A Brief History of Bexleyheath Christian Spiritualist Church
The foundation stone in the front wall of our church has the date 1960 on it, but the origins of the church can be traced back more than a century to the year 1912, when a group of friends interested in psychic research began to meet regularly to study what would nowadays be called paranormal phenomena.
The group continued to meet for the next twenty years until 1933 when the arrangements were formalised by the formation of The Bexleyheath Psychic Research Society. Public meetings were held at the Co-Operatve Hall in Bexleyheath Broadway on Wednesday evenings and on Sundays at “Fairleigh” in Avenue Road.
The area from which membership was being drawn was widening so the name was changed to the Bexleyheath & District Psychic Research Society.
In 1934 it was decided to start and official spiritualist church in the area, so a three-year lease was taken out on “Rutland”, Crook Log where on 25th November 1934 the Spiritualist Church duly registered as a place of worship. Also, in that year, the church was affiliated to the Greater World Christian Spiritualist League.
The activities of the church at that time included a Sunday Divine Service, a ladies service and healing on Tuesdays, an open circle on Thursdays and on Saturdays a social or other meeting.
“Rutland” had a room set aside for Divine services and also a lending library. Some of the books from this are still to be found in the current church library.
After four years “Rutland” was outgrown, so in November 1938 a lease was secured on the first floor above Treadwell’s shoe shop in Welling. By 1939 there were 149 church members.
The work of the church continued throughout World War II and the Divine Service was never suspended and was well attended. This service remains the cornerstone of the church’s activities to this day. By 1945 the membership had reduced to 72 but steadily increased again after the war.
Ambitions grew to construct a purpose-built church and in 1951 a building fund was started. This was an important year for spiritualism as it saw the repeal of the Witchcraft act which although permitted psychical research, discouraged public spiritualist meetings.
On 12th September 1955, the Committee decided to buy the site at 85 Lion Road, the purchase price of which was £1,050.0. There were many fundraising events and members could buy virtual bricks at 3 or 6 old pennies and progress was displayed on a diagram.
When a request for a mortgage was refused by the church’s bank, one of the founder members, Mr George Baldwin secured a loan of £2,500 on his own home and building business.
Work to clear the site was finally commenced in the autumn of 1959 and the foundation stone was finally laid on 5th March 1960 by Mr Baldwin who was by now Honorary Life President in recognition of the personal sacrifice he had made in order for the church to be built, as well as his many other services to the church.
On Saturday 3rd September 1960 the consecration of the Church took place. The pattern of services which remains largely unchanged, was established. This was as always, the Divine Service on Sundays, the Open Circle on Mondays, Tuesdays saw the ladies service and healing, and evening of Clairvoyance took place once a month on Wednesdays and on Saturdays, a service with clairvoyance.
In the late 1960s a stable building at the rear of the Church was converted into a chapel and the remaining surface was converted into the car park.
Bexleyheath Christian Spiritualist Church has continued in its work ever since, spreading the message of the fatherhood of God, the Brotherhood of man and the truth of survival after death.
The Church was forced to close by the Coronavirus pandemic in March 2020 but opened again as soon as permitted although with all the social distancing and health and safety procedures in place.
That situation has now thankfully eased, and the Church can now look forward once again to developing and extending all it’s activities.