Deliverance ministry within the Church of England draws fresh attention

The Church of England says it’s seeing a modest rise in people asking clergy for “deliverance” – a long-established strand of pastoral ministry that addresses fears about evil influences, spiritual oppression, or unsettling experiences in homes and workplaces.

In interviews reported by The Times, Dr Anne Richards, a national adviser connected with the Church’s deliverance work, described the range of enquiries as broad – from bereavement-related fears and general unease to people fearful they’ve opened a door through occult dabbling equivalent to using a Ouija board.

She says requests rose after Covid-era isolation, when more people were at home and anxieties intensified. Sometimes unusual noises in older properties turned out to have extraordinary causes.

Church guidance frames deliverance ministry as a cautious, accountable process under the bishops’ pastoral guidance and safeguarding codes of practice moderately than a stand-alone ritual.

CofE guidance states that diocesan deliverance teams should seek the advice of and work alongside relevant professionals – including medical practitioners, psychologists and psychiatrists – and operate inside safeguarding expectations.

Church advisers say most requests involve reassurance and prayer moderately than dramatic exorcism, with senior Church of England figures interviewed by The Times describing formal exorcisms as “vanishingly rare”.

The Rt Rev Dominic Walker, a retired bishop, told the newspaper he performed only six exorcisms over a long time, adding that the majority cases involved psychological or psychiatric needs where counselling and clinical care were more appropriate – sometimes alongside gentle prayer and ongoing pastoral support.

Public fascination often activates the query of possession, but clergy involved in deliverance ministry say their start line shouldn’t be certainty, but discernment.

A ceaselessly cited figure in wider discussion is Richard Gallagher, a psychiatrist who has said that, after excluding psychiatric causes, a small variety of cases he encountered were best explained as diabolical or paranormal.

His book Demonic Foes has helped keep the topic in public view, particularly inside Catholic exorcism networks equivalent to the International Association of Exorcists.

Within Anglican practice, advisers say no single sign is treated as decisive. However, some clergy point to a small group of features described in biblical and pastoral accounts which, taken together and only after medical and psychological explanations are ruled out, may prompt consideration of formal deliverance.

These include a marked attraction to Christian prayer or holy places combined with an apparent inability to have interaction with them; speech or behaviour that appears markedly unlike the person’s usual manner; episodes of surprising physical agitation or strength; and, in some cases, persistent threats of self-harm.

Practitioners stress that the majority mental distress and self-harm don’t have any spiritual cause, moderately they require clinical care.

One Anglican priest, Jason Bray, interviewed by The Telegraph traced his involvement in deliverance ministry to an unsettling experience early in his ordained life, when he and his wife lived in a parish house that appeared to alter atmosphere dramatically after prayer and blessing.

Bray, who later undertook formal diocesan training, described unexplained sensations of cold and a persistent feeling of hostility in a single room of the home, alongside a vivid impression of a presence that left him visibly shaken.

He described to The Telegraph: “I got a transparent mental picture of what it looked like: it was a person, about my height, wearing a mask, with piercing grey eyes, watching me with unbridled hostility.”

After a senior cleric prayed and blessed the property, he said the atmosphere “completely modified”, a shift later remarked upon by visitors unaware of what had taken place.

Asked how the family was settling into the home — which by then felt entirely normal — a neighborhood warden remarked, without prompting, that its construction had disturbed a Roman burial ground.

Bray said the experience convinced him that some situations couldn’t be dismissed out of hand — and that calm prayer could play a job in restoring peace.

He also cited examples to The Telegraph starting from a house in York where occupants reported seeing Roman soldiers moving through rooms, to a family who described a motionless figure repeatedly appearing on the foot of a staircase.

In other cases, he said, the experiences were more intrusive, including reports of a deceased relative suddenly appearing at close range, leaving those affected distressed and frightened.

The technique to address such encounters, Anglican deliverance ministers say, is a mix of calm prayer, shared discernment, safeguarding oversight, and due consideration of medical or psychiatric explanations.

Bray told The Telegraph: “That’s the character of this job: you’ll be able to’t confirm anything.

“I’m not within the business of trying to clarify the unexplainable, but I actually have seen enough to be open to the concept that places really might be haunted. My job is to wish, and all the time to reassure people.

“There is a variety of evil in our world, but I fully imagine that good will triumph eventually.”