Thursday, October 06, 2005
CHURCH OF ENGLAND ACCEPTS SPIRITUALISM ?
A Survivalist website has a report titled "The Church of England Investigates Mediumship" on its website. According to the website, the investigation was completed and then suppressed. The following is a passage from the report:
Nevertheless, it is clearly true that the recognition of the nearness of our friends who have died, and of their progress in the spiritual life and of their continuing concern for us, cannot do otherwise, for those who have experienced it, than add a new immediacy and richness to their belief in the Communion of Saints. There seems to be no reason at all why the Church should regard this vital and personal enrichment of one of her central doctrines with disfavour, so long as it does not distract Christians from their fundamental gladness that they may come, when they will, into the presence of their Lord and Master, Jesus Christ Himself, or weaken their sense that their fellowship is fellowship in Him. It is claimed by Spiritualists that the character of many events in the Christian revelation, as recorded in of the Gospels, is precisely that of psychic phenomena, and that the evidence for the paranormal occurrences which Spiritualism has adduced strongly confirms the historicity of the Gospel records, in the sense that they also are records of paranormal occurrences, including instances for example, of clairvoyance (in the story of Nathaniel) of materialisation (in the feeding of the five thousand, and above all in the narrative of the Resurrection appearances). The miracles of healing are acclaimed as closely parallel to the healings performed through mediums. It is strongly urged that if we do not accept the evidence for modern psychical happenings, we should not apart from long tradition, accept the Gospel records either.
