The Association of Bible Spiritualists was a small early Spiritualist group from Rochester during the 1880s. The group was organized and lead by Dr. Frank Matthews.
According to listings in the Democrat and Chronicle the group would meet for services at 3pm and 7pm every Sunday. Lectures and Messages were given to the public free of charge; services were facilitated by Dr. Matthews.
Listings for the group stop in Rochester around 1900, and in 1901 listings in various Buffalo newspapers show that Dr. Matthews had moved to Buffalo where he lead a new group named the Buffalo Spiritual Church Society, which eventually changed it's name to the Christian Spiritualist Society.
The early documentation of Christian Spiritualists in Rochester is fascinating for those interested in the development of Spiritualism as a religion and philosophy, as the practice of Spiritualism in Rochester is still influenced today by these early groups.
Virtually all early Spiritualists generally accepted that the Bible was an inspired text of sorts, but different factions of Spiritualists developed their own understanding of how the Bible was to be understood within the context of Spiritualism.
For those Spiritualists who were followers of Andrew Jackson Davis and his intellectual heirs, the bible was one inspired book among many, and was only useful inasmuch as it could be read through the light of the Harmonial Philosophy.
At the same time, another faction of Spiritualists felt that the Bible should be considered a specifically Spiritualist book. These Spiritualists felt that the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, and the teachings of Spiritualism are identical, and that Modern Spiritualism was a revival of this early pure message of Jesus of Nazareth and the Apostles.
The Association of Bible Spiritualists represents this important early understanding in how early Rochester Spiritualists viewed their religion. In 1942 a sermon was given at the Open Door Spiritualist Church by Rev. Leota Maxwell called "Why the General Assembly of Spiritualists and the Open Door are Bible Spiritualists."
Since the 1930s the General Assembly of Spiritualists has represented the majority of Spiritualist Churches in Rochester, New York; for decades most Spiritualists in Rochester who attended these churches were trained and educated as Ministers, Mediums, and Healers with the Bible as their textbook.
The influence of these teachings actually spread far beyond Rochester, and included several Spiritualist Camps and Churches that were chartered with them through out the United States, and also into Canada.
Today the affiliation of Rochester's Spiritualist Churches is evenly divided between the General Assembly and the National Association of Spiritualist Churches.
The main office of the General Assembly of Spiritualists is currently located at the Church of Divine Inspiration here in Rochester, New York, where they continue to represent a Spiritualist tradition begun by the early Association of Bible Spiritualists over 130 years ago.
The late Rev. Newbie, Pastor of the Church of Divine Inspiration taught, "We believe in the continuance of life after death; our textbook is the Bible. Christ used every kind of mediumship during his ministry, and all the prophets used these gifts."
