Building Refurbishment ProjecT

(February 2022 to April 2023)

SOME SIGNIFICANT HISTORICAL DATES

1684: Lurgan people have assembled for Christian worship on this site from 1684, when the first Presbyterians met in a building here. In 1718 they built a more permanent Meeting House.

1802: A Methodist Preaching House was first built on this site when a linen buyer at Lurgan Market called Chapman provided capital for a building which was constructed parallel to and slightly back from the road. This building replaced the Methodist Preaching House in Nettleton’s Court, off Queens Street which John Wesley had opened in 1778.

1826: A larger building was erected in 1826 replacing the 1802 building. Some tenements in front of the 1802 Preaching House were purchased for 100 guineas and removed to enlarge the site. The cost of the new Preaching House was £150. Mr Johnstone who owned the brewery on the site gave the site to the church and moved the brewery back into the tenements at the rear.

1886: On 25th July a new Hall was opened in Union Street for the teaching of children, the preaching of the gospel and for outreach into the community.

1888: In 1888 the church was re-modelled at a cost of £800. At this time the galleries were fitted, and the ceiling raised by two feet. The stairs and the front were also added. The congregation had grown in the years following the 1859 revival during which hundreds of people in Lurgan were converted.

1910: In 1910 the church was closed for some months to undergo extensive repairs. A new roof was constructed, and the exterior walls were plastered. It reopened in September of that year.

1925: The church was extensively renovated in the year preceding the centenary celebrations of the 1826 building.

1958: A vestry, church parlour and basement hall were added at the rear of the church.

1976: Renovation of the front of the building adding new windows and front doors after bomb damage during the Troubles.

1991: New two-storey halls were built at the rear of the church to replace the Union street hall which was sold in 1989.

1992: Further renovation and repairs after more bomb damage.

1994: The link up of the halls to the church was opened by Rev. Edmund Mawhinney on 12th March 1994.

2013: Opening of the Wesley Trust Building by Rev. Dr Heather Morris.

2023: Reopening and Rededication of the newly refurbished church premises on April 23rd 2023 by the Rev. David Nixon, President of the Methodist church in Ireland.