Wednesday 27 June 2012

1932 Newspaper Report of Church of Scotland Discussng Spiritualism at The General Assembly...Dream Interpretation... Embarrasing Moments on the Platform... The Dalai Lama Visits Scotland....



5th June - The church service I should have been at had to be cancelled because of the public holiday for the Queen’s Jubilee. 

7th... I received as usual a very friendly welcome from the committee and the congregation of the Pyramid Spiritualist Church Pollock.

9th It was my workshop at the Glasgow Association of Spiritualists.  It is a pleasure to take this workshop as all are so enthusiastic about becoming aware of their psychic abilities and not desperate to be on the platform after a few months.  They are happy to take one step at a time

10th... It was a pleasant day for the Journey to Kirkcaldy Spiritualist Centre (SNU) for the evening service.    This centre has their own building at Victoria House, 13 Kirk Wynd,  Kirkcaldy, KY1 1EH.  And a dedicated committee make good use of the building with the following programme; -

Sunday: Divine Service 6pm with Healing at 7.30pm
Monday: Evening of Mediumship               7.30pm

Tuesday: New Meditation and Awareness circle 7pm till 8.30pm

Wednesday: Mediumship Development Class (closed circle) 7 - 9 pm.
Throughout the year there is also a series of interesting workshops.

11th...I was taking time to visit those who had contacted our churches for some help or other.
17th – 21st... We were in Holland to visit Floriade 2012. - This horticultural expo is staged once every 10 years and showcases the world's best flowers, plants, trees, fruits and vegetables. The park comprised of five unique worlds: themed zones connected by wooded areas. Worlds in which the visitor saw, felt and experience nature in constantly changing ways.  

Our favourite part of the exhibition was the Healing Gardens and in Particular the the Nepalese garden “Garden of Enlighten”.  There visitors experience a perfect balance of nature, beauty and spirituality.

21st... I was taking the service at the Angel Light Spiritualist Church, Govanhill Neighbourhood Centre, and Daisy St, Glasgow.... This was the last service before the summer break.  Services will resume on 24th August.  Nancy, Liz and Christine work hard to make this small church a success.





Isobel was looking through a box of old family photographs when she came across a newspaper dated 30th May 1932.  It was open at a page connected with Spiritualism in Scotland.  Now did Isobel’s father know that his daughter, not to be born for another fifteen years and her husband were going to become spiritualists many decades later?  Or was the newspaper kept because it had an article on his beloved football team Kilbirnie Junior FC?  I am sure it was because of the latter – but one never knows.

I wondered how our parents and grandparents could read newspapers in those far off days with print so small. I have just had by eyes tested and I was straining

The paper is in poor condition and I have done my best to copy it exactly.... through varifocals to read the article...

TIDE OF A NEW REVELATION.

                              .................

PLEA OR SPIRITUALISM AT ASSEMBLY.

                              ..............
                                          PETITION FAILS



A Request that the Church of Scotland should conduct another investigation into the subject of Spiritualism was turned down by the General Assembly on Saturday.  Dr John White pointed out that one of the statements in the report of the committee which conducted a lengthy inquiry into the subject some years ago, and it was unwise for the ordinary and unqualified person to meddle with such things.

The Rev W. A. Reid retired minister. Glasgow, represented in an overture that serious misunderstanding had been caused by the rejection  last year of the request that the Assembly should make “some clear pronouncement that shall hasten the of spirit communication and the exercise of spiritual gifts within the Church as practiced by our Lord and his early disciples”.

He therefore petitioned that the Assembly recognising that the phenomena in question was regarded in the Bible as facts, that many within the Church and outside it had publicly  declared from their own personal experience that they had obtained full and complete proof of the same facts, and that  purely scientific experiments had established the phenomena under test conditions,  should appoint a committee the situation and especially to give needed counsel to the Church in relation to those in our midst who said that they had had had useful spirit communication  or exercised their spiritual gift

NEW REVELATIONS.

Mr Reid said he was quite aware that some of the brethren claimed special divine favour because they did not believe in spirit communication or believe that only the devil communed, but there were other brethren who gave them their opinion of spiritual communion without feeling under ant necessity to apologise.

A large number of people had testified that they had seen the beloved dead; they said they had learned the meaning of death.  The new revelation that was being brought to them in these days they could no more resist than Mrs Partington could sweep back the tide with her broom.  Spiritualism was the natural ally of the Church.  Never had the Church had such an opportunity of reviving the experience of the early Christians, making God more real and the next world more real.

Doctor W

Doctor White moved that the Assembly receive the petition and believing that no useful purpose would be served by undertaking a fresh investigation into the subject which was raised by the same petitioner in 1920 and reported on to the General Assembly in 1922 referred all who were interested to the findings of that committee.  Pointing out that this was the third petition presented by Mr Reid.  Dr White said the petitioner believed so strongly in spiritualism that that they must overlook his persistence.  But the whole question had been inquired into by a committee which devoted two years to the matter.

A Substitute....

In dealing with the petitioner and such as he represented, they were undoubtly dealing with men and women who held the Christian faith, but it had to be remembered that with most spiritualists it was not so. Their cult was a substitute for the Christian religion and not an adjunei . 

The Rev Dr. Burnett seconded Dr. White’s motion which became the unanimous finding of the Assembly.

Food for thought.


Dream Interpretation…
 “A” ask me to recommend a good book of dream interpretations….
“A” - keep your money in your pocket as far as such books are concerned. I was going to write about dream experiences later in the year.  As far as books on this subject are concerned I will give you a couple of examples…
Say you have a dream about a SNAKE; -
I selected one book on the subject and read that a snake in your dream is a bad omen.  Then it went on to give a list of depending how many snakes appear in your dream, as to how much negativity is going to befall you. 
I select another book and this time the reader is told that snakes or serpents in your dream indicate you’re in the process of healing and resolving issues, plus a list of several other possibilities.
I known several friends who have phobias about snakes and if they had a dream about snakes - it would not be a dream - but a NIGHTMARE.  Their screams would probably wake up the whole street.
Think sensibly for a moment about dream interpretations.  Can there possibly be a central source and language for all our dreams?  That is not to say that Spirit cannot be in touch with us in dream state. 




 
Paul asks “Have you ever had any embarrassing moments on the platform?”
Yes, several come to mind and two I will share with you.

I am taking a service one evening and halfway through the clairvoyance I look down at my feet and nearly collapse.  I notice I have on an old pair of shoes I had been wearing in the garden earlier that day.  They were not just old, they were splattered with mud.  I felt the best policy was mention my surprise and by the look on everyone’s face in the congregation, no one had noticed the old muddy shoes and I might have go away with it.  Not only that, that evening I was wearing a new suit for the first time.  What a contrast.  The other embarrassing moment also concerned shoes.  Midway through a service I looked down and here I was wearing two different colours of shoes.   Now when I leave for a service the last thing I do is check my shoes.



If not the Scottish weather, the people of Scotland certainly gave a warm welcome to the Dali Lama on his visit to our country last week.  The Tibetan spiritual leader said he was in the country to meet its people and spread a message of harmony.













 






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