The spiritual church movement is an informal name for a group of loosely allied and also independent

Spiritualist church A spiritualist church is a church affiliated with the informal spiritualist movement which began in the United States in the 1840s. Spiritualist churches are now found around the world, but are most common in English-speaking countries, while in ...

es and Spiritualist denominations that have in common that they have been historically based in the

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, ...

. Many of them owe their origin to the evangelical work of

Leafy Anderson Mother Leafy Anderson (1887–1927) was born in Wisconsin in the 19th century. She was a Spiritualist, and her mediumship included contact with the spirit of the Native American war chief Black Hawk, who had lived in Illinois and Wisconsin ...

, a Black religious leader of the early 20th century who was born in

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

and in 1913 founded the Eternal Life Christian Spiritualist Association. In 1920 she relocated to

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

, where she demonstrated mediumship by bringing messages from her

spirit guide A spirit guide, in Western spiritualism, is an entity that remains as a discarnate spirit to act as a guide or protector to a living incarnated human being. Description In traditional African belief systems, well before the spread of Christ ...

Black Hawk, a historical war leader of the Native American Sauk tribe, who had lived near where she was born. Although the churches founded by Anderson are often associated with New Orleans, the spiritual church movement has always been national in scope. It spread quickly throughout America during the 1920s, and one impetus for its diffusion was that in 1922, the

National Spiritualist Association of Churches The National Spiritualist Association of Churches (NSAC) is one of the oldest and largest of the national Spiritualist church organizations in the United States. The NSAC was formed as the National Spiritualist Association of the United States ...

expelled or made unwelcome all of its Black members. This led to the formation of a national group called the Colored Spiritualist Association of Churches, and within a few years there were Black Spiritualist churches in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

, and many other cities. During the decade preceding

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, the Spiritual churches of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

were well documented in print and film.The "

March of Time ''The March of Time'' is an American newsreel series sponsored by Time Inc. and shown in movie theaters from 1935 to 1951. It was based on a radio news series broadcast from 1931 to 1945. The "voice" of both series was Westbrook Van Voorhis. P ...

" newsreel clip, "Harlem's Black Magic," 1937, contains footage of African American Spiritual Church, occult shop, and spiritual advisor signage in New York City; a copy is located at the Black Media Archive, as Episode 256

church signage includes "Meetings Here Every Wednesday Night -- Spiritual-Pontifical Lectures and Demonstrations -- No Charge -- All Welcome -- By Prof. F Wilson -- Books on Sale - Incense," "Madame Bess - Special Good-Luck Powers," "Professor Payango DeVasso -- Metaphysician and Spiritual Advisor," "Church of the Guiding Apostle," "Sister Mignonette -- The Church Is One Foundation," "Bishop Payango DeVasso - Chapel of the Holy Spirit - Holy Ghost Branch," and "Chapel of the Sacred Spirit - Holy Ghost Branch - Bishop Payango DeVasso" At the present time, the spiritual church movement encompasses primarily churches which are influenced by

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

Christian worship styles, especially

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only ( believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compe ...

and

Pentecostal Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestant Charismatic Christian movement

praise music, as well as churches that contain a great deal of

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

imagery, including the veneration of saints. It is common usage to distinguish spiritual church movement churches from other, often less explicitly Christian, Spiritualist churches, by the use of the name "Spiritual" rather than "Spiritualist" in their titles. This naming convention is found in mid-20th-century books such as ''How To Conduct a Candle Light Service'' by Mikhail Strabo and Rev. Adele Clemens of Divine Harmony Spiritual Church. It is also notable in the names of Christian Spiritualist denominations within the Spiritual Church Movement, such as: * Metropolitan Spiritual Churches of Christ, founded in 1925 * Pentecostal Spiritual Assemblies of Christ Worldwide, founded in 1938 (whose motto is "Pentecostal by Birth, Spiritual by Lifestyle, Apostolic by Experience, and Christian by Demand. A Spiritual Church... On a Spiritual Foundation... Walking in the Supernatural..."), * Mount Zion Spiritual Temple, founded by King Louis H. Narcisse in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

, in 1945, and the allied churches he founded and led in

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

;

Sacramento, California ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

; Bakersfield, California; and Houston, Texas * Universal Hagar's Spiritual Church, founded in the 1920s, which also operates the Hagar’s School of Mediumship and Psychology.

References

{{Spiritism and Spiritualism New religious movements Spiritual organizations Spiritualism

See also

References