The Mary Johnston Hospital (MJH), a 118-year-old mission hospital in the Philippine Central Conference (PCC) and the Greater Northwest Episcopal Area (GNEA) of the United Methodist Church (UMC) is set to forge a historic partnership on May 24, Manila time (May 23 in Seattle, WA time).
An online consecration service to celebrate the new partnership will be broadcast on Facebook (@MJHhealingtogether1906) simultaneously in Manila and Seattle, WA, at 11:30 a.m. on May 24, 2024, and at 7:30 p.m. on May 23, 2024, respectively. Bishop Ruby-Nell Estrella, resident bishop of the Manila Episcopal Area (MEA) representing the MJH, and Bishop Cedrick Bridgeforth, resident bishop of the Greater Northwest Episcopal Area in the Western Jurisdiction of the UMC, will lead the consecration service.
The event, which signals the birth of a new alliance, aims to bring hope, justice, and healing. Its theme is “Healing Together and BEing Well,” inspired by John 4:13-14, which reads: “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
The theme is a combination of MJH’s tagline (“Healing Together”) and the GNEA’s annual conference theme (BEing Well). He marveled at how MJH’s tagline and the theme of the annual conference of the Greater Northwest Episcopal Area seemed to have synchronized to point in one direction. “I think it’s providential,” Dr. Paraso remarked.
According to Dr. Glenn Roy V. Paraso, the Executive Director of MJH, the policymakers of the mission hospital have formulated what they call the Wesleyan Health System, described as “a holistic approach to health considering the health of body, mind, and spirit,” as the philosophy of its operation. “Each cannot be separated from the other two,” Dr. Paraso explained. “Our tagline — Healing Together — encapsulates it all.”
Dr. Paraso narrated the rationale behind the tagline: “When a person who is sick comes to MJH, they are sick. By the time they go back to their community, they are already healed and have become productive and an asset to the community again.” He explained further: “The doctors who heal the sick also experience healing. Both the recipients and givers of healing heal together.”
