The first meeting of Thundersley Christian Spiritualist Church was held on 25th October 1933, and since then the Church has seen many changes take place. This Coronavirus lockdown will surely be another chapter in the history of our Spiritualist community.
Around the Church building there are many significant items that connect us to happy memories of the people who have contributed to each chapter of the Church’s story.
Everyone who has given their time and energy to supporting the Church is equally important in its history.
However, since we started ‘Live Streaming’ a Sunday Divine Service due to this lockdown (the first time we have ever broadcast to the Internet), there are two people in-particular whose presence I feel every Sunday.
Rita and Alan Tomlin were a core part of the Church community for many years, being instrumental in the construction of our ‘new’ church building, (Opened in 1998), and dedicating hours and hours to Church work. Both have now passed to Spirit.
Rita played the organ at the Church every Sunday and we are lucky to have recordings, made by her Son David, which we still use every week to this day.
When we decided to ‘lockdown’ the Church building and offer an online stream instead, we were keen to keep the format as close to a ‘normal’ Sunday service as possible.
If you have been to our Sunday service before you will know we sing ‘Gracious Spirit’ after our healing prayers, and ‘Grant Us Thy Peace’ as our closing vesper.
We were thrilled to be able to incorporate these songs into the Live stream, still played by Rita on the organ. Every week it feels like she is with us, in our empty Church building, supporting this latest chapter of the Church’s development.
I’m sure Rita and Alan would have been excited to see how many people we are reaching out to over the internet, bringing proof of survival after-death and much needed upliftment while many are isolated and alone.
The fact we can do a Live Stream seemed meant-to-be. A few months earlier we had an Internet line installed to help us manage the Church building more effectively and through our committee we had the computer equipment and support we needed to organise it.
Each of these strands of our history, from Rita’s recordings playing the organ to our recent installation of the Internet, feels like we have been guided into a position where we have the ability to help and support our friends near-and-far during this uncomfortable and worrying time.
The significance of past events should not be underestimated, as they all lead us to where we are today.
It feels like every era of the Church is connected and supporting us moving forward.
We hope you have had a chance to watch our Sunday Live Streams, 6.30PM on our Facebook Page.
In Love and Light.
