The work commenced in the old courthouse and police station in Whiteabbey village. The services were held in the old courthouse. Prayer meetings were held in the holding cells. of the police station. The police station later became the manse and later still was turned into a Sunday School complex.
A few photographs have survived from 65 years ago.
The following, taken from the introduction of the history of the congregation which was compiled and published in 2003 to mark the 50th anniversary, will outline some of the details.
Whiteabbey Free Presbyterian Church was the sixth congregation of the new denomination to commence. Crossgar, Ravenhill, Cabra [later Ballymoney], Rasharkin, and Mount Merrion preceded Whiteabbey as congregations of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster.
Whiteabbey Free Presbyterian Church was not born in the fires of Revival. Neither was it born out of local believers seceding from churches, in the mainline denominations, who were involved in the apostasy of the day. No large scale departure from these churches took place with the intention of forming a separated testimony. This fact has a significant bearing upon the early history of Whiteabbey Free Presbyterian Church. Whiteabbey Free Presbyterian Church was a Church building without a congregation! In the early years it proved very difficult to sustain the work within a denomination which has a number of other calls upon its finance.
Whiteabbey Free Presbyterian Church came into being through the vision of Mr Cecil Harvey, one of the founding fathers of Free Presbyterianism in Crossgar in 1951. He saw the old Courthouse in Whiteabbey village up for sale and proposed that the old Courthouse be purchased and turned into a Free Presbyterian Church. Saturday, 3rd January 1953, saw the official commencement of Whiteabbey Free Presbyterian Church.
In all the events within its history the feature most unique to this congregation is the number of times the church has moved location.
The witness commenced in the village of Whiteabbey. From 1953 to 1977 this was the home of the Church. On August 28th 1977 the last services were held in the old Whiteabbey Church. It was also during these last days in Whiteabbey, and in preparation for this move, that the name of the church was changed from Whiteabbey to Newtownabbey Free Presbyterian Church.
The first Lord’s Day of September 1981 saw the first meetings in the Portable Hall, on the site, on the Ballyclare Road at Corrs Corner, Glengormley. This Portable Hall was to be the meeting place until September 1983 when the first permanent building was opened on the site. This building is now the Complex which houses our Christian School, Sabbath School, Children’s Work and Youth Fellowship. The present Church building was opened in September 1989.
Up until the present there has been no further new buildings erected. In recent years, and even at present, some work has been done inside the Complex and the Church to make them more suited to the needs of the work of God in Newtownabbey.
It is the Church Committee’s intention to erect a purpose built new school building in the near future. A wooden block of classrooms the School had been using was destroyed on the 12th July 2001 in an arson attack.
The early history of the congregation is difficult to determine as the Session and Committee minute books are no longer available to consult. The first half of these fifty years is therefore compiled from other sources. In the main the early Minute Books of Presbytery have been used.
The different locations of the Church will prove to be a practical way of outlining the history of Whiteabbey/Newtownabbey Free Presbyterian Church.
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