Rev. Raymond Burns

Rev. Raymond Burns was Pastor of Plymouth Spiritualist Church for a short period of time in the late 1930s. He was born in Pennsylvania and reportedly demonstrated prominent psychic and mediumistic abilities since childhood. 

Before being called to Plymouth as Pastor he served at the First Spiritualist Church of Niagara Falls. He was a profoundly developed Medium and demonstrated several phases of mediumship such as Inspirational Speaking, Trance, and Trumpet Mediumship. 

He regularly served as a lecturer and Medium at Lily Dale & Freeville Spiritualist Camps.

Rev. Burns resigned from Plymouth Spiritualist Church due to issues and conflicts among the leadership of the Church, and went on to become Pastor of the Center of Psychic Science in Buffalo, New York. He was installed as Pastor by Rev. Leota Maxwell of the Open Door Spiritualist Church in Rochester, NY. 

During the schism between the National Association and the General Assembly, Rev. Burns chose to remain a member of the General Assembly. He served as missionary for the International General Assembly of Spiritualists and was an Associate of the Arthur Ford Institute for Psychic Science, he was also a Trustee at Camp Silver Belle in Pennsylvania. 

Rev. Burns went on to become the Pastor of Albertson Memorial Chapel in Connecticut where he served for 23 years. I actually had the pleasure to meet with a member of the late Rev. Burn's former congregation. An upbeat and positive woman, aged 102, she was thrilled to hear me mention Rev. Burns who she said was a "wonderful man, and amazing medium." 

She stated that she attended his development circle that met every Tuesday and they called their little group the Tuesday Club. She told me she could recall attending Trumpet seances led by Rev. Burns, where the trumpet would levitate and bring through messages with the voices of spirits. 

Spiritualist Church of Divine Love

The Spiritualist Church of Divine Love was founded by Rev. George Wood and was chartered through the General Assembly of Spiritualist Churches. Currently the Church of Divine Inspiration is the only church in Rochester chartered with the General Assembly, and also acts as the headquarters for the Assembly, which was originally located in New York City. 

Rev. Wood was born December 3, 1903 in York, Livingston County. As a young man he traveled extensively around the country. In 1942 he returned to Rochester to work at Baush & Lomb, and continued to work until his retirement in 1969. Rev. Wood was a veteran of WWI, he passed away in 1992. 

In the 1940s he studied at Divine Inspiritation to become a Spiritualist Minister, and was ordained in 1946. Two years later he founded the Spiritualist Church of Divine Love. Divine Love was located on Richmond St. off of East Main, and had about 50 members in the congregation, with 15-20 people attending on Sundays in it's later years. 

 In an interview with Rev. Wood from the Democrat and Chronicle in 1970 he stated that although his congregation is neither large, nor rich "all we're interested in is helping the poor."

At the time the congregation was working to raise money to send to Native Americans on a Hopi reservation in Arizona, he was inspired by his granddaughter who had been contributing through a children's foundation, when he and his wife visited the reservation in Arizona he said, "I was surprised they weren't playing games. then I realized many of them had nothing to play with, not even a ball." 

The congregation took a collection to send what they could, particularly money, clothing, toys and books. Rev. Wood stated "I feel it my duty, and the duty of the churches to help people" 

I was blessed to meet an individual who had attended the Spiritualist Church of Divine Love, she has unfortunately since passed away. When I asked her if she had known about the church she lit up, and told me that she had attended there when she was young with her mother. She remembered Rev. Wood, and said that he was a "deeply kind and very spiritual man."