Progressive Sunflower Spiritualist Church

In the 1920's we began to see the early growth of Spiritualist Churches in Rochester, particularly with Central Spiritualist Church and Divine Inspiration becoming very popular churches even during the golden age of Plymouth Spiritualist Church as the undisputed "International Shrine of Spiritualism."

In this era another smaller church was also existed in Rochester, and lasted about five years. This church was named Progressive Sunflower Spiritualist Church, and also is referred to as Progressive Sunflower Psychic Church.

The modest church was started by Rev. Frank E. Carl, who was described as a "lecturer, medium, healer, and spiritual herb specialist." The church was chartered through the General Assembly of Spiritualists, then the New York State Auxiliary to the National Spiritualist Association.

The church would best be described as a Christian Spiritualist Church; a 1927 Sunday listing announced that three infants were to be baptized the upcoming Tuesday night service, and most of Rev. Frank's sermons and lectures were on biblical subjects, albeit from a Spiritualist perspective.

In a very short letter, Rev. Frank wrote to the Democrat in Chronicle in an "Issues of the Day" column expressing his views regarding prayer and reading of the bible in public schools.

Rev. Frank actually felt that this should be acceptable in public school, explaining that there are some children who cannot afford to go to religious schools or don't attend Sunday schools, and that he felt being familiar with the bible and prayer (of any denomination) would be a positive thing for them.

He also added "I, a Spiritualist Minister, for one would donate a bible or two to the public Schools and I am sure other churches, organizations, and societies would do likewise"

Each Sunday service included a message service as well as a healing service. Message Services offered a few different kinds of mediumship including Trance, Automatic Writing, and also Flower Messages through psychometry.