Spiritual Service – what’s happening?
Prayer and worship, lectures and inspirational speaking is not a new thing. It’s been around since the beginning of civilisation. The hierarchy and structure of society, praying to God or a deity, listening to insightful philosophers or engaging storytellers. It is all around building energy to give power and self-realisation to an individual or group consciousness.
Spiritual services come in many forms from church services for the major religions, to yoga sessions, sharing circles and book readings.
Many churches hold a Sunday service and within the religion of Spiritualism they are called a Divine Service. They generally follow a standard format.
- Opening Prayer
- Healing
- Reading
- Philosophy
- Demonstration (Of mediumship – continuation of life)
- Closing prayer
What is happening in the energy during a Divine Service?
Think in terms of energy. We all are aware of energy on a greater degree than our conscious mind allows us to realise. Understanding the flow, push and pull of energy, we know this on a fundamental level and can recognise it within one the simple truth. We all have people in our lives that fall in to two basic categories, the ones who inspire and leave us feeling uplifted, and the others who leave us drained and seeing the glass only half full. It is about energy and how they use it.
The Opening Prayer is to bring the congregation together within themselves and with each other. Asking people to connect with a higher power or their higher self. To bring alignment and access the universal energy which is part of all of us. From an energetic point of view, each person is bringing themselves into their own alignment by becoming present and relaxed. Opening their energy fields, feeling relaxed and comfortable with a room filled with likeminded people. The words of the prayer have resonance and respect, the prayer can be very powerful if the speaker talks spontaneously within the energy of the moment.
The Healing part of the service is an opportunity to send healing to people, animals and mother earth as a group. The group energy has built from the prayer and directed thought comes with the alignment of the group energy. Around the UK especially Divine Services are held on Sunday evenings around the same time, the thought that all Spiritualist churches have built the energy of the congregation and are sending healing together is incredibly powerful.
The Reading is an opportunity to bring the energy into a different frequency where the congregation move into more of a learning frequency, usually the reading is from a well-known book or pioneer who will be recognisable to many. Common themes are around unity of all and the interconnected nature of the universe, it allows people to connect slightly deeper with the greater aspects and energetics of themselves.
The Philosophy is an opportunity for the person delivering the philosophy to choose a theme or follow the tone of the reading. In Spiritualist churches they may choose one of the Seven Principles. An experienced person will be able to feel and work with the group energy and speak within the moment delivering what is needed rather than anything preconceived thought or rehearsed. Predominately working with the mental and spiritual aspects of the energetics but also feeling the emotional connection to the congregation. They are able to give a group update within the energy for all present.
The Demonstration of Mediumship is an opportunity for the medium to bring healing across multiple levels and step into the energy that has been built. Delivering contacts to specific members of the congregation using the group energy and the mediumistic energy from the spirit.
The healing comes across in a few main areas, the evidential nature of the contact is bringing healing on a mental level. Proof life is eternal and comfort that loved ones are still present in energetic form. Emotional healing through the energetic body, and soul healing connecting with peoples self-healing ability.
The Closing Prayer is the part of the service where every person present can come back into themselves in preparation to leave the venue.
It is the role of the platform team to hold space within the group energy and ground everyone in preparation for the end of the demonstration. This is a very important part of the service as people will be returning to their lives and public spaces where the openness and safe environment of a church service may not be present.
Written by Richard Stuttle
