Cooke Centenary Church

A short history of Cooke Centenary Presbyterian Church

The construction of the present day church took place during the years 1889 - 1891 on a site granted to the church through the Belfast Corporation, following the disposal of the estates of the second Marquis of Donegal.  The site was acquired by the congregation for the princely sum. of five pounds stirling.  The congregation which had been formed 2 years earlier in 1887 held their morning and evening services together with their afternoon Sunday school classes in the newly built Ballynafiegh Orange Hall, while their new house of worship was being constructed on its present site, oddly enough they had opted for a site which would have been roughly where the car park of Dunne's stores at the embankment is sited.  The Belfast Corporation though otherwise and luckily for us their better judgement prevailed.

The period of the 1880's and 1890's during which Belfast received it's city charter, saw a huge population explosion in the area with many Presbyterians moving into the newly developed Ballynafeigh area.  A new Presbyterian Church was needed  and a large one at that and it was considered very large at the time seating approximately 1,100 persons.  Little wonder at the opening of the present day Newtownbreda Presbyterian church in 1892 a few months after Cooke  one speaker referred to our church as "That Cathedral of Presbyterianism down the road" .  Called after Dr. Henry Cooke that champion of traditional Presbyterianism as a memorial to his memory, it was doubly fitting as Dr. Cooke was at one time a resident of the Ormeau Rd.  The church was constructed by Messers H Laverty & Sons at a cost of £6,667 pounds was largely gifted to them, save for the sum of almost £1,500 pounds raised locally through public subscription.

The preacher on the opening service conducted on Sunday May 1st 1892 was The Rev Doctor George Matheson, a blind Scot who wrote several of the hymn's still in use today in the current church hymnal.  It is believed that the text for his sermon that day was "God is spirit, God is life, God is love: and to this day we are reminded of it by the blue and gold lettering sited above the church apse.  The first minister the Rev John Mc Millan of Dundalk was nominated for a call was rumoured to be a supporter of home rule but through correspondence these rumours where completely dispelled.  His call was accepted by Newry Presbytery on July 9th 1892 he was installed as first resident incumbent at Cooke Centenary Church.  A congregation reception was held in his honour on Friday 5th August 1892.  His first years at Cooke were not easy ones firstly he found himself embattled over the subject of communion wine, he personally a great champion of temperance and an able advocate of temperance reform objected for conscience's sake to the use of acholic wine at communion services.  Some argued that acholic wine should be used, as indeed was though to be their practice during the congregation occupancy of Ballynafeigh Orange Hall, after a lengthly debate, which one gathers went to the point of exhaustion it was decided to use non acholic wine.  Bearing in mind  the minute quantities used by each person one wonders if temperance is being confused with total abstinence.  Finance during the early years was a constant worry to the church, there were prolonged arguments over debt reductions.  There were problems over the ministers stipend their financial problems became so acute that at one stage there were those who proposed that the minister be paid no salary, until the debts were paid.   How they could have expected  Dr. Mc Millan to live on "fresh air alone" has never been explained thankfully wiser and kinder council prevailed and no such action was taken. An invition to the Countess of Shaftsbury to open a grand Christmas bazaar to be held in the Ulster hall in Dec 1893, to aid the new church funds was replied to with a sharp refusal, with insulting remarks about the Presbyterian Church in general and Cooke congregation in particular.  The congregation were so annoyed over this they threatened to publish her reply in the press.  The countess was forced to make a hasty apology, unfortunately her letter was lost without trace, and the exact content of it is therefore unknown.  For those who knew him he was a "Blood and Thunder" preacher and yet as a person respected as a gentle sensitive and helpful man.  He retired in his 77th year and died four years later.  At the south transipt five beautiful stained glass windows remain as a tribute to his memory, - he is probably best remembered as a brilliant organiser.  During his time at Cooke he saw the school house built and opened for use in 1903 and during the first World War saw the formation of a much stronger Sunday school, a bible class, a guild class, a boys brigade company and a band of hope club reckoned to be at one stage the largest in Ireland at the same time, fellowship meetings, Girls Auxiliary, Boys Auxiliary, Young Peoples Guild, League of Church Loyalty, and a Girls Brigade Company had been established.

The Rev Cassells Cordner was installed as minister on 29th June 1931, after having spent 12 happy years as minister in Castlewellan Presbyterian Church.  It is claimed that inevitable changes took place during his ministry including a departure from the much longer form of service to a shorter form, the writer can only speculate on the length of the former type but can tell you that the new shortened form commenced at 11:30 am and finished between 1:20 and 1:45.  A sincere and modest man, whom some found slightly distant at times.  His dedication to the congregation of Cooke was unsurpassed and he strengthened the congregation at all levels, sadly after a lengthy period of deteriorating health he was forced by his medical advisors to retire on 31st May 1948 and died on 30th October 1955.

Nine months later Dr. John Monteith Barkley was installed as his successor, a brilliant academic and historian.  He came to a church just emerging from a costly exhausting and victorious war.  Change in all aspects of life was in the air and realised that the entire future of the church rested on the shoulders of the youth of the congregation and Ballynafeigh itself.  By 1952 there were more children attending the Sunday Schools and Youth Organisations than at any stage since the church was opened for worship.   A gifted preacher with a rare sense of humour.  He applied for the chair of history and symbolics in the Presbyterian college, he was successful in his application and was appointed to the post and he resigned as minister of Cooke on 30th June 1954.   The congregation though sad to loose him were glad he had been so honoured, eventually as Professor John Barkley he was appointed principal of the college and first principal of the new Union Theological College  in 1978.  He was a pipe smoker who enjoyed his game of bowls with Belfast Bowling Club - a man of his word thoughtful, sympathetic, understanding  and someone very skilled in building and expanding on his theme during his sermons.  I will always remember his words to me on one occasion when I commented on poor attendance at an evening service quote "If only today's Presbyterians were fully aware of the amount of Blood Sweat and Tears that were shed to win them the right to sit and pray in their own place of worship they would treasure the church much more than they do" - how true his  death quite recently is still felt in Cooke Church for while he resigned his post in 1954 he always remained a member of the congregation.

The Rev Ross Kirkpatrick Greer was appointed Dr Barkley's successor, the son of an minister he was installed minister in Cooke on 21st October 1954 after serving 12 years in Donemana Presbyterian Church.  In some ways he was an enigma for when you met him on the street, he was not considered to be a great conversationalist, yet when he stepped into the pulpit on Sundays a complete transformation took place.  The only thing he read was his text from the Holy Bible once read the book was closed and he commenced his sermon with no notes of any kind to refer to, skilled, smooth, articulate and thought provoking are the only words I can think of to describe him, one always got the impression that it all came as easy to him as a pleasant stroll on a sunny day.  It was years later before I learned just how much nervous energy he expounded in his delivery of each sermon, yet he could hold your attention right to the very last word of his address.  

During his ministry the congregation continued to grow, by 1956 a very impressive plan for refurbishing the organ, decorating and rewiring the church was completed many gifts were presented to the church that year including the dedication of the rose window in the north transcept to Mr & Mrs Edwin Wilsons memory as a gift from their daughter Anna, Edwin Wilson having held the post of Clerk of Session  form 1908 until 1923.   During 1959 it was decided to build a new suite of church halls in Park Road, this was the largest undertaking the church had ever committed itself to and the building was officially opened 1962 while the following year the school was renovated and reopened for dedication and use in October 1963.  Unfortunately 1964 saw a downturn in his ministry with the start of the troubles in Ulster. A period of prolonged public unrest murder and mayhem descended on the population of Ulster, great shifts in population occurred and the protestant  population of Ballynafeigh fell quite dramatically.  The newly constructed Saintfield Road Church opened drawing quite a few local members of Cooke to the new congregation.  Cooke Church itself never ran short of willing workers, to numerous to mention here the Rev Greer also had his trouble and sorrow closer to home with the tragic death of his only daughter at the age of 16, his hair turned grey almost overnight.   His ministry at Cooke will long be remembered having steered it so successfully "Through calm and troubled waters".

On his retirement he was succeeded by the Rev Jim Campbell a local man who was ordained as assistant minister in the Great Victoria Street congregation, after which he and his wife Ruth, a nursing sister travelled out to Malawi to take up work in the churches missionary field.  The Rev Campbell accepted a call to Cooke Church and he was installed as minister on 1st October 1981.  It was if you like "A leap of faith into the dark" for all concerned, for the congregation knew nothing of Mr & Mrs Campbell and they knew nothing of Cooke congregation.  There's no doubt in the writers mind that at this stage that God took a hand in arranging matters, both the Rev Campbell and his wife, together with the congregation, seemed to take to each other immediately.  The Rev Campbell aided by a very excellent assistant minister Rev. Marlene Taylor, and his wife Ruth whose depth of interest and work commitment to the congregation was to prove on a high level which Cooke had never experienced before (where would we be without our women around us to help at every turn I will never know)

An industrious cleric the Rev Campbell had his work cut out for him. Unlike his four predecessors he had inherited a congregation which was in decline.His principle aims where two fold - 1) to arrest the decline - which he has largely managed to do: 2) to reverse the trend downhill. This he has to a degree succeeded in doing, an extremely difficult task in an area with a rapidly changing population.

The congregation under their leadership is to be greatly commended for all the restoration programme's undertaken to the church property and grounds during the last few years and in their efforts to raise the necessary funds to do it.  Our ministers and the congregation will with God's help succeed in all their efforts, because they have to.  Space or lack of it makes it impossible to list here all the names of so many willing and generous workers in the cause of Cooke Church.  Many who are dead,and quite a few still alive - may God's blessing be on them in all their efforts.

Roy Allen          1st December 2000

P.S.  The church has 3 rose windows all of which would have been visible to the congregation before the organ and it's series of wind pipes where installed.  The organ installed in1913 covered one of the rose windows and it can now only be seen from outside the building.  Prior to 1913 the pulpit some where else - Rev Greer was convinced that the pulpit was originally sited at the north transcept facing diagonally across the church roughly in line with the south side fore court of the building itself.   This has never been proven and oddly enough no photograph of the church's interior prior to 1913 have ever been found.

The retirement of Rev Dr Campbell in June 2005 and the installation of Rev Dr Mark Gray in September 2006 will see the opening of a new chapter in the history of Cooke Church.

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Contact : Rev. Dr Mark Gray, 15 Park Road, Belfast BT7 2FW     Email :-  cooke.centenary@btinternet.com