandatory pre-service family consultation where we explained the purpose, boundaries, and expectations, the next healing service went smoothly. Participation from that family increased significantly over the following months.
Counter-Intuitive Things Beginners Miss
One thing that catches people off guard is that Broadus's method actually tends to produce fewer dramatic reports of healing than charismatic alternatives. This isn't a failure. It's a feature of the approach. By focusing on liturgical structure, communal participation, and theological depth rather than personal spiritual gifts or emotional intensity, the model produces sustainable ministry that doesn't burn out leaders. The trade-off is that if your congregation is looking for spectacle, this won't give it to them. Many pastors I've spoken with initially feel disappointed by this gap between expectation and result, but those who stay with it for two or three years usually report higher long-term satisfaction and deeper congregational engagement. Another counter-intuitive point involves the oil itself. Broadus was very specific that the oil should be olive oil, not blends or synthetic substitutes, and it should be sourced from the Holy Land when possible. She argued that the material reality of the oil mattered theologically because it connected the local parish to the ancient practice and the physical geography of Jesus's ministry. Some modern practitioners dismiss this as unnecessary traditionalism. In practice, I've found that the specific choice of oil does affect participant perception significantly. When people know exactly what they're being anointed with and why, the ritual carries more weight regardless of their theological background. It's a small detail that creates a disproportionate impact on engagement.
Where This Approach Falls Short
I need to be clear about the limitations. This model does not work well in congregations with fewer than thirty regular attendees. The communal aspect requires a critical mass of participants, and the training component demands time and energy that small churches often can't spare. You'll also find resistance from certain quarters within mainline Anglicanism that view any focus on physical healing as bordering on Catholic superstition or evangelical excess. Both sides tend to criticize Broadus's approach for different reasons, which means you'll need administrative support from your rector or dean before starting anything. Another limitation involves geographic accessibility. The original Broadus materials are scattered across several institutional repositories, and not all of them have been digitized. The Episcopal Historical Society has some collections, but significant portions remain in private archives or regional diocesan records. If you're serious about doing this properly, you'll need budget and time for research access. Digital reproductions of her key pamphlets exist through certain academic databases, but they're incomplete. If your situation involves any of these constraints, consider starting with a simpler intercessory prayer ministry using the standard BCP rites before attempting the full Broadus adaptation. It's not inferior, it's just a different entry point that builds the necessary relationships and trust over time.
Getting Started With the Materials
The primary sources you'll want to locate include Broadus's collected pastoral letters on healing ministry, her training manuals for lay ministers, and the liturgical texts she adapted for parish use. These are available through the Episcopal Theological School archives, the Library of Congress collection on American religious history, and certain university library digital repositories. Several of her pamphlets have been reprinted by Liturgical Press in anthology collections focused on Anglican healing traditions. For a practical implementation guide based on her methods, I recommend starting with the modified rite structure I outlined above, adapting it to your parish's existing liturgical preferences. Don't try to replicate everything Broadus did exactly. Her context was the 1920s through 1950s American South, and some of her specific cultural assumptions don't translate directly. The theological and pastoral framework is what matters. The rest is local adaptation. The work is straightforward if you're willing to put in the preparation time. It's not the fastest way to establish a healing ministry in a parish, but it's one of the most durable. That's probably why it survived this long without fanfare.
