Patrick Comerford
In a blog posting last night, I was discussing the fiery debates and controversies that divided Presbyterians in the 18th and 19th centuries, leading to schisms and the formation of new denominations, and how these divisions are expressed in the architectural styles of some churches in Belfast.
We were staying on Botanic Avenue for a weekend, and the Belfast Empire Music Hall, a music venue in a former church building across the street at 42 Botanic Avenue, symbolises, in many ways, two of the minority strands that emerged from those controversies in the past.
The Empire on Botanic Avenue was first built as a church 150 years ago and in time was part of two of those minority strands within the Presbyterian tradition.
The church was built on the corner of Botanic Avenue and Cameron Street in 1874 for the Reformed Presbyterian Church, and was designed in the Romanesque Revival style by the architect Belfast-based William Batt – a peculiar or even ironic choice of style for a church that has been known for its ‘anti-Roman’ rhetoric.
The roots of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Ireland (RPCI) date back to the arrival of Presbyterian settlers from Scotland during plantation of Ulster in the 17th century.
After the victory of William III in the Williamite Wars in 1690, a minority of Presbyterians refused to subscribe to the Revolution Settlement. They claimed the failure to recognise the kingship of Jesus Christ was a departure from the Solemn League and Covenant of 1643.
These dissenters or Covenanters began to hold separate meetings from mainstream Presbyterians. In Ulster, the Covenanters were dependent on visits from Scottish ministers until 1757. A separate Irish presbytery was organised in 1763, and its synod was constituted at Cullybackey in 1811.
The Reformed Presbyterian Church says it conforms to the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Westminster Larger Catechism and the Westminster Shorter Catechism. In a separate document, however, the church outlines two points where it actually disagrees with the Westminster Confession of Faith, and has posted 14 theological essays on points where the church holds its own separate teachings. These include teachings on church-state relationships, how the church regards the Roman Catholic Church, and on membership of secret societies.
Distinctive practices in the Reformed Presbyterian Church include only singing psalms and not having any musical accompaniment, and strict Sunday observance.
The church has college in south Belfast that trains preachers for both the Reformed Presbyterian Church and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, runs a bookshop and publishes the Covenanter Witness magazine.
The Reformed Presbyterian Church of Ireland has 43 congregations, including 35 in Northern Ireland and eight in the Republic of Ireland, and has 2,000 or fewer communicant members.
The church built by Reformed Presbyterian Church of Ireland on Botanic Avenue in 1874 was a Romanesque church with a tower and a large school room below. The lower storey is built of Scrabo stone, with red brick dressings, while the remainder is built of red brick with Dungannon stone dressings.
The church was designed by the Belfast architect William Batt and was built by the contractor Matthew Mansell. A two-storey building at the rear included a caretaker's rooms and a minister’s sessional room.
Batt’s other churches in Belfast include Saint Philip’s Church, Grosvenor Road (1870), also known as the Drew Memorial Church and originally built as a school; Ormeau Road Methodist Church (1872); and Christ Church (Church of Ireland), College Square (1874).
Batt’s pupils and assistants included Alexander Anderson, Percy Morgan Jury and James William Walby. He died in 1910.
There was another Reformed Presbyterian church with a short walking distance on Shaftesbury Square, and the church on Botanic Avenue may eventually have become surplus to needs for such a small denomination. It was rented in 1930 to the Irish Evangelical Church, which had been formed three years earlier in 1927 and later changed its name to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.
The Evangelical Presbyterian Church is one of the smallest Presbyterian groupings in Ireland and is found only in Northern Ireland. It dates from a doctrinal controversy in the 1920s that resulted in yet another schism that divided Presbyterians in Ireland.
The church was formed on 15 October 1927 as the Irish Evangelical Church by the Revd James Hunter (1863-1942), the former minister of Knock Presbyterian Church, Belfast, and James (WJ) Grier, a former student at the Assembly’s College, then the Presbyterian theological college in Belfast and now called Union Theological College.
The division came after Professor James E Davey of the Assembly’s College was acquitted in a Presbytery trial of charges brought by Hunter and others involving five counts of heresy.
Davey’s accusers had campaigned against him and against what they termed ‘modernism’ through a ‘Bible Standards League.’ They were influenced by the theology of a US Presbyterian John Gresham Machen, who had taught Grier in Princeton and who visited Ireland in 1927.
A month after the Presbyterian General Assembly upheld the trial verdict in a 707-82 vote, the anti-Davey group seceded. Hunter and Grier were joined by others who seceded from the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, and the Irish Evangelical Church was formed in October 1927.
At first, the new body had six congregations in Belfast, two in Co Antrim and two in Co Tyrone. The congregation on Botanic Avenue was one of the first formed in 1927, and in 1930 it rented the church on Botanic Avenue from the Reformed Presbyterian Church. The church eventually bought the building as s permanent home its work and mission.
The church first published its magazine, The Irish Evangelical in 1928, and Grier remained its editor for 50 years. The Irish Evangelical Church changed its name to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in 1964, and at the same time the magazine changed its name to The Evangelical Presbyterian.
After 40 years there, the Evangelical Presbyterian Church left the building on Botanic Avenue in 1971 and moved to Stranmillis Evangelical Presbyterian Church. A new building opened on the site on Stranmillis Road in 2018, with a a congregation of about 130 people.
The Evangelical Presbyterian Church requires all office holders to pledge their support to the Westminster Catechisms and the Westminster Confession of Faith, ‘without any reservations.’ It has had links with the Free Church of Scotland, the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of England and Wales and right-wing churches in South Africa.
Today, the EPC has nine congregations across Co Antrim, Co Down, Co Armagh and Co Tyrone, and is closely linked to the Evangelical Book Shop at 15 College Square East in Belfast city centre. It supports creationist and socially conservative pressure groups such as the Caleb Foundation, and has opposed a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland.
Meanwhile, the former church on Botanic Avenue, once owned by these two small Presbyterian denominations, is now a popular music venue known as the name Belfast Empire Music Hall.
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