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Messages
of hope
by Tricia Lynn Strader / Journal Staff Writer
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Alexis
Sharon Rolnick of Charles Town is a licentiate minister and certified
medium. On Sept. 9, she will conduct the first services of The Church
of Joyous Living, which is part of the National Spiritualist
Association of Churches. (Journal photo by Martin B. Cherry)
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CHARLES
TOWN — After years of searching for her own religious
understanding, Alexis Sharon Rolnick felt called to start a church.
“I was on my own spiritual journey. I grew up in a Jewish household. But
I was dissatisfied. As modern women, we had little chance for a
leadership role,” she says. “Women were not allowed in the synagogue. We
had to sit in the balcony. It was uncomfortable.”
Through her spiritual journey, Rolnick found the National Spiritualist
Association of Churches, which she says is the oldest and largest
organization for the Science, Philosophy and Religion of Modern Spiritualism
in the United States.
Next weekend, Rolnick will open the doors to The Church of Joyous Living,
the first NSAC church in the Eastern Panhandle. She will conduct the
inaugural service at noon Sept. 9 at her home, 128 Burnlea Road in Charles Town.
“People can come to our service for spiritual connection, meditation,
caring and learning to have their own spiritual growth,” she says.
A certified medium and licentiate minister with the National Spiritualist
Association of Churches, Rolnick says the NSAC faith is a lot like other
religions, but members have a different way of going about practicing
their faith.
“There is truth in all religions, and all religions affirm there is an
afterlife,” she says. “But we do not believe in condemning one religion
over another. And we do not concentrate on hell and damnation. We believe
a certified medium can contact those in the spirit world and offer
messages of hope, and life lessons.”
Prayers for healing and meditation are all part of offering encouragement
and growth in spirituality. “We are looking for the good, so we continue
to learn and grow,” she says. “Our faith eliminates negativity. Services
consist of prayer for healing, meditation, messages from a medium and the
weekly blessing.”
Rolnick says healing or growth may be physical, or mental and emotional.
Of course, other major religions offer encouragement and spiritual
growth, but she says in the spiritualist religion, this is done through
the meditation and messages from a certified medium, in a light state of
trance.
According to Rolnick, people are attracted to the spiritualist religion
because they were disenchanted with other religions. “They have rejected
other religions, had an experience with the spirit world or psychic but
don’t know how to interpret it, or, they may be looking for something not
quite as structured or negative. We are open and accepting,” she says.
Principles of the spiritualist religion, she says, are Biblical
principles found in other religions. She notes healing powers of Jesus
and the apostles through prayer. And she says, instances of seeing
visions, hearing voices and levitation such as mediums do are found
throughout the Bible.
As the NSAC Web site explains, spiritualists believe humans are spiritual
beings, an indivisible part of the Divine. God is the spirit within each
individual waiting to be consciously accepted and activated. One of the
desires of spiritualism is to awaken this spirit within, to move beyond
the five senses to higher awareness.
Spiritualists affirm physical and spiritual nature are expressions of
infinite intelligence. Individuals are morally responsible to live by the
Golden Rule, or do unto others as you would have them do unto you, and
that all people make their own happiness or unhappiness as they obey or
disobey nature’s physical and spiritual laws.
During her own spiritual journey, Rolnick found the Association for
Research and Enlightenment. “Edgar Cayce was the greatest American
psychic of the 20th century,” Rolnick says. “I studied for years and we
lead a Search for God group all over the country. I’d always been able to
see people’s energy patterns around them, and could see spirits. They
talked with me. But I got migraines and couldn’t handle crowds. I didn’t
know how to use it properly.”
She also met her husband through the Association of Research and
Enlightenment. After raising her children, she decided to go back to
study, to do something for herself and achieve her dream of becoming a
minister.
Eventually, she earned her license in ministry and became a certified
medium. She says she has passed three levels of evaluation beyond the
usual supervised training. Her final oral exam is in October.
However, although she has done so in sessions with individuals, in a
service she tries to dissuade people from coming in to get messages from
specific people who have crossed over, such as loved ones.
“A good medium offers evidence, or proof they have spoken to a loved
one,” she says. “My experience is that when this is done, people are happy,
relieved and satisfied to know their loved ones all right, and they can
have contact. The proof is something about the person. But I try to give
a helpful message in everyday life.”
—Staff writer Tricia Lynn Strader can be reached at journal_reporter@juno.com.
Want to go?
What: The Church of Joyous Living, SAC
Where: 128 Burnlea Road, Charles Town
When: Each Sunday @ noon
For more information: log onto www.speakingjoyfully.com,
Email: asrolnick@aol.com, or call (240)
447-8912.
Section:
Living Posted: 9/1/2007
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![MCj04368690000[1]](who%20is%20Rev%20Rolnick_files/image001.gif)
![MCj03357660000[1]](who%20is%20Rev%20Rolnick_files/image003.gif)
Who
is Rev Alexis Sharon Rolnick?
