Wellington Presbyterian Church will hold its first services of worship in the new building on Sunday 22 March and the Complex will be officially opened and dedicated by the Moderator of the General Assembly on Saturday 4 April at 3pm.

Within the Christian Community history has often been considered as ‘His Story’, the story of God’s dealings with His People. In the years that the congregation has worshipped God in and worked for God from the present buildings there have been many thrilling, challenging and difficult events to recall.

STARTED

The congregation was started in 1828 when it was obvious that ‘the increased and increasing population of the town of Ballymena rendered the present Presbyterian Meeting House (1st Ballymena) inadequate to accommodate the Presbyterians in the town’. The congregation was formed and the building was opened by Dr Henry Cooke on 26 July 1829.

One of the highlights was the visitation of God to the area during the Revival of 1859. Some 100,000 individual came to personal faith in Christ in this Island and in Ballymena thousands of lives were changed.

As a result of the increasing numbers of people coming to know Jesus Christ as personal Saviour, the decision was taken in November 1859 to build an entirely new Church. The majority of the congregation moved with Rev S. T. Moore to a new site and West Church congregation came into being. Those who remained formed the new congregation of Wellington Street and Rev William McCloy became minister in March 1863. The Lord continued to honour the ministries of both West Church and Wellington Street and soon ‘both were filled to overflowing’

Another of those special times when God visited His people was in the early 1920’s under the ministry of W P Nicholson. In 1923 during a mission conducted by W P, over 360 individuals connected with the congregation trusted Christ as personal Saviour. The Lord has blessed the ongoing work of the congregation over succeeding years.

TIME

With the passage of time the fabric of the building was showing signs of deterioration and there were significant changes to the landscape of the town. These and other considerations prompted the present leadership of the congregation to explore the possibility of moving away from a congested town centre into an area more heavily populated with people.

In October 2003 the congregation agreed to ‘port’, to move out from its present location to a suitable site situated on the Sourhill Road. This five acre site was sufficient to accommodate a Church building with a seating capacity of around 800, a Church Hall, Sports Hall, Café and Games area along with parking for nearly 300 cars.

The appointment of The Patton Group to build the Complex was agreed unanimously at the end of 2006 and when work started in May 2007 some of the challenges that have confronted the congregation recently were totally unforeseen.