 LISBURN
Free Presbyterian Church was the venue for a Service of
Installation for the Rev. Cairin Salt to the Ministry in Aghalee
Free Presbyterian Church this week.
Many friends and family
members travelled from across the Province to join the several
hundred who filled the Church for this special occasion. Some
people came from Bridlington (England), the Rev. Salt's previous
Church, made the long journey to be present for this historic
event. Historic, as Aghalee Free Presbyterian Church is the
first church to have been built with-in the village for hundreds
of years and Rev. Salt the first minister to be installed. The
service was conducted by the Rev. Thomas Martin, minister of the
Lisburn Congregation, and other ministerial colleagues took part
in the Service. Included were the Moderator of the Free
Presbyterian Church the Rev. Ian Paisley, the Rev. Timothy
Nelson (Sixmilecross), the Rev.
Trevor Baxter (Ballynahinch), the Rev. John Gray (Enniskillen),
the Rev. John Woods (Bushmills), the Rev. Andrew Patterson
(Garvagh), the Rev. Kenneth Elliott (Portadown) and Mr. Phillip
Beattie (Committee man in Aghalee). Rev. Salt gave a personal
word of testimony in which he recalled the time of his
conversion. As a young man he became aware that he was a sinner
in the sight of a Holy God and after hearing and being
instructed in the Gospel he sought and found Christ for
salvation. He then sought the will of God for his life and
soon the Lord burdened his heart for full time Christian
service. After applying for the Whitefield College of the Bible
he was accepted for a four year training course in the
Theological Hall. Finishing his training he received a call to
Bridlington Free Presbyterian Church (England) where he
ministered for over five years.
Aghalee Free Presbyterian Church, which had recently been
constituted, then issued a call to Rev. Salt and he accepted
that call and was installed on Monday night. Aghalee Free
Presbyterian Church came into existence as an extension work of
the Lisburn church.
A few years ago the Session and Committee of Lisburn was
approached and offered a site and asked if they would consider
commencing a work in the village. The proposal presented a
great challenge to them, as they were soon to commence work on a
new building in Lisburn. However they took time to discuss the
matter thoroughly and to pray and it became clear the Lord was
leading them to accept this generous offer and plans for a
permanent building were drawn up and work commenced on the
building of a Free Presbyterian Church in the village. The
work progressed steadily on the Church with some of the labour
being given free of charge. On the l7th October 1998 a stone
laying ceremony was conducted and the Moderator Dr. Paisley,
along with Dr. Douglas and Mr. Eric Graham who were present to
lay the foundation stones. Dr. Paisley officially opened the
new building for the preaching of the Gospel on Saturday 27th
February 1999, after which a two-week Gospel campaign commenced.
There are two meetings on the Lord's Day 11.30am & 6.30pm, a
Sabbath School in the afternoon at 3.15pm, and a Prayer Meeting
every Tuesday evening at 8.00pm.
The Rev. Salt said he was looking forward to the challenge of
ministering among the people of the area and extends a warm
welcome to everyone to the services in Aghalee Free Presbyterian
Church.
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