Historic church holds final service
THE church where Sir Edward Carson came to worship on the day he signed the Ulster Covenant in 1912 is due to hold its final service in just over a week's time.
Following years of costly maintenance and a dwindling congregation, Ballymacarrett Presbyterian in east Belfast will resound with hymns for the last time at an emotionally-charged evening service on Sunday, September 12.
The church, off the Albertbridge Road, first opened in 1837 to minister to local hand-loom weavers and was a haven of peace and tranquillity at a flashpoint interface throughout the darkest days of the Troubles.
During the early days of the violence, the Army took over the old Mountpottinger school house on the Paulett Avenue site and the congregation had to pass through a military checkpoint on their way to services.
Now, due to a steady decline in the number of worshippers, a decision has been taken which will see the well-loved church amalgamate with the Presbyterian church on the Ravenhill Road.
The current minister, the Rev Dr David Murphy, says it's hard to explain just how devastating the news has been for the stalwarts of the church.
"We have a very loyal congregation at Ballymacarrett and this announcement has been more than some people can bear.
"A few long-standing church members have died in recent months and I have had two widows tell me their husbands died of a broken heart at the loss of their church.
"Ballymacarrett, particularly the interior, is an extremely beautiful church but once it has been sold then I suppose anything could happen to it – it could even be knocked down," he said.
Rev Murphy said the decision to amalgamate was particularly difficult as the church was "very much alive" up until the decision by the East Belfast Presbytery to sell the site.
"This was not a dying church as far as the people were concerned. We have continued with the Boys Brigade and BB Old Boys, as well as Sunday schools and various other groups, right up to the last, and that is what makes this so very difficult for people.
"However, regarding the building itself, the old sandstone had an ingress of water and the cost of remedial work alone was around 200,000. Such large sums of money are hard to raise with a dwindling congregation.”
The well-known preacher and poet W F Marshall – dubbed the Bard of Tyrone – was an assistant minister in Ballymacarrett in the early part of the 20th century.
On the day the Ulster Covenant was launched in 1912 he had a poem printed in the Northern Whig newspaper called The Blue Banner.
One line from the poem reads: “The Cov’nant oath we now will swear that Britain may be told/We stand for faith and freedom and the memories of old.”
The name Ballymacarrett has been synonymous with social deprivation for centuries and the survival of the church through the years is testimony to a tradition of astute financial management in the face of adversity.
Church records show that in 1842 the congregation was so poor that the gas supplier had not been paid for three years.
Rev Murphy said inner city churches were “particularly badly affected” in an increasingly secular society and added: “It is also true to say that in today’s society we have too many loyalists and not enough Christians.”
All friends and former members are warmly invited to attend the final service on Sunday, September 12 at 7pm.
Former ministers, including the former Moderator, Rev Harry Uprichard, will be taking part and tea will be served in the church hall afterwards.
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Weather for Belfast
Sunday 12 February 2012
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Temperature: 4 C to 8 C
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