SPIRITUALIST CHURCH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23015, 19 October 1936, Page 16

SPIRITUALIST CHURCH

Mr and Mrs G. E. Wright, of London, began their Dunedin mission at the Spiritualist Church last night when there was a large attendance. Mr Wright in the course of his inspirational address set out to make clear not only what Spiritualism really .was, but what it was not. Dealing first with the negative aspect, the speaker said that the possession of psychic power in itself did not fit any man or woman to be a Spiritualist, Psychic power was entirely a natural power governed by natural laws. All God’s creation was, indeed, governed by natural laws; there was nothing supernatural. Consequently psychic power could be possessed by certain people without any regard to their state of education, their mental powers, or their moral standards; its possession could be associated With nothing in the form of spiritual consciousness. Many of these people engaged in fortune telling, and they were quite to practise so long as they did so within the law of the land. Spiritualists had no right to interfere with them up to that point. But when these same people held Sunday services, gave the same kind of messages and called themselves Spiritualists, then, said the speaker, they had every right to protest against Spiritualism, with its high ideals, its beauty, its helpfulness i being dragged in the gutter. There was a yearning in the hearts of men and women to-day for some enlightenment, for Spiritual truth, and this enlightenment was what real Spiritualism could provide. People were demanding something more than a mere shadowy faith in the future; they wanted knowledge, and it was this knowledge, said Mr Wright, that Spiritualism claimed to have. When proof Was forthcoming of the actual possibility of communication with the spirit world, and consequently of the continuity of life, then was found the anchorage for which so many souls had been seeking. But no one, added the speaker, had any right to call himself a Spiritualist until he had learned the truth set out in the words, “ I and my Father are One,” and could go about his daily life with that knowledge firm in his heart.

Mr R. N. Ridd was in the chair, and at the conclusion of the service Mrs Wright gave a number of clairvoyant messages to members of the audience.