All broken-ness aside: if he's a vetren GM I see one of two scenarios. A) He intneds to throw some hard encounters at you, and expects you'll need the healing. B) That's a cursed artifact that will either take a ton to restore; or have a hidden draw back once finished.
In general, "at will" casting should be avoided for the aformentioned reasons. The AC is kinda huge too, but clerics are capable of wearing full plate; and I'd argue that check penelties are not as important to a cleric in the first place (as say, a rogue).
I would personally have probably done something a little different: probably a lower AC; like 6 or so; and the ability to STORE x number of spell levels in it. I don't have any books in front of me atm, but that would seem more reasonable.
TL:DR; it really depends on how your GM intends this to come into play.