The Committee appointed in
1937
by the Archbishops to investigate
Spiritualism carefully studied the
subject for two years and handed in
its reports. It was expected by the
Committee and by the general public
that the guidance contained therein
would be made available to the rank
and file of the Church of England
who, up to then, had neen given no
official lead whatsoever regarding
communication witn the dead.
When a decent interval had
elapsed and no statement had yet
been made, inquiries were instituted
and it was learned that the House of
Bishops had taken the surprising step
of pigeon-holing the reports.
For nine years the reports were
kept secret; then one morning there
mysteriously appeared on my office
desk what purported to be a typed
copy of the Majority Report.
I got in touch with a member of
the Committee I knew was in favour
of the report being published,
though he was bound by his loyalty
to the Church to keep its secrets.
" I have a copy of the Majority
Report, and I am going to print it,"
I told him. " There are one or two
phrases that are obscure, because of
the careless typing, but I would
rather print a slightly inaccurate
version than none at all. However,
if in the interests of truth you will |
read what I have and correct it
where necessary, then you will be
rendering a service to everyone con-
cerned."
The purported copy was re typed,
a reporter was sent with it to the
member concerned. What the re-
porter brought back was a carefully
corrected type script, with every
comma marked in, missing lines writ-
ten in the margins, and complete in
every detail.
The report was printed in its en-
tirety in "Psychic News" and with
the co operation of the Press Associa-
tion extracts from lt appeared ln
newspapers all over the world.
Still the Church preserved a stony
silence. Copies of the paper con-
taining the report were sent to all
the bishops and the two Arch-
bishops. No comment came except
for a protest from the Archbishop
of Canterbury.
My printing of the report gave to
the rank and file of the Church of
England the guidance that had been
denied them by the House of Bis-
hops. To Christians all over the
world it broke the news that a Com-
mittee of influential Churchmen,
examining Spiritualism on behalf of
the Church and at the request of the
Archbishops had found that it was
true and could be a valuable addition
to the Christian ministry.
A.W.AUSTEN
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