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Our History

History of the City of Light Spiritualist Church

The City of Light Spiritualist Church was legally formed in September 2005. Patricia Price, Steven Bennett, Ginny Vigrass, Richard Shelley and others were the founding members and met in August of 2005 to set up the principles and philosophy of the church. We came together to form a Spiritualist Church that would honor the Free Thinkers of the 1800s that came to the Cassadaga area to establish a platform of liberty and freedom. The church has a free platform and has a membership that is open to all. The church has its

501(C)3 status from the Federal Government and is therefore tax exempt. We meet at 89 N. Main Street in Cassadaga, NY at the Universal Unity of Spirit building on the last Sunday of every month at 4pm with pot luck fellowship that follows every service. We hope to be a church without emphasis on politics or money and always keep our focus on being a spiritual community and spiritual family for each other.

History of Modern Spiritualism

Modern Spiritualism gives special attention to children, since the movement was started by two perceptive children, Margaret Fox, fifteen years old and her sister Catherine Fox, twelve years old. At their home in Hydesville, Wayne County, New York State on March 31, 1848 the children contacted a deceased peddler though “knockings” or “rappings” from the deceased that signaled answers to questions the children asked. The knocks on the floor, table, chair or other furniture seemed to appear out of no where. Margaret and Catherine snapped their fingers and clapped their hands and the spirit matched the rhythm and number of times with his knocks. He identified himself through the knocks as a peddler that had died in the house in 1843. The parents were called in to experience the knocks and ask questions that were answered by the knocks and then neighbors were also called in to experience the phenomena.

The peddler's demo case and bones were later found in the basement of the house. People who heard this story wanted to know more and to experience communication with the deceased themselves.

Soon after the first knockings, the family moved to Rochester, New York and formed “home circles” to demonstrate spirit communication. By November of 1849, the circles had become so popular that the girls were invited to Corinthian Hall in Rochester to demonstrate spirit communication. The Fox Sisters proved that mediumship, communication with other dimensions, was not just available to the elite, but was available to all of us. Modern Spiritualism also teaches Natural Law and that communication with the deceased is not extra-ordinary, but ordinary and natural to all who are willing to learn and recognize Natural Law.

The movement soon spread across the continent and across the ocean where Spiritualist churches were formed. Spiritualism is a recognized religion and well established in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom

We hold services at the Universal Unity of Spirit Building at 89 North Main Street in Cassadaga directly across the street from the Kwik Fill gas station.