Growing numbers of people are approaching the Church of England seeking an exorcism, senior church officials have claimed.
Dr Anne Richards, the national officer for “deliverance ministry,” and the Right Rev Dominic Walker, former bishop of Reading and Monmouth, revealed that more people are requesting assistance to “deliver them from evil.”
However, it has been revealed that actual exorcisms bear no resemblance to dramatic, and often horrifying, cinematic portrayals.
“It’s about reassuring people, lowering not upping the temperature,” Dr Richards told The Times, dismissing dramatic Hollywood imagery of “shouting and screaming and blood and vomit.”
Church officials described genuine exorcisms as “vanishingly rare” and characterised them as “quiet and calm” occasions involving prayer, typically following psychiatric consultation.
It follows news of an NHS chaplain in Norfolk consulting the church about “paranormal incidents” at a hospice, where staff and residents had described seeing a “small child in a red dress.”
Despite initial reports suggesting an exorcism took place, church sources revealed this was not the case. Instead, a blessing was conducted to provide pastoral support and reassurance to those at the facility.
Each diocese maintains a deliverance team comprising between three to seven members who carry out this work alongside their regular duties.
Growing numbers of people are approaching the Church of England seeking an exorcism, according to senior church officials
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These teams handle cases where individuals believe something malevolent may be affecting their lives.
Dr Richards noted a clear increase in people seeking help, though the requests rarely involve casting out spirits from individuals.
“It starts with people who are bereaved who think they have heard their loved one. People who feel uneasy,” she said.
The pandemic also triggered a notable surge in cases, with many people reporting unusual sounds in their homes during lockdown.
‘Delivery Managers’ have told their less dramatic recounts of exorcisms
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“Most of the time it was the plumbing,” Dr Richards observed.
Others approach the church after experimenting with Ouija boards, fearing they may have welcomed something sinister into their lives.
Many seeking assistance are not religious themselves but experience what Dr Richards described as a “sense of oppression or something wrong.”
Reverend Dr Jason Bray told The Telegraph that he deals with up to a dozen incidents per year, but when discussing how exorcisms are portrayed in films, he wrote: “That couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s not dramatic.”
Rev Walker, who spent decades training priests in deliverance ministry, revealed he conducts even less – just six exorcisms throughout his entire career.
During his time as a London priest, the team handled one or two cases weekly, while in Monmouth the frequency dropped to one or two annually.
“Ninety-odd per cent are people with psychiatric or psychological problems who therefore really need counselling,” he said, adding that some individuals come from cultures with a “much greater belief in the demonic.”
The process typically involves referral from a parish priest to the diocese, where a psychiatrist, experienced priest and safeguarding officer assess the situation together.
Exorcism remains a measure of “last resort,” requiring a bishop’s explicit permission and typically following a period where the individual is invited to holy communion or confession.
Rev Walker dismissed the Hollywood image of priests brandishing crosses while shouting and throwing holy water as “mumbo jumbo.”
“It needs to be quiet and calm. Often it’s simply a matter of saying some prayers,” he explained.
Two of his six exorcisms were performed in psychiatric wards after doctors concluded it was the only remaining option to comfort patients.
Asked whether the results were psychological or genuinely spiritual, Rev Walker acknowledged: “We don’t always know and can’t always tell because it’s very unclear what the origin of the evil is.”
