Exorcism Performed At Patchogue Church

PATCHOGUE, NY — "Exorcism" is a term known to most people from "The Exorcist," the horror movie that caused a national sensation in 1973. But Patchogue got its own taste of the demon-expulsion technique over the weekend, when an exorcism was performed during Sunday services inside The Congregational Church.

Pastor Dwight Lee Wolter told Patch on Tuesday that the church, located downtown off East Main Street, had been holding another service during the exorcism.

"It's funny because I had a baptism at the same time," Wolter said. He added that he hadn't been preaching one of the stories congregants normally hear about Jesus; this was about "Jesus the exorcist."

"And what I did do, and I did it lightly, was I invited us to do an exorcism on all 'bad,' from anything unspecified (that) is haunting people and they are unable on their own devices to get free of," he said.

Asked whether demons were walking around the church, Wolter said ghosts are walking around and that he was not joking about exorcising them.

"What I did was a once over lightly, just to see where I could go with the congregation on that," he said. "And it was quite successful."

He added that he'll pursue a more intense exorcism later this year.

"I'll turn it up in the fall," he said.

Wolter wrote in a text message that he snapped some photos of the spiritual practice, but all that showed up was "something that looked like a whiff of smoke." He declined to comment further and did not share the photos.

The original church building was built in 1892, though the congregation dates to 1793, when it shared a small building with local Methodists, according to the church's Facebook page. The new building was added to the National Registry of Historic Places in the 1990s, with officials noting it is an intact representative example of Romanesque Revival ecclesiastical architecture on Long Island.