Doxology?

Last night I went to a spiritualist church with a friend who was visiting from Adelaide, and was somewhat perturbed that the service opened with us singing:

Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye Heavenly Host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.

First let me stress that it was not a christian spiritualist church that we went to, it was a spiritualist church,
so I really had to wonder why it was necessary not only for us to praise God but to also view God as a man???

To loosely paraphrase Silver Birch, god is not a man or a woman, god is spirit, and spirit is law. So what
place does the doxology have in spiritualist circles?

This is/ was sung regularly for years in Spiritualist Churches and no doubt will be for a while yet.
Had Spiritualism adopted Arthur Findlay's understanding of the universe we live in, current understanding would likely be around the same as it is now.

Spiritualism pointed the way to a brighter tomorrow, but it took time to jettison the teachings of Xtianity and we have not yet formulated a working understanding to serve in the meantime, with varied levels of knowledge breaking through. It is by no means certain that the 'ism' will succeed as is hoped. Tomorrow is the product of today.

Early days, I'm afraid and the focus on the outer self rather than on the eternal vista will not hurry things along, even if that were possible.
Perhaps we are exactly where we are, as we are and all who see a bit further can best serve by silent example.

While I can understand the "silent example" approach when dealing with people who are not yet ready to delve deeper into their own awareness, I feel that approach is not serving those who are making their first steps towards enlightenment.

A visit to a spiritualist church that has many trappings of conventional protestant religion like reciting the lord's prayer; a prominently placed picture of jesus; a pulpit and pews will do a lot to dilute the other elements that offer an alternative path to enquiring minds, especially those who are disillusioned by the church experience.

Spiritualism can offer a lot more than that and if no attempt is made to make it more relevant and accessible to today's society then I fear for its future.

Hi Wes,

As you know I totally agree with you, you can understand it in a Christian Spiritualist Church and if, like for me, its not for you then let it be.

Like you I think there is more and Hiorta has a very good point had the ideas of Arthur Findlay been more widely read maybe we would have broken away years ago.

What you see is more common in Australia than in the Uk but even some SNU schurches probably use it. Given Spiritualists understand they are a part of Spirit the only way they could be different from Jesus Christ is in the way they express it, they will not be saved by Jesus and we all are the children of God.

To me the whole content of the doxology is so far outside of the meaning of Spiritualism in my view. However 100 years ago there were a majority hoping the Anglican report would find in favour of our beliefs so they could be reintegrated in Christianity.

Findlays Rock of Truth is well worth a read.

By the way Wes Lis and I were on Sunday Lis was in fine form we gave 9 messages between us very accurate and the talk went well. I should get an eyewitness report of how you are next week, we are running a Sunday Circle.

Good to hear from you be thankful you are up there Adelaide is melting

Cheers

Jim