Virtual Methodist

This is the first of  a few short posts in the run up to the closure of the Grosvenor Hall congregation that I currently have the honour of ministering to, this coming Sunday, after 136 years of faithful worship and witness. Last Sunday I organised a Reflective Pilgrimage for a small band of interested people, looking at the history of the congregation and Belfast Central Mission, especially the early years, and I included in it a few new poems. We began at the building where Sandy Row Methodist Church used to meet, before its closure 2 years ago. In its much larger predecessor, for the first 2 weeks of September 1889, the newly appointed Superintendent of what was then referred to as Belfast City Mission (leading to much confusion with the Presbyterian initiative of the same name) Rev. Crawford Johnson led a series of evangelistic services. But after 2 weeks of packed services, Johnson dismissed the initiative as a failure, because those who attended were already regular church-go...