part of the Kilmarnock Spiritualist Church’s Development Group.
North Devon. The weather was perfect.
Spiritualist Church (SNU) for their Development Group.
have selected a better name for her church. The Love and Friendship
Spiritualist Church. There is always a
great welcome for everyone who enters this
church at The Couper Institute, 86 Clarkston Road, Cathcart, Glasgow, G44 3DA
on a Sunday evening at 6.30pm. ** Due to anticipated travel delays, we are
closed for 2 weeks during the GamesThere will be no Sunday services on 27th July or 3rd
August 2014. There will be no Wednesday
Circle for the next two weeks. The church will open this Sunday 20th July and
Sunday 10th August 2014.**
The Circle will re-open on Wednesday 6th August
2014.
many years standing and runs an excellent development circle. (closed) Sharing her vast knowledge of Spiritualist the
Religion. Maureen’s fledglings are given
personal attention and time to ripen and mature in a natural way to be the
‘real thing before they set foot on the platform.
Centre where there is a great welcome for all who walk through the doors. Anyone in holiday in the area could pay a
visit to the Church at20-22 Commerce Street, DD11 1NB on Thursday evenings
Divine service starts at 7.30pm.
get some of my psychic research attended too.
found guilty of serious crimes that went on for decades and I find it hard to
believe, unnoticed. I think that most of
us are guilty of putting others on pedestals and worshiping them. Look at those who go completely overboard
about their favourite singer, actor/actress or sportsperson. They take whoever it is to a different level
in their mind and totally believe they can do no wrong. These ‘stars’
are made out to be the greatest singer when they actually are only a good
singer like so many others. But because of their looks, voice or songs that
appeal to you. They are the greatest and
can do no wrong.
Just imagine you heard
that some young person from a children’s home had complained about abuse by
your ‘superstar’. What would your immediate reactions be?
Then if the same young
person approached you and pointed out a tramp sitting on a park bench and said
the same thing about them. Again – what
would your immediate reaction be?
exactly the same. Although I am not
saying that in the end you would completely dismiss the complaint of your
‘super hero’.
When I was young the
singer I liked best was Craig Douglas and still today he is probably my
favourite singer. I supported the
football team Ayr United and my favourite players were defender Bill Elliot and
goalkeeper Lenny Round. But I was never
fanatical about any of them, singer, team or football players. I would comment
negatively if I felt the need to do so.
But from an early age I could never see why so many worshiped certain entertainers
or sports people.
the way I was brought up, never to think anyone is better than another. If the road sweeper does not sweep the streets
or the dustman does not empty our rubbish bins our local area will be in a
terrible state.
We have also heard in
the past few weeks of allegations of
sexual abuse by those in high places.
Those who have so much power, that they can halt such allegations from going
any further. Many put the reputation of
their political party before anything else, even before getting justice for the
victim who has suffered from the most heinous of crimes. And those individuals and organizations that
know what is going on and keep quiet in my mind are equally to blame as those
who have committed the heinous crimes.
emails connected with all this and most ask “Why do God / Spirit allow all this
to go on?”
The answer is
simple… We have been given free-will and so many abuse this precious gift. Take this away from us and we are no more
than puppets that act and think when someone pulls a string telling us to do
this or that
reaping today
I mentioned in my
previous blog the omission of a representative of Spiritualism in BBC’s Sunday
morning programme “The Big Question”. The programme as many of you will know is
about religious and ethical debate. So why a discussion on “Is there life after
death “and have no representative from Spiritualism? After all the BBC in its website on religion
lists Spiritualism as a religion with the comment, “Spiritualists believe in communication with the spirits of people who
have died.”
about this on Facebook, not always the best thing to do. Someone suggested that
maybe a Spiritualist organisation was asked to take part but declined for some
reason or other. I could not see this
but I suppose it was possible. So I contacted
Minister David R Brunton president Spiritualist National Union (SNU) who sent
an immediate reply.
“I was aware of the programme and we did try to get a representative on
the panel for the recording of the programme but sadly on this occasion without
success”.
Director-General of the BBC asking why a representative from Spiritualism was
not invited on to the programme, especially when the debate was “Is there life
after death?” I posted the letter
first-class on 15/6/14 and only today 17/7/14 have I had a reply, well some
sort of a reply. A standard letter tells
me that the BBC aim to reply to complaints within 10 working days and do so for
most but not for all. Well it took
24-working days to contact me about my complaint. Maybe I just hit a busy time, maybe many
Spiritualist writing and emailing with the same complaint.
My complaint has been
passed on to the relevant department and it may take longer than ten days to
get back to me. I am not holding my
breath.
use the licence fee efficiently the BBC may not investigate every issue if it
does not suggest a substantative breach of guidelines.
I am still waiting on a reply. I am sure I will get a reply but as we all know
the wheels of big corporations turn slowly.
. Hopefully there will be an explanation from the BBC by the time my
next blog goes online.
So we will wait and
see…
opened up another interesting debate and I was surprised at the number of
people who commented along such lines as
managing not too bad as it is at the moment – so why not just do our own thing
and let others do theirs?”
When I read these
comments to a friend he said “Too many Spiritualists are happy to sit back with
a little bit of power whether it is committee member or a medium and not look
at the big picture. After a long hard
fight by those who want Spiritualism to be given more respect we are now close
to our target. The Interfaith network
has changed its rules for membership.
Hopefully this year the SNU will gain provisional membership to this
organization”.
brought the words from an old Spiritualist friend into my head. “With all these new rules and regulations
been put into place by Spiritualist bodies it appears Spiritualism is being dumbing
down so it will be accepted by other religions. Spiritualism should not make and changes so
it can become a member of a club – a club of religions. We must be true to ourselves and Spirit”…
Both, excellent points
for debate. Spiritualism cannot sit back
we have to move forward with the times and I feel that is what we have been
doing. But change for the sake of change
or change to be accepted is not on. We
have to think of all those who fought hard to get spiritualism where it is today
we must not let them down. Nor, let
Spirit down.
over the years and both thoroughly deserve the title “Great Ambassadors for Spirit”. I spoke to Jim on the phone a week before he
passed and he showed great spirit and determination. More about Jim in my next blog.
passing to spirit of 93-year-old Willie Stenhouse a stalwart of Spiritualism in
Scotland since 1949. It was in that year after coming home from the army that
Willie joined Dunfermline Spiritualist Church (SNU) and immediately became an
active member. Over the years he became
Vice President and later honorary vice-president. He represented the church at
many Scottish and Irish District Council meetings. In 2009 the church held a special celebration
to mark Willie’s 60-years of dedicated service.
He was also an extremely gifted healer and a great mentor to many new
healers starting out.
knowledge of the Spiritualist movement; he was an old school
traditionalist. He loved the teachings
of William Stainton, Moses and Sliver Birch and often quoted them in
readings. He also frequently spoke of
Helen Duncan and Albert Best.
found Willie a kind, caring and compassionate gentleman, a gentleman is every
sense of the word. I remember one
evening setting foot on the platform and immediately noticed something was
different. In all my previous visits to
the church Willie had been sitting in his usual seat in the front row, but this
evening it was empty. All through the
service I was concerned that Willie may be ill or age was finally catching up
with him. I could not wait till near the
end of the service when the collection plates were going around and I whispered
the chairperson for the evening “Is
Willie OK?” She replied, “Yes – he is away to London for a few
days”. Willie would have
been about 87 at this time but still game enough to spend a few days in London.
unable to attend the church but his friends in the church kept in close touch
with him. As I have often said the term
“A great Ambassador for Spirit” handed out too freely. But in this case William Stenhouse certainly
deserves such a title…
