Free Press interview for Allison Dubois event

By PAIGE AARHUS, SUN MEDIA

They don’t worship Jesus and their Sunday services are far from the typical hymn-and-sermon formula.

Skeptics may scoff at their belief in communication with souls who have “crossed over” after death, but London’s spiritualist community is a legitimate and thriving part of the community, said one believer.

“Spiritualism is a religion. It’s not a cult, it’s not a sect and we do believe in God . . . There are a lot of people who don’t know that this is available,” said Rev. Carol Burrows, a member of London’s spiritualist community.

Spiritualism is a religion that began in the United States and flourished from the 1840s to the 1920s.

The distinguishing feature of the religion is the belief that spirits of the dead can be contacted by “mediums” and provide information about the afterlife.

“The soul is eternal, people don't die, there is life after death and we do talk to dead people,” said Burrows.

Burrows was ordained at one of North America’s few exclusively spiritualist community in Lily Dale, New York.

She said she’s always been attracted to new-age healing, and spiritualism was a natural fit.

After her father died in 1995, Burrows and her cousin made their first trip to Lily Dale after hearing about its reputation for healing.

Burrows said she met with a medium who delivered a very special message when she got there.

“I had a message that my father made it over, and who met him at the gate and it was so peaceful and warming. It brought a great deal of relief and compassion into the process of grieving,” she said.

Burrows began her studies at Lily Dale in 2005, and became an ordained minister two years later.

She described a typical spiritualist service as being similar to church, but with several fundamental differences.

At the start of the Sunday service, worshippers will participate in “hands on healing” to channel the “unseen healing forces of the universe.”

Members will then listen to a reading, sometimes from the Bible, and traditional Christian hymns are sung.

A guest speaker, usually a medium from outside London, then delivers a message to the congregation.

Sometimes mediums will channel spirits to deliver their message, said Burrows, but sometimes they simply speak about the seven principles of spiritualism, which include the fatherhood of God and the communion of spirits and ministry of angels.

“There’s a number of people who come to the 2 p.m. service who were elsewhere at 10 a.m.,” said Burrows.

“They maybe don’t want their churches to know that they’ve come here, but they get something from the spiritualist church that they don't get elsewhere.”

Burrows said she is aware that many people are skeptical about contacting departed souls, but insisted that its possible.

“Anybody can do it if they choose to do it. All it takes is some training to learn to quiet yourself, and to have faith that God is with you,” she said.

This weekend the church is hosting an event with guest speaker Allison DuBois.

DuBois is a famous American medium whose life was inspiration for the television series Medium, starring Patricia Arquette.

Burrows’ friend, fellow spiritualist Tania Thomas said it was serendipity that DuBois wound up coming to London.

Church member Bob Masschelein, a spiritualist for 35 years, recently died.

Thomas said she had been working for years to get DuBois to come to town, and after Masschelein died, she suddenly got a phone call from DuBois’ publicist announcing a visit planned for July 20.

“I almost fell off the chair. It’s almost as if it was just handed off to me . . . I’m going to take off my hat to Bob for some of that occurrence,” she said.