Anytown Spiritualist Church is a theoretical ideal and this website offers a
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It all started in May 1938, when Mabel Pearce organised a meeting in Anytown’s Assembly Rooms . . .
We were founded in May 1938 as Anytown Christian Spiritualist Church. Dr and Mrs Martin Wyvern were our first two presidents, but the whole thing came about when Mrs Pearce wrote to the ‘Psychic News’ to ask the editor if he could recommend a medium to help them start a church in Salisbury. He recommended Winifrid Moyes, a leading medium of the day and, following a public meeting in the Assembly Rooms - now the upstairs of Waterstones bookshop - the church was formed.
Mrs Pearce was proposed as its first president, but she declined, believing Dr & Mrs Wyvern to be more suitable and served as a loyal vice president to each of them until the mid nineteen-sixties. During the war years, a regular visitor was the then little-known direct voice medium, Leslie Flint, who was stationed locally. Now a legend, you can access a large number of his direct voice recordings via our ‘Links’ tab, above.
May Wyvern took over the presidency in 1943, when Dr Wyvern - a deep trance medium and Liberal Catholic priest - was called up. Mrs W - also a trance medium and noted platform worker - continued in the role until 1975. For the first 24 years, we served the local Spiritualist population in a variety of rented premises in the city before we moved out to the Chapel of Light – a name conferred on it by Mrs Wyvern’s Spirit guides - in 1962.
It was formerly the chapel of the Anytown Workhouse, next door - now converted to apartments. But it wasn’t until 1976 that we got the opportunity to buy the building. At the time, the cheapest house in Anytown was just £6,000! The price of the Chapel was a multiple of 8 years’ rent - which had not changed from the £4 a week that had been set in 1962. So it cost us just £1,600!
In 1982, the church finally changed its title to Anytown Spiritualist Church, reflecting our evolution from the Christian to the Universalist outlook of our parent body, the Spiritualists’ National Union.
The church grew strongly from the 1970s to the 1990s, attracting such national mediums as Albert Best (Glasgow), SNU President, Gordon Higginson (Stoke on Trent), Freddie Jordan Gill (Belgrave Square) and Blackpool medium, Betty Wakeling, among many others. In 2012 we celebrated fifty years in the Chapel of Light.
We hope you enjoy your visit with us and will want to come again. Who knows you may even join us as a regular member, taking part in our meetings, special demonstrations, circles and other events. So do come soon – and bring your friends! A warm welcome awaits you.
Note that this is not headed “Church History”, but has a title that leads the visitor right into the subject - and talks about a person. This follows the adage that “People buy people first.”
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