Spiritualism and other organisations which support this belief system have undergone a dramatic change during the last seventy years, since the like of Estelle Roberts, Leslie Flint and other historically gifted Mediums frequented the spiritualist platform.
Though the seven principles of spiritualism remain the core belief system within today’s Spiritualist movement, the values and standards of mediumship that were once witnessed within the spiritualist movement have changed so much that it would be improbable that a Medium or any other member of the public of yesteryear would identify with the trends of contemporary Spiritualism.
Let me substantiate this in a little more detail. Today's spiritualist’ service has remained relatively intact over the years. That is to say the usual order of service is approached with prayer followed by a reading and then an address by the Medium or speaker. This in turn is succeeded by more prayers and finally, the manifestation of mediumship that almost everyone has been eagerly anticipating from the outset.
However there is a growing number of people who have taken matters into there own hands in respect of the church service. They are the individuals who arrive late for the spiritualist services and in some cases, so late that almost 45 minutes of the service is conveniently excluded in favour of a 15 minute demonstration of mediumship. This behaviour on the part of congregation members is obviously registered with the committee members, but in spite of this, little if anything is ever addressed to rectify the position. Instead committee members tolerate this behaviour to the point of acceptance and treat it as the norm.
As far as I can see there is no official ruling that dictates the nature and order of the typical spiritualist service’ nor does it decree how officials of each church should conduct their services because how it is conducted is really a matter of choice and style, so long as certain standards are maintained.
Church officials are therefore given a free hand to conduct the service in a way which is deemed fit .
Is it therefore possible that the church service as a whole, which includes mediumship standards have declined so much and have become so uninspiring that many individuals feel the need to either ostracise the service or at least only attend the parts of the service that are of interest ?
The fact remains that church officials seem powerless or unwilling to counter the problem of certain behaviour and standards of service. This in turn only serves to compound the problem and enforces the poor image that many people hold about Spiritualism.
Any forward thinking person and anyone with an ounce of concern who holds a position of authority clearly has the mandate to reverse this trend by investigating he reasons why it is happening and addressing the problem. After all, the good businessman has need to change and keep abreast with market trends if he is to remain successful in his business. Likewise, church officials need to adopt a similar approach if they are to avoid empty churches.
At this time I see no positive steps being taken to reverse this worrying trend.
Once again we are faced with church officials who prefer to avoid confrontation and change and instead, have chosen to take a slice of lemon cake washed down with weak milky tea whilst they stare and drift aimlessly into the abyss.
