Last updated 19:39, Thursday, 08 May 2008

IN A SMALL chapel in Workington, set back from the road, unnoticed by most, people are discovering their God-given powers.

For the tiny Seamen’s Bethel Church, opposite the railway station in Falcon Street, is now home of the town’s Christian Spiritual Church.

They believe that God has given us spiritual gifts, including, in some cases, the power to heal.

And they have certainly had results.

Many people suffering physical pains have felt better after attending one or more of the regular healing sessions on Saturday evenings.

Others suffering from depression or stress are also said to have been treated.

And healing is only one of the gifts which Christian Spiritual members believe God has given us.

The minister at the church for the past eight years is Rev Hilary Harrington.

She stressed that the Christian Spiritual Church should not be confused with non-Christian Spiritualists – although it is a popular misconception that they are one and the same.

Non-Christian Spiritualists believe that after we die our spirits live on in the spirit world, and it is possible to talk to them with the help of psychic mediums.

But the Christian Spiritual Church, like other Christian churches, does not believe this.

“We don’t sit round tables trying to talk to the dead,” said Hilary, 69, of Harrington.

“That is not what we are about at all, though some people wrongly assume we are. They’ve probably been watching too much TV.“We have had people who come in expecting to communicate with loved ones who have died. And I’ve had people hold out their hand in front of me and say: ‘Read my palm.’“But those are not our beliefs. We are Christians.”

She explained: “Just like the other Christian churches, whether the Church of England, the Catholic Church we believe in a divine God and in the teachings of Jesus.

“We have hymns,prayers and Bible readings, and we carry out all the functions of a church such as christenings and weddings. We also support a lot of charities.”

Where the Christian Spiritual Church differs from the mainstream churches, however, is that it believes we should recognise and use our spiritual gifts– something which, it says, other denominations do not always focus on.

Hilary believes that in Old Testament times God gave spiritual gifts to selected people, such as Moses, Joshua and Elijah. But after Jesus’s death and resurrection these gifts were given to the disciples at Pentecost, which falls this Sunday, and now the gifts are available to all believers.

It is all explained, Hilary said, in St Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 12, in the New Testament, where Paul tells how God has given different spiritual gifts, such as healing or wisdom, to different people.

“Everyone with faith can possess spiritual gifts, but not everyone recognises that they have them,” she said.“We encourage people to look within themselves to discover the gifts they have.”