Change is the Natural Order of things, but...

....it looks as though UK Spiritualism is having to accommodate approaching change which must be welcome.
There has been steady change since it was deemed to be legal to think as we do, with our opponents having taken major blow after major blow.
It would be a good opportunity to remember and discuss the general and individual milestones as a start.
The seeking and searching, the wondering and puzzling over 'is it really true that those we thought of as gone and lost are in fact still here, still vibrant, still alive'?
The moment of the earth-shattering realisation that is true and the great rush of 'something' that overwhelmed on this stupendous occasion.
Then the aftermath of trying to find all the pieces of just what this must mean, realising that we can never again be the same - this genie can never return to the bottle - the former sleepwalking life is joyously gone forever.
The next few years bring deepening and expansion, as the implications gradually dawn.
Slowly, a semblance of former thinking resurfaces, though not completely. It is here that stagnation looms and growth slows. We must work a wee bit harder to keep up the spiritual impetus. Snippets of talks echo - 'in the early days Spirit will meet you well beyond half way, though it is expected that greater effort on your part will follow' The Dark Night of the Soul often occurs about now and after which a sort of complacency grows (unless you have become a Worker)
A further year or two pass quickly and one day it is realised it has been x years since the 'awakening'.
I once heard a great talk of this very point - the worker of the day was asked if he would publicly present some long service SNU awards which he did. In his wee introductory speech, he gently brought out the difference (it was a 40 year award) between 40 years in Spiritualism and merely repeating the first year 40 times.

It is this I am trying to convey as we try to look ahead. Here comes an opportunity to refresh and recharge, to rededicate and gain continued spiritual expansion and not be disheartened by any change which we might not welcome. All change is good, though often it is not realised at the time.

It might be useful to remember that what has come to be regarded as 'Spiritualism' is in fact, one aspect of one Natural Law - that LIfe cannot die.

A timely reminder, hiorta, that: CHANGE IS CONSTANT.