Nita Manning

Memories of the Church by Rev. Nita Manning

 

1970 – 1972  - Mrs. Jean Wood – President

 

Services – 6.30pm – 8pm

 

Tuesday Healing Service – 7pm -8pm

 

Thursday Clairvoyant Service - 2pm -3.30pm

 

Jumble Sales – every two months on a Saturday 11 am

 

These were the only services on the agenda.

 

The Church owned a ‘Bellows’ operated organ.

 

An elderly lady who was stone deaf named Grace played the organ beautifully and loudly, not a note out of tune. There was also a lady and gent employed to keep the church interior and garden neat and tidy. No maintenance or decorating was done.

 

Mrs. Jean Wood resigned as President to become a Jehovah’s Witness.

 

1972 – 1980 – Mrs. Rene Steer – President

 

Mrs. Steer inherited a large committee and it was at this time Mrs. Jean Evans and Mrs. Nita Manning joined the committee.

 

Mrs. Nita Manning was studying a mediumship course at the Greater World Christian Spiritualist Association in London and had begun to visit other churches. It was on this basis that Rene asked Nita to organise a psychic supper. This was food, tea and coffee for the event which proved to be a success we proceeded to organise two a year which helped the church finances immensely.

 

Abbey Wood Spiritualist Church operated on a very low income as those in charge trusted a policy of free will offerings only.

 

The Church was a warm, friendly place with much laughter and spiritual belief that the spirit would provide ‘all they needed’ to keep the church doors open.

 

Mrs. Rene Steer was ‘right’ as ‘Harvel’ was always open!!

 

Mrs. Rene Steer sadly passed away to the Higher Life through illness.

 

1980 – 1994 – Mrs Jean Evans – President

 

The Services were instilled in Mrs. Steer’s time as President which continued as usual with other services being introduced as the committee got more organised.

 

Jean and the church committee of sixteen people became to realise that previous committees, mostly survived on free-will offerings, which did not financially support the overhead costs needed to pay the bills. So, the church committee agreed to rectify this by charging a small fee for other events that may introduce finance to the funds of the church.

 

The following Services were introduced.

 

Monday - Open Circle – 8pm – (£1 Donation)

 

Wednesday – (monthly) - - Private Readings – 11am - £3.50

 

Thursday – Healing Service- 11am – 12 noon

 

Friday – Clairvoyant service – 8pm to 9.30pm - £3

 

Good Friday Service – (yearly) - 2pm -4pm

 

Saturday – (2 x year) – Psychic Supper – 6.30pm - £6

 

All committee members helped prepare food – tea and coffee for the events that required refreshments.

 

Mrs. Nita Manning was requested to organise the Open Circle. This circle was organised for a Monday evening at 8pm with a £1 donation collected from each person in the group.

 

The open circle was attended by many ladies and gentlemen wishing to learn of spiritual knowledge. The number of people began at 24 persons, increasing sometimes to 40 people.

 

It was agreed that a second circle was needed and Nita chose a Thursday evening and members of the Monday circle who had become long -term students of spiritual awareness joined the Thursday evening group.

 

These ‘students’ furthered their knowledge becoming ‘watchers’ for the Monday circle. They helped protect, guide and calm the new people who had joined the Monday open circle, who had less awareness of spiritual matters.

 

These observations helped everyone to understand their own potential in understanding spiritualism. There was much discussion after everyone had ‘closed down’ the meditation.

 

Over the many years Jean was President the church worked together, presiding over several events promoting spiritualism and helping to make a warm friendly atmosphere in the church.

 

The Church organised trips to ‘White Eagle Lodge’ and ‘Harry Edwards Healing Sanctuary’

 

There were workshops on Symbols, Psychic Art and Psychometry.

 

Jean introduced a ‘Good Friday’ afternoon service which was well attended after which Bill and Jean provided the sitters with hot cross buns and tea and coffee.

 

The Church owned an old organ which operated on bellows which had to be pedal pushed before it would work. We had an organist named Grace who was stone deaf but could read music and played the hymns for any occasion that required music and was never out of tune.

 

The lady and gent who kept the church and garden tidy retired, so Jean and Nita volunteered to clean the church, one evening a week, which they did for 2/3 years until the church could afford to employ a cleaner. The church also retained a gardener to mow the lawn and clear debris.

 

The committee cancelled Thursday afternoon service because of poor attendance and Mr. George Atkins suggested a Thursday morning Healing Service for people who found a daytime service more convenient to attend. George then became Thursday healing leader.

 

Mr. George Steer – Rene’s husband, began to visit the Church after his wife ‘Rene’ passed to the higher life, for he received warmth and friendship from those who had known his wife.

 

George painted a picture of the interior of the church, it was in the mode of how the church looked in those days. George presented the church with his framed painting which was hung in the church.

 

Mrs. Jean Evans became a registered platform medium and spiritual minister with the United Spiritual Fellowship and was also a spiritual healer.

 

Healing services proved to be very popular and there were plenty of healers and patients coming to the church. There was a time that the church healers were approached to give healing to HIV/AIDS patients which all healers agreed to do. These clients came later in the evening to avoid any upset to other patients. The healers preferred to perform etheric/aura healing and this was accepted by the clients.

 

The same procedure would occur when terminal cancer patients attended the healing service. The healers would form a ‘horse-shoe’ of healing around the said patient and one or two healers would perform the ‘laying on of hands’ on the body of the person receiving the healing. This brought the team of healers together sharing and enhancing the healing energy to a maximum. It was a pleasant experience for everyone concerned.

 

The Church donated £1000 to the Greenwich Hospice – Abbey Wood, before the official opening of the building. The money enabled the hospice to purchase a special care-bed for the cancer patients.

Mrs. Jean Evans and Mrs. Nita Manning were invited to the hospice before it was officially opened. They both accepted the invitation and presented the cheque to the administrator, at the same time.

 

 

Jean conducted christenings, blessings, weddings, and funerals at Abbey Wood Spiritualist Church and elsewhere.

 

Jean was an excellent advocate for spiritualism working and achieving much acclaim throughout the years she served as President and Healing leader for the church and all other churches and spiritual centres she visited.  

 

Mrs. Jean Evans resigned her office as President in 1994.

 

 

 

Nita Manning – 2024.