My Account
Looking far younger than his 92 years, former Methodist Minister Frank Rigg practices what he preaches – the importance of a healthy body, soul and spirit. He says has never taken antibiotics or painkillers – not even Panadol – and credits his energy and good health to a simple and prayerful way of life. He spoke with Terry Moore about his philosophy and life’s work.
In some ways I’m a bit unusual, because I have never been hospitalised or had an operation and have never taken painkillers or antibiotics. I have grown to have the greatest respect for the medical profession and their concern for people – they are certainly not there just to dispense drugs. However, my dad was very ‘anti’ the medical profession so that influenced me when I was growing up. As children, we went through the usual ailments such as mumps, measles and chickenpox as well as colds and flu but his philosophy was that if we had a fever, we fasted, taking only water with a bit of lemon juice and let it run its course. It seemed to work very well for us. You could say things have gone full circle for us now as we have a grandson who recently graduated as a doctor.
My dad was a successful builder in Masterton and in his fifties he had some health problems. He found a way of coping with those through natural means and became an amateur naturopath. It was early days in the 1940s and 50s for that sort of thinking in New Zealand but it worked for our family. The lessons I learned in those formative years, my wife Gwen and I have been able to put into practice. This month, Gwen and I will have been married for 63 years. We have four children, 10 grandchildren and five great grandchildren. None of our children were immunised – in fact immunisation was not common practice back then, although it’s become more and more mandatory now. Gwen and I have had our shots for tropical diseases and so on as we have travelled widely, but that’s about it. Luckily we have a very considerate doctor who doesn’t force anything onto us. When I reached 60 or 70 I had to get a medical certificate to continue driving and this gets me to the doctor every two years.
Gwen and I follow naturopathic principles, particularly with eating. Gwen was a school dental nurse and was taught about healthy food in the context of keeping your teeth from rotting. The basic principle is plenty of fruit and vegetables and as much as possible in its raw state. We try to keep off processed food. Gwen is a very good gardener and a lot of our food, especially fresh salads, come straight from the garden. We eat very little meat – just occasionally to add some variety to our meals – as we think on the whole Western people eat far more meat than is good for them. In recent years we have come to drink mainly water as well as fruit and vegetable juice and the occasional half strength coffee. That happened over time – particularly when we were travelling for various ministries, we got tired of queuing up for expensive drinks so we started taking a thermos. I can’t remember when either of us last had a cold. We try to get a reasonable amount of exercise – walking on the beach, section maintenance and going up and down stairs. In my 50s I had the symptoms of arthritis in my back and legs but I weathered that one, mainly through the advice of a friend in Martinborough. He suggested a tablespoon of cod liver oil last thing at night. It was ghastly and I don’t know how it helped, but within six months I was completely free of symptoms. I now take krill oil capsules.
In my teenage years, World War II was on and I deliberately took subjects at university that I thought could be of value to the war effort. I was called up into the Army but only during holidays, as I was not at the age for conscription. I took physics, chemistry and mathematics, which were all a bit beyond me so I didn’t do too well at university. After the war ended I changed to arts, music and geography, which were more suited to my ability and interests. I met Gwen in Wellington where she was doing her dental studies. I moved to Auckland to finish my geography degree and during that time I went to a Student Christian Movement weekend. That was when I realised that, rather than becoming a teacher as planned, God had a different plan for my life. I did three years of theological training at Trinity College in Grafton before starting at a church in Dunedin. We served in churches in Wellington, Greytown and eventually, in 1974, we came to the Red Beach and Manly Methodist churches.
It was challenging because both local churches were fairly small and it was difficult for them to support a fulltime minister. However, we came in at the time of the charismatic renewal and that influenced our ministry considerably. We ran Life in the Spirit seminars at Red Beach and they took off. They were led by people from all denominations including the Catholic and Anglican churches. We avoided the extremes of showmanship associated with the charismatic movement in the US but it certainly livened things up. That doesn’t mean we had no problems. When I began to study theology, my dad said that church people can be very set in their ways and that I’d have more problems with church people than non-church people. I was not set in my ways, and so it can be difficult when you come up against the establishment. A few people did leave the Red Beach church because they were not comfortable with the things that were happening, but more new people arrived and so the church grew. In the early 1980s the church that is now in Red Beach Road was built. It was originally on the corner of Bay Street and Red Beach Road, where the shops are now. Albert Hall wanted to develop that site and he bought us out. He gave us twice as much land further up the road and shifted the buildings at no cost to the church.
Through all of this we had a ministry of praying for people with various needs – not just physical needs. In the 1970s I became a warden of the Order of St Luke the Physician, whose main objective is to get healing back into the churches. Originally, churches were responsible for the establishment of hospitals and I believe that connection between the churches and healing needs to be strengthened. By praying, we help people to cope with whatever is going on in their lives. We’ve become known for doing this and in my retirement it hasn’t eased off a lot so we’re still pretty busy helping people. I was also encouraged to put my philosophy of life down in a book and that resulted in the recent publication of Wholeness Unlimited.
I think all churches need to work together to help the community. There has been too much focus on building up the status of the church at the expense of the ministry itself. In the end, it is ‘by your fruit they shall know you’ and I think we have got to the stage in our lives where we can see something of the fruit that has resulted from putting our beliefs into practice.
Frank Rigg’s book Wholeness Unlimited will be launched at Red Beach Methodist Church on December 17, 2.30pm–4pm.
