Celebrating 400 years of Presbyterianism at First Bangor

​First Bangor Presbyterian church was founded in the summer of 1623 by Scottish settlers of dissenting non-conformist Protestant faith.

Tomorrow (Sunday), a special service will be held in First Bangor church, with Presbyterian moderator the Rev Dr Sam Mawhinney the special guest to reflect on the four centuries of worship in a borough, now enjoying city status.

First Bangor minister the Rev Mairisine Stanfield , in her tenth year in the pulpit there, is appropriately Scottish and she says the city of Bangor has a long Christian heritage that began with the establishment of Bangor Abbey in the sixth century.

"Our Christian heritage is not only long, but rich, with our Presbyterian story beginning over 1,000 years after the setting up of the Abbey, when in 1605 Scottish Presbyterian James Hamilton was given land in and around Bangor by King James VI of Scotland, who had just become King of England and King of Ireland.

“James Hamilton repaired the Abbey and a few years later invited a fellow Scot, Robert Blair to come and minister to the growing number of Scottish Presbyterian settlers in the area. Robert was ordained and installed according to the Scottish Presbyterian service of ordination in the summer of 1623. And so began a Presbyterian community of faith that has made a significant contribution to the growth and development of Bangor over the past four centuries.

"As a fellow Scot, I am proud to follow in his footsteps as First Bangor’s 19th minister,” said the Rev Stanfield..

Having initially met in Bangor Abbey, the first Presbyterian meeting house was built on Fisher Hill, which was destroyed in 1661. Until a new meeting house was built in 1686, the congregation met in the open air. However, in 1741 a new stone building was built on Quay Street and 90 years later in 1831 the current meeting house was erected on Main Street, where worship continues today.

Tomorrow evening in Strean Presbyterian church, Newtownards, the presbytery of Ards, one of the Irish Presbyterian Church's 19 regional presbyteries, will hold a praise service to mark the anniversary at First Bangor. North Down and the Ards Peninsula were the location of the earliest Ulster-Scots settlements, with other very early Presbyterian congregations founded in the region..

* On September 9, 1636, 140 Presbyterians from congregations on both sides of Belfast Lough, set out for Boston, Massachusetts on the 150-tonne sailing ship 'The Eagle Wing'' from the part of Groomsport. The voyagers made it three-quarters of the journey sailing close to Newfoundland, but, facing continuing fierce storms, the ship, on the advice of a Scottish Presbyterian minister on board the Rev John Livingstone, was forced to turn around and head back to Ulster, arriving in Carriokfergus on November 3. Despite being aborted, it was the first recorded sea voyage from Ulster to America and it gave impetus for 17th-18th century migration across the Atlantic to the 'New World' by an estimated 200,000 Ulster-Scots,