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Summer evening services at Middle
Church, Ballinderry
Pictured at the Summer
evening service in Middle Church, Ballinderry
last Sunday evening is Robert Yarr - Organist
(seated at the pedal operated harmonium)
and L to R: (standing) David Elwood -
People�s Warden, Jim Neill - Guest Speaker, and
John Hunsdale - Rector�s Warden.
�In no country church could better examples
of the conditions under which worship was held two hundred years
ago be found, - the great family pews, high and uncomfortable,
the old central pulpit in three stages rising one above the
other; the wide stone-paved aisle, the small red tiled chancel,
and the bell cot on the west gable� is an extract from a book
entitled �The Middle Church of Ballinderry� written by Francis
Joseph Bigger and William J. Fennell. Consecrated in 1668, �The
church has now lost much that made it perfect in early times,
but enough remains of its character to make it valuable and full
of interest to the architect and the archaeologist, as well as
to the Irish historian.�
With no
electricity, Middle Church has no artificial light or heating.
Summer evening services were held during July and will
also be held on Sunday 6th, 13th, 20th
and 27th August and 3rd September at
7.00pm. Everyone will be made most
welcome. The guest speaker last Sunday evening was Jim
Neill - Diosesan Lay Reader (Parish of Upper Falls) and the
organist was Robert Yarr who has been
the organist at Ballinderry Parish for the past 45
years.
Francis Joseph Bigger and William J.
Fennell�s book records that �the first Church of Ballinderry was
known locally as the Church of Portmore, or Jeremy Taylor�s
Church. Bishop Taylor found this church inconvenient, and
caused another to be erected nearer the village, now known as
the Middle Church. In 1823 it was decided to build the new
church on the site of the Middle Church, which, however, was
subsequently overruled, and the present site adopted after a
considerable amount of discussion. In 1824 the Middle Church
was abandoned for all but mortuary and other occasional
services, and the present Parish Church erected, which, with its
gracefully proportioned spire, forms a pleasant picture as seen
from its less pretentious parent - Middle Church�. This
interesting book has recently been scanned and can now be read
online at
www.lisburn.com.
Go to:
www.lisburn.com
Click on: Church Section
Click on: Lisburn�s Churches
Click on: Ballinderry, Middle Church
Click on:
The
Middle Church of Ballinderry and Bishop Jeremy Taylor.
The exterior of the Middle Church,
Ballinderry taken in 1924 showing ladies in Edwardian hats and
dresses, gentlemen immaculately attired in top hats and frocked
coats, and children dressed in sailor style.
The interior of the Middle Church,
Ballinderry taken in 1925 showing the high family pews and the
old central pulpit in three stages rising one above the other.
