I Meet a Puttering Pastor

Full transcript of the My True Ghost Stories episode “I Meet a Puttering Pastor.” Listen to this episode.

The spirit of a pastor trapped between worlds reaches out to me with a desperate plea for help. What could be holding him back and how can we set him free? Welcome to episode 19 of My True Ghost Stories. This story of the trapped pastor spirit takes place at my local church where I am a member. I am very involved there, plus I'm friends with Margaret, who I've mentioned in many episodes.

And since this is my church, I spend a lot of time walking the halls, attending meetings, volunteering, and visiting Margaret. And while doing all this walking of the halls, I had always sensed the presence of a spirit. And I found out later that I was not the only one experiencing this. Staff there mentioned hearing sounds like someone walking around or moving furniture and the upper floors of the rectory, when no one was up there, bumps in the night, but nothing very alarming. And for them, this went on for years, and I sensed this spirit for years.

And everyone seemed to have accepted this. One day, I decided to focus in on this presence and get some sort of description. And when I focused in, I saw that it was a man with a one syllable name in a clergy collar. And he was walking around the rectory like someone puttering. He was looking up at the molding, the pipes and the ceiling, the bases of the radiators.

He was infesticating the wiring around the outlets. This was obviously the spirit of someone who really cared about this building. He maybe also cared about the spiritual things that went on there, but his vibe was all about the building structure and its upkeep. And I got used to him being there every time I sensed him, he was putting around until one evening. I was walking down the hall and I had a strong sense of him there, as I always did.

But this time, he was not puttering. He was standing there looking at me saying, excuse me. And I turned and I addressed him directly and I said, yes. And he said, matter of fact, Lee, I'm done. I'm ready to go.

And he said this as if I were like his ride. And I said, okay, you want to leave? And I don't remember the exact conversation between me and the spirit from there. But I do know that he was insistent that his job was done and that I was somehow responsible for his transportation out of there. And there was an insinuation that I should know that I was responsible for his transportation out of there.

So the situation appeared to be that this was a handyman who had finished his rounds. And it had taken longer than he had expected and he had missed his ride. And he felt that he had been promised a ride and he recognized me as the driver or something. And the only difference is that this handyman was also wearing a clergy collar. And from what I have observed, spirits have a limited amount of time after passing to cross over.

And if they miss the window, they need assistance to cross over. But I could tell that this was not just a matter of contacting this spirit's guides and having them escort him to the other side. Sometimes it's as simple as that. But this spirit needed a ceremony, a custom ritual, which is what I do. But I was on my way right then to an early evening meeting at the church.

So I just went on my way. And it probably came across as rude, especially given that this spirit recognized me as the one to go to when it was time to cross over. But I did not heed this request immediately, even after my early evening meeting. In fact, I even forgot about it and probably would have forgotten him completely. Except for that, this spirit was persistent.

That night I was awoken in the middle of the night from a dream of him telling me loudly that he's ready to go. And then the next night I was awoken with a definite sensation of someone, albeit non-threatening, standing next to my bed saying, excuse me. And the third night I was awoken from a dream with a very loud knock, knock, knock. As if someone were knocking on a door. And when I woke up, there was the same sensation of someone standing next to my bed this time saying, I'm ready to go.

You have to arrange the ceremony. Did you call them? We're running out of time. And there was an urgency, like there was a deadline. And I admire the tenacity of this spirit.

And I had to get some sleep. And I sense that there was some sort of time limit here. So I went to see Margaret, who was completely on board with me bringing messages from the other side. And she said, okay, what's the deal? So I told her, there's a man, a pastor with a clergy caller.

He had a one syllable name and he was walking around the rectory for years. And he's been puttering around, checking the walls, the plumbing, the wiring. And he says he's finished now. And she said, well, that makes sense. We have just finished a big renovation of the supporting walls downstairs and an overhaul of the electrical system and the plumbing.

So I continued with the information that I had gotten that day from my meditation on this pastor's spirit. I told her he wants a ceremony with another pastor saying some specific prayer or passage that goes at the end of a funeral for a member of the clergy. I didn't know what the passage was, but this was what I had gotten in my meditation. She said, let's call in Pastor Richard for that. And she paged Pastor Richard.

And Pastor Richard came into her office and she said, tell him, he was less familiar with me and my messages, but he is a good pastor. So he listened. And so I said to him, okay, there's the ghost of a pastor wandering around the building, but he says he's done and he's missed his opportunity to cross over. And he needs a ceremony where there's a specific prayer for the funeral of a pastor. Pastor Richard listened intently and then recited a passage from memory that was for a clergy member's funeral.

And he said that one and the spirit pastor, which is what I'm going to call him for now, he briefly appeared to me right there and then and said, yes, that's the passage. And then one more detail came through. It's been 40 years. He's been puttering for 40 years. Richard and Margaret came up with a few one syllable names of former pastors.

And I wasn't able to know for sure if any of these one syllable names were the right name. And the spirit pastor was not chiming in anymore, so I couldn't get his name. So Margaret, Pastor Richard and I talked briefly about this ceremony slash ritual. And we decided that it would be short. As Pastor Richard was very busy and Margaret was enthusiastic and Pastor Richard said, okay.

And he was nice and willing to participate, but he didn't seem to completely believe, but he was willing to do what he could. So we arranged to have this ceremony the next day at 11 a.m. In preparation, I spoke to my guides and I got the details on the plan for this ceremony for this pastor who had been puttering for 40 years. And the guidance said that the spirit of the pastor needed to sit in the pulpit chair. Richard and Margaret needed to stand in the front pew.

Pastor Richard would start the ceremony with opening remarks. We would have a moment of silence. And then he would recite the passage for a funeral for a clergy member from there. And I, the medium, needed to stand in the area between the altar and the front pew. I arrived with this plan at 11 a.m., I met Margaret and Richard and we proceeded into the sanctuary.

And I put everyone, including myself, where we were supposed to be for this ceremony. And I could tell that spirit pastor was sitting in the pulpit chair and we began. Pastor Richard made some opening remarks. We had a moment of silence. And then Pastor Richard recited the passage and the prayer for a funeral for a clergy member.

And then it was time for my job. And it's hard to describe exactly how it goes. But I can tell you that spirit pastor moved from the pulpit chair to stand in front of the altar with his arms outstretched and I and his guides helped him to ascend from there. And how I wished, I wished that there would have been some sort of sound or movement, you know, a glass of breaking, a bird flying in, a bell. Something that would have proven to Pastor Richard that this was real.

He was nice and cooperative, but I could tell that he was going along with it and not necessarily understanding it or believing it. Proof proof, how I longed for some kind of proof besides my knowing that spirit pastor had ascended. Instead, there was beautiful, peaceful silence after the spirit pastor had ascended, significant, peaceful silence. And we held that silence until I turned to Richard and Margaret and said, okay, he went up. They seemed satisfied, Margaret seemed impressed, and Pastor Richard smiled politely and nodded.

Again, I wished there had been more proof. We say goodbye, I exited out of the sanctuary doors and they went back into the rectory and it seemed that that was that. So I had wanted proof. Well, that happened. I was picking up my daughter the next day from an event at the school across the street from the church.

And there I saw Margaret walking quickly towards me on the sidewalk outside. Jennifer, I have to tell you something. And she told me this story. That morning, the day after we had done this ceremony for the pastor with the one syllable name who had been partying around the church building for 40 years, that morning Pastor Richard had woken up early. And as part of his morning routine opened a book that is for pastors to read every morning.

And this book has a daily passage about significant events of that day in the history of the parish. And Pastor Richard told me the story himself later that evening like this. He opened up the page for that date, the day after the ceremony. And there was the face of Pastor John, which is the one syllable name that we were looking for. And the passage about him said that he had died 40 years ago on this date.

And Pastor John had been the pastor of this church a half a century ago. And had been responsible for renovations at that time. And an overhaul of the plumbing and electrical systems. So it was all there on that page, the one syllable name, the 40 years, the concern with the upkeep of the building. So there was the proof, the proof that I had longed for the day before.

Pastor Richard said, which I had correctly perceived, that he had not really believed yesterday, that we had been communicating with the spirit of a long deceased pastor. And he told me that he had thought, and this is in his words, well, I like Jennifer. And if she wants to do this, then I'm happy to support her if this is part of her spiritual journey. And he said, but I never expected this. He said, and I looked at that page this morning, and I said, Oh, my God.

And I'm quoting him there word for word. I will never forget this conversation. He went on to say that he was so honored that a brother of his pastor, John, that he had never met, had reached out for help and that he was able to do it. And I don't know if I am properly expressing how overwhelmed he was. And I was overwhelmed.

I was grateful for the support of the universe, for showing Richard that passage that morning, for Pastor John, who had been so persistent, who it seems needed to ascend on the 40th anniversary of his passing. I was grateful for all of it. And while there is a beautiful spiritual story glowing, feeling to this story, part of what this particular experience gave to me and to Pastor Richard was evidence that this stuff is real. Proof. I went and got some really not beautiful spiritual story and glowing information from an article called Mediumship Accuracy, a quantitative and qualitative study with a triple blind protocol.

So that's pretty not woo-woo. But even this triple blind analysis of Mediumship by the National Institute of Health produced results that supported the hypothesis of that. And I quote, in some cases the sources of the information are the deceased themselves and the link to this article is in the show notes. So it's true. I believe it.

The National Institute of Health believes it. And most importantly to me, Pastor Richard believes it. Do you believe that the deceased can communicate with us? Let me know in the comments. I want to hear all about it.

And if you've enjoyed this episode of My True Go Stories, take a second to review it and share it with a friend. And that's all for today. Thank you for listening to today's episode. And if you think your house is haunted, want energy cleared from your space or need a custom spiritual ritual, I'm here to help. Visit jpclearing.com or email me at jpclearing60 at gmail.com.

Don't forget to join me here every Tuesday for a new episode. Until next time.