Virtual Methodist

10 Days ago I joined many others at Clonard Monastery for the 10th Anniversary Memorial of the death of Father Gerry Reynolds. Honestly, I was torn being there. The past few months have been hectic for various reasons, and a number of situations have put me under significant pressure and left me feeling more than a little anxious. Maybe I will be able to write about them at another time, but that time has not yet come... And on that particular evening there were many, many things clouding my heart and mind. But I had not been able to attend Father Gerry's funeral 10 years ago, so I was determined not to miss this opportunity to mark not only the death but the life of a man who was a massive influence on me and countless others. And as it turned out it was doubly right that I was there, because a couple of people referred to a repeated refrain of Father Gerry's "Let it unfold..." And it was as if I was hearing Gerry speaking to me directly from the grave, gently correc...

The Grosvenor Hall congregation had its final service yesterday afternoon, marking 136 years of faithful worship and witness. The work of the wider Belfast Central Mission goes on however, and indeed, we will be gathering again in Grosvenor House on the second Sunday of next month to mark the beginning of the Annual Toy/Gift Appeal... But back in June, after the decision had to close had been taken, I was out visiting some members of the congregation who hadn't been out for a few weeks, and after a fruitless attempt to visit two houses in a row I thought I would stop off in Sir Thomas and Lady Dixon Park and grab a coffee. It was a beautiful day and I had been listening to Eddi Reader singing Burns songs in the car, and as I sat in the sunshine the following song, set to the tune of "Ae Fond Kiss" sprang almost fully formed into my head. At yesterday's emotional farewell, my two friends Jim Deeds and Diane Holt, sang these words as a benediction to those who had gathe...

After a few years as “ecclesiastical gypsies” by 1893 the Mission Committee realised that they needed a permanent home and towards the end of that year the site on which Grosvenor House now sits was bought by the Committee treasurer... And on 25th October of the following year the first Grosvenor Hall was opened...Or rather the Central Hall as it was formally called... But it quickly became known as the Grosvenor Hall by all who used it, and passed on the name officially to the second building that replaced it, in 1927. At first an adjacent building to the hall on Glengall Street was rented to host the social work and smaller meetings, but this was quite a costly arrangement, and so two years after the hall was opened an annex was built that not only increased the size of the main hall to 3000 if needed (slightly more than we need today) but also offices and smaller meeting rooms. But the cost of all of this was massive in those days. Crawford Johnson and his faithful treasurer Thomas ...

Custom House Square is central to a lot of Belfast's history down through the years. The Farset River which gave the city its name as Béal Feirste, the "Mouth of the Sandy River", runs under it and empties into the Lagan just beyond the building which gives it its name "The Custom House" which was erected here in the middle of the 19th century… As such it reflects Belfast’s origins as a maritime trading town, and its development as an industrial and commercial powerhouse in the 19th century under the British Empire. It’s one of the many buildings in Belfast (including Queens University) designed by Charles Lanyon. But McHugh’s Bar across the square which dates from the 17th century, reflects another dimension in Belfast’s origins as a port. Both it and DuBarry’s Bar that used to sit beside it, were “houses of ill repute” frequented by sailors.  So Custom House Square was a space where people from all levels of Belfast society could meet. The statue on the steps ...

Another of our stops en route last Sunday was opposite the site of what for many years was the Grosvenor Hall's city centre sister congregation, or perhaps, arguably step mother, Donegall Square Methodist on the east side on of City Hall. It opened on that site in 1806, with the remaining façade being part of a building erected in 1846, and is referred to as the Mother Church because in its lifetime it birthed many other congregations...Indeed when I previously asked where the story of the Grosvenor Hall began, it could be argued that it began in earnest here. Because in February 1889 two lay mission workers John Coulter and John Adams who had been employed to work among the unchurched of Belfast gave a graphic account of the social and spiritual plight of the poor of the city... This led directly to the petition which went to Conference in June 1889 for the establishment of a City Mission. However when Crawford Johnson was set aside as Mission Superintendent, he was not attached ...

The Mission operated out of Hermon Hall until January 1890 when Mr Ginnett needed the building back again, meaning that they had to decamp once more, leading Crawford Johnson to describe them, in thoroughly un-PC terms, as “ecclesiastical gypsies" (I used a less controversial synonym for the title). Their primary Sunday venues for the Mission were St. George’s Hall in High Street and the Ulster Hall, with repeated returns to Hermon Hall, from time to time until it was knocked down to prepare for the building of the Opera House. The weekday activities of the Mission were even more scattered... in lecture rooms and halls in north, south and east Belfast... Some of these were Bible studies and classic Methodist Class meetings, but increasingly more of them were working to address social needs of the people around, including food programmes rudimentary alcohol support groups, men’s and women’s groups, and work with (in another un-PC phrase) “street Arabs” – children running wild on th...