A Brief History of the West Shore OSL Chapter

The Order of St. Luke the Physician was begun by Father Banks as a non-profit organization in California in 1902, and is now worldwide.  The Westlake Chapter was begun by Rev. Roger Perks in 1983 after five local Presbyterian Churches had held Annual Healing Conferences each spring.  Roger Perks attended the 1999 conference and presented a workshop on the Order of St. Luke.  This resulted in five new members for the OSL — enough to start a new Chapter of the Order.

The new members met at the Perks’ home in April 1999 and monthly thereafter.  In September 1999, the group met at Bay Presbyterian Church, and at that meeting the Westlake Chapter of the Order was formally established by the Region 4 Warden, David Beckett.  Roger Perks and Tom Madden were inducted as Chaplains of the Order.  Roger Perks became the Convener and Tom Madden the Chaplain of the new Chapter.  The Westlake Chapter met monthly thereafter at Bay Presbyterian Church and continued to grow in membership.

In 2004 the Westlake Chapter moved their meetings to St. Barnabas Anglican Church, where it continued to meet until November 2011, when the location was changed to Avon Lake Presbyterian Church, where it meets generally on the fourth Saturday of each month.  Bob Andrew replaced Tom Madden as the Chaplain in 2004 and David Ball replaced Roger Perks as the Convener in 2006. 

Conveners since then have been Bill Benedict, Rae Matthews, Elizabeth Shoemaker, and Kate Schifle.  Cris Till is the current convener.  Rev. Bob Andrew and Rev. Bob Palisin currently serve as co-chaplains.  

The chapter was renamed The West Shore Chapter in October 2009, with members coming from as far East as Cleveland and as far West as Vermilion.  In 2019, when OSL changed what chapters were called, this chapter became The West Shore Healing Community. 

The chapter has held Healing Ministry meetings each spring since its beginning.  More recent conferences have been:

• in 2010, “Experiencing God’s Healing Grace” at St. Barnabas Anglican Church
• in 2011, “Healing Life’s Hurts” by Hawley Todd at St. Barnabas Anglican Church
• in 2012, “The Joy of Wholeness” by Jack and AnnaMarie Sheffield at Avon Lake Presbyterian Church
• in 2013, “Inviting God’s Presence” by Hawley Todd at Avon Lake Presbyterian Church
• in 2014, “Use of the Spiritual Gifts in Healing” by Don Crary at ALPC
• in 2015, “Healing through Christian Listening” by David and Carol Ball at ALPC
• in 2016, “Learning to Pray Like Jesus” by John Rice at ALPC
• in 2017, ” The Power of Prayer” by Saran Warne at ALPC
• in 2018, “The Healing Light of Christ” by Josh Acton at ALPC
• in 2019, “The Power of Blessing” by Russ Parker at ALPC
• in 2022, “Armor Up!” by Saran Warne at ALPC and online via Zoom.
• in 2023, “Hearing God, Healing Others” by Josh Acton at ALPC and on YouTube Live.

Over the years the chapter has been involved in larger meetings, and sponsored the Region 4 annual meeting at St. Joseph’s Christian Life Center in 2001.  It also sponsored the OSL International Meeting at Baldwin Wallace College in 2009.Today, the West Shore Healing Community meets at Avon Lake Presbyterian Church, in Avon Lake Ohio, and hosts a conference once every year.