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| Abbreviation | NSAC |
|---|---|
| Formation | September 1, 1893 |
| Founder | W.H. Bach, H.D. Barrett, L.V. Moulton, J.M. Peebles, C.L.V. Scott |
| Purpose | Religious |
| Headquarters | Lily Dale, New York |
| Website | nsac |
Formerly called | National Spiritualist Association (NSA) |
The National Spiritualist Association of Churches (NSAC) is one of the oldest and largest of the national Spiritualist church organizations in the United States. The NSAC was formed as the National Spiritualist Association of the United States of America (NSA) in September 1893, during a three-day convention in Chicago, Illinois. Although American Spiritualists had previously tended to resist institutional or denominational organization, early NSA leaders hoped organization would help promote the truths of the religion both spiritually and practically.[1] Organization could help non-Spiritualists distinguish genuine mediumship from the rapidly proliferating varieties of fraudulent mediumship, increase communication among Spiritualists, prevent the legal prosecution of spirit mediums under fortune telling and medical licensing laws, and counterattacks by "orthodox" ministers in the press. To these reasons, early leaders added the material support of spirit mediums and healers, just as other religious groups provided for the support of their clergy.
Among the NSA's first leaders were W. H. Bach, Harrison D. Barrett (former Unitarian clergymen), Luther V. Moulton, James Martin Peebles, and Cora L. V. Scott (spiritualist medium).[2] The association is also important for its adoption of a number of statements on spiritualism which have become a standard to which other Spiritualist bodies more or less adhere.[3]
- ^ Cora L. V. Richmond in Proceedings of the National Delegate Convention of Spiritualists of the United States: Held in Chicago, Illinois, September 27, 28, and 29, 1893 (Washington, D. C.: Stormont & Jackson, Printers, 1896), 10; Ann Braude, Radical Spirits: Spiritualism and Women's Rights in Nineteenth-Century America, 1st ed. (Boston: Beacon Press, 1989), 165; E. J. Bowtell, 'Spiritualism and Nationalism,' Banner of Light 71, no. 7 (23 April 1892); 'Spiritualistic Meetings,' Boston Daily Globe, 30 September 1894, 14; R. Laurence Moore, In Search of White Crows: Spiritualism, Parapsychology, and American Culture (New York: Oxford University Press, 1977), 10.
- ^ Association, National Spiritualist. Spiritualist Manual. 7th ed. Chicago: Printing Products Corporation, 1944; Joseph Osgood Barrett, "Spiritual Pilgrim: a Biography of James M. Peebles." Boston: William White and Company, 1872, 44.
- ^ National Spiritualist Association. Spiritualist Manual. 9th ed. (Chicago: Printing Products Corporation, 1955) 34.
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