LAKE PLEASANT — Following a six-month hiatus, The National Spiritual Alliance is coming out of hibernation.

Following a vote by five general members of the alliance and its remaining three board members, the organization closed its headquarters, the Tabor Thompson Memorial Temple at 2 Montague Ave., in November 2024 due to the financial strain of paying for heat and electricity during the winter months, declining membership and poor attendance at events. The resolution that was adopted at the time said the board of directors would research options to “reopen as a church, a community center or other alternative in the spring of 2025.”

The board of directors took the winter to develop a plan to reopen the temple and bring back in-person events, including some that aim to attract a broader community.

“It’s very good news,” Vice President and acting CEO David James said in an interview Wednesday about the reopening of the temple. “The winter hibernation was the right thing to do.”

Starting May 2, The National Spiritual Alliance will resume its weekly in-person drop-in hours at the headquarters from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. every Friday. To mark the reopening, tarot reader and psychic medium Joanne Matthews will offer readings from 1 to 4 p.m. on Friday. In-person spiritualist services will return to the temple on Sundays at 10:30 a.m., and this Sunday, the Rev. John Midura will give a talk during the service.

More events are scheduled for the rest of the month of May, with a community open mic night on Tuesday, May 20, at 6:30 p.m., and a psychic medium fair on Saturday, May 31, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. These events will also have an option for people to donate to maintain the historic temple.

To mark this new chapter for The National Spiritual Alliance, member Kara Kharmah said the board of directors met to strategize a plan to reopen. This included continuing spiritualism and Lake Pleasant’s community work. Spiritualism is based on the belief that departed souls can interact with the living.

“Like many religious institutions in America, less and less people came, and we have a beautiful historic building that costs a lot of money to keep in the winter,” Kharmah explained. “It was really important to us to keep this as our spiritual home. We wanted to find different ways to survive this, but also to thrive.”

According to “Spirit and Spa,” a 2003 book that tracks the history of Lake Pleasant, the Montague village is perhaps “the oldest continuously existing spiritualist community in the United States.”

Since the mid-19th century, families and individuals would come to Lake Pleasant to congregate and camp during the summer until permanent housing was created, after which people lived there full-time to practice spiritualism.

Since the start of Lake Pleasant and its ongoing evolution, spiritualism has remained an important pillar in the community. With the winter shutdown, Kharmah said the idea was to find ways to keep the historic temple as a space for spiritualists, but also for the wider community to gather in Lake Pleasant.

Additionally, there is a strategic plan that considered long-term goals such as increased parking space, accessibility improvements and painting the building.

Although the foundations of Lake Pleasant and the temple are based in spiritualism, Kharma said The National Spiritual Alliance is interested in learning and growing, and wants to create an environment where community members feel welcome.

“We’re interested in exchanging ideas and learning and growing as spiritual beings, but we also are interested in saving this historic building and making it more accessible to the Lake Pleasant community, and the wider community,” she said. “I think it’s a really important part of our spiritual mission to have a safe, open-hearted home for people to be welcome and build community.”

For more information on events offered by The National Spiritual Alliance, visit spiritualallianceusa.org.

Erin-Leigh Hoffman can be reached at ehoffman@recorder.com or 413-930-4231.