Chapter One
IN THE BEGINNING
For St Molua's Church in the Parish of Stormont the beginning was
in 1957 when the Diocese of Down and Dromore purchased a one and a quarter
acre site near Parliament Buildings at Stormont, Belfast for £1,537.10s
and vested it in the Representative Church Body (The RCB is responsible
for the financial and legal aspects of the administration of the Church
of Ireland) The site was equidistant between the existing churches of
St Columba's at Knock and St Elizabeth's at Dundonald.
The area had once been part of a primeval forest and was near an ancient
bridle path which must have been known to St Columcille (Columba) and
St Finnian and his pupils as they travelled from Movilla Abbey through
the Dundonald Gap to the Lagan and Carrickfergus Bay, as Belfast Lough
was then known. The boggy nature of the ground was to prove an expensive
problem when the foundations of the church came to be laid.
There had been little church building in the Diocese for nearly fifteen
years; none at all during the 1939-45 war years. In the immediate post-war
period, strict government control of scarce building materials meant that
these were mostly allocated to replace bomb-damaged or obsolete housing.
By 1958 these restrictions were less stringent and the Church Extension
Committee of the Diocese was able to make plans to provide new church
buildings for the growing and spreading population.
There was also a change in policy for church building at this time.
Instead of planning very large churches, as had been the practice in earlier
years, it was now considered better to have a greater number of smaller
and therefore fuller churches. But even moderately sized churches cost
a lot of money to build, so the Diocese appealed to the RCB for help.
In anticipation of future needs of this sort, the General Synod of
the Church of Ireland had, in 1954, passed the Church and Church Halls
Act to help finance essential church extension. The Act gave the RCB power
to lend a total of £200,000 for approved building projects throughout
Ireland. These loans, at 5% interest, were to be repaid over thirty years,
but the RCB could cancel the payment of both capital and interest for
the first ten years, an arrangement which would provide considerable relief
to the borrowers concerned.
When the General Synod met in May 1959 it appointed a Commission to
consider applications for the loans. The Commission visited the Diocese
of Down and Dromore in September 1959 when fifteen projects were put forward.
Nine were selected as the most urgent. Top of the list was the proposed
new church at Stormont, to be built on the site already purchased. The
£19,000 loan offered by the RCB to the Diocese for this project
would, in fact, only cover half the estimated cost of the church building.
At least a further £19,000 would have to be found by its parishioners,
helped by the Diocese. With enough money available at least to get the
project under way, it was time to get down to detailed planning.
Chapter Two
THE PARISH TAKES SHAPE
A meeting, chaired by the Archdeacon of Down, the Venerable G.A.Quin,
and attended by the Rural Dean, the incumbents of the parishes of Knock,
Dundela, Dundonald and the Curate-in-Charge of Gilnahirk, was held on
22 October 1959. Boundaries of the new parish of Stormont were agreed.
It included portions of Knock, Dundela and Dundonald parishes and the
Parliament Buildings of Stormont. In 1968, a small adjustment was made
to the parish boundary with Gilnahirk at Lowland Avenue to rationalise
the allocation of houses to each parish, thus adding to Stormont a small
piece of the fourth parish represented at this meeting.
The Select Vestry of Knock Parish (St Columba's) offered to contribute
£500 per annum over a period of six years, on the understanding
that the Bishop would appoint a Curate-in-Charge for Stormont and that
Knock would have no further responsibility for what was, in effect, its
second 'daughter' parish. The first new parish to be formed from the large
Knock parish was Gilnahirk which had only recently become financially
independent of its 'mother' church.
A sub-committee of the Diocesan Church Extension Committee was formed
with a brief to purchase and erect a temporary hall on the site to serve
until the church was built. This was also to continue as a temporary church
hall until it was possible to provide a permanent one. The only constraints
being the five year limit imposed by the Belfast City Corporation on temporary
buildings and the limit imposed on temporary buildings within close proximity
to the Parliament Buildings. Problems with foundations on the marshy ground
increased the cost of the temporary hall by some £400 from the original
estimate of £4,984 and were an early warning of further trouble
to come.
It was agreed at the meeting that the Parish of Stormont be constituted
as from 1 January 1960. The next step was the appointment of a Curate-in-Charge.
For this arduous but challenging post, Bishop Mitchell chose Rev. Edgar
Reid Hamilton, then Dean's Vicar of St Anne's Cathedral, Belfast and formerly
Curate of St Donard's Parish Church, Bloomfield. A native of Dublin, he
was educated at Kingstown Grammar School and St Andrew's College and Trinity
College in Dublin.
Mr Hamilton, with his wife and their two small children, continued
to live in their existing house at nearby Strandtown until a rectory was
bought. A former talented rugby player, capped for Leinster, his undoubted
stamina stood him in good stead as, on foot or on his bicycle, he criss-crossed
the parish to meet and gather in his new flock. A number of whom he already
knew from his time as Curate of St Donard's. By the time the temporary
hall was ready for use some three hundred families had promised the parish
their support. The great majority of those who wished to be associated
with the new church lived within the parish boundaries, but a number came
from outside them. This balanced those from within the new parish who
wished to retain their links with other Church of Ireland parishes - a
pattern that continues to the present day.
A church hall committee was formed to help with the organisation of
the new parish until such time as a Select Vestry could be elected. A
meeting was held in St Columba's Hall on 5 April 1960 at which the Rectors
of Knock, Dundela, and Dundonald and the Curates-in-Charge of Stormont
and Gilnahirk were present. The purpose of this gathering was to compile
a list of Vestrymen for the new parish of St Molua. Each had to be a registered
Vestryman of one of the four parent parishes.
The temporary hall had been dedicated by the Bishop on 16 April 1960
and so was available, if sparsely equipped, for the first Easter General
Vestry on 4 May 1960. The first Select Vestry and Parochial Nominators
were appointed, many of whom were already serving on the temporary Hall
Committee. While the hall, which could accommodate around 250, had been
delivered complete with chairs, many other things were needed to equip
it as a temporary church and Sunday School - a curtain to screen the sanctuary,
a font, Communion plate, a piano, hymnbooks etc. Some of these items were
donated, some loaned and some bought.
Four services were held each Sunday - Holy Communion at 8.00am; Morning
Prayer at 11.00am with Holy Communion on the first Sunday of the month;
and Evening Prayer at 6.30pm. At the suggestion of Mr Hamilton a family
service was introduced at 10.00am. This was a very popular innovation
which in later years was combined with normal Morning Prayer at a 10.30am
service. A Watchnight service became a regular feature until 1981 when,
by popular demand, a midnight Communion service was introduced on Christmas
Eve instead.
A parish magazine was planned, to be called CONTACT. Its purpose,
as outlined in the first issue, was "to establish contact between
the Christian gospel and problems of the world". Compiled by the
Curate-in-Charge, helped by a small Magazine Committee, it was also a
useful means of keeping parishioners in touch with events and developments
in their own parish and diocese. Ever mindful of the need to husband resources
it was agreed that the magazine should pay for itself. The first issue,
with an artist's impression of the church on the front cover and containing
a message of good wishes from the Bishop, was published in January 1961
at a price of 6d (2.5 pence). The self-financing policy was however over-optimistic
and by 1976 the publication was reduced to a single folded page in the
interests of economy. In 1983 the charge for the magazine was dropped
and CONTACT delivered free by a team of volunteers to every family belonging
to the church .
Although there was as yet no organ for him to play, an organist was
appointed. Brian Hunter, a young and talented musician and a member of
the parish, gathered together a choir to lead the worship. Practices were
held in the hall on Wednesday evenings and it was not long before the
remaining weeknights were claimed for different organisations. Monday
night the Youth Guild was in occupation; Tuesday the Cub Pack; Thursday
was shared between the Men's Club and the Ladies' Guild and Friday was
given over to the Brownies. But more of the organisations later.
The first baptism in the new parish took place on 15 May 1960 when
Stephanie Ann Evelyn was baptised. The first confirmation, of ten boys
and nine girls, was on 5 March 1961. The first wedding of a parishioner
was also held in the temporary church hall on 12 October 1960.
Chapter Three
BRICKS AND MORTAR
In the meantime, behind the scenes, the Curate-in-Charge and the Select
Vestry were hard at work planning the new church and a new hall. The decision
to take on the extra financial burden immediately, when the temporary
hall could be available for a number of years, came as rather a surprise
to the Bishop, but he made no objection and praised the Select Vestry
for its enthusiasm.
The estimated cost of building the church and hall and purchasing
a rectory (including professional fees) was at this time £60,000,
but it soon began to rise. As with the temporary hall, problems with the
foundations on the marshy ground of the site increased the cost appreciably
when a concrete 'raft' had to be constructed. By the time the church and
hall were completed, and the rectory purchased, the overall cost had reached
£78,000.
Possible rectories were viewed in nearby Rosepark and on Barnett's
Road but were rejected, either because they were unsuitable, too expensive,
or were taken off the market. The Diocese was reluctant to approve the
purchase of a property on the Wandsworth Road when it became available
because, though suitable in every other way, it was outside the parish.
Its purchase for £4,000 in 1961 was to be a temporary arrangement
only, but with no other suitable houses becoming available, it was eventually
approved as a rectory.
Aware of the extremely heavy financial burden the building of the
church and hall would be for the new parish, the Select Vestry was meticulous
in its efforts to economise whenever it could. While it is easy to be
wise with hindsight, one decision made in the interests of economy was,
perhaps, later regretted. Very much against the wishes of the Curate-in-Charge,
it was decided to dispense with the services of an independent Clerk of
Works. It is, apparently, not uncommon for architects and the builders
of their designs to disagree over details and this certainly was the case
in the building of St Molua's.
Without an independent Clerk of Works the role of 'referee' time and
again fell to the lot of the Curate-in-Charge as he tried to keep the
peace between architect and builder, heating engineer and architect, heating
engineer and electrician. He must have felt sometimes that no referee
of an Irish v Welsh rugby international had ever had such a difficult
task. The Diocesan Council had already employed the Diocesan Architect,
Denis O'D. Hanna LRIBA, to prepare plans for the site and the Select Vestry
was obliged to retain his services without the option of asking other
architects to submit alternative plans and costings. Anxious to get the
building under way as soon as possible, the plans produced by Mr Hanna
were accepted in broad outline in June 1960.
Tenders were invited from builders for both church and hall and on
18 March 1961 the first sod on the site was cut by Mrs Mitchell, wife
of the Rt. Rev. F.J. Mitchell D.D., Lord Bishop of Down and Dromore. The
sermon on this occasion was preached by the Primus of Scotland (the head
of the Anglican Church in Scotland), the Most Rev.T. Hannay D.D. and the
building work began.
Mrs Mitchell returned on 17 June 1961 to lay the hall foundation stone;
the Bishop blessed it and preached the sermon. The weather on both these
occasions merited no comment in the records, but when the foundation stone
of the church was laid by His Excellency the Governor of Northern Ireland,
Lord Wakehurst K.C.M.G., on 30 September 1961, it was so wet that the
men had to keep their hats on in the still roofless shell of the church.
The Bishop on this occasion also blessed the stone and preached the sermon.
The design of the church, according to the architect, is 'Modernist
with roots in the traditions of the Church' and is not dissimilar to that
of the modern Coventry Cathedral which was nearing completion as the building
of St Molua's was beginning. While it has been described as Byzantine,
Dr Paul Larmour (Lecturer in Architecture at Queen's University Belfast)
on the other hand believes it to be either 'oriental or Slavic'. Forty
yards long by twenty wide, its fifty-foot spire soars half the height
of the church again. The side windows, similar to those in Coventry, are
angled to throw light on the sanctuary - and sometimes into the eyes of
the choristers !
The Curate-in-Charge and the Select Vestry worked extremely hard while
the buildings were being erected. If they had accepted in outline the
proposed plans for the church and hall, it certainly did not mean they
accepted every aspect without question. At each stage careful consideration
was given to plans and proposals put forward by the architect and there
was no hesitation in rejecting projects or designs of which they did not
approve. So time-consuming was this process that it became necessary,
for a period, for the Select Vestry to meet twice each month instead of
once.
As bills escalated, whenever possible further economies were made.
In spite of the concern of one Vestryman about the use of what he called
"heathen timber" for the Holy Table, pulpit, lectern, chairs
and pews, it was agreed to substitute cheaper Japanese oak for native
timber. The substitution of wooden shingles for copper on the spires on
the other hand was only partly for economic reasons. Copper being a conductor
of noise it was feared that heavy rain could cause unbearable noise inside.
It was also feared that the green verdigris, which would develop in time
on the copper, might 'run' and stain the Dungannon brick walls underneath.
Plans to use copper for the roof of the apse were also changed and roofing
felt substituted.
It was expected that it would take eighteen months to complete the two
buildings. In spite of an initial delay in getting the church started,
due to problems with the supply of steel, (the hall was not affected as
its structure was based on laminated trusses), both were completed well
ahead of schedule.
There were only two major mishaps during the building. The first when
a crane, brought in to place the spires in position, toppled and did some
structural damage to the side wall of the church. The second occasion
was when a bricklayer fell thirty feet from scaffolding. Happily he was
restored to health after a period in hospital.
Appeals were made to the parishioners for gifts to furnish the church
including vases, frontals, silver etc., and the response was generous
then as in later years. The members of the Men's Club made kneelers under
the supervision of a member of the Select Vestry who had already given
generously of his time and skills in making hymn and notice boards.
A major item was an organ. At an early stage the Curate-in-Charge
approached the Archbishop of Dublin to see if it would be possible to
get an organ from one of the churches in his Diocese which were closing
down. Part of the organ of St Matthias' Parish Church, Dublin, which had
closed in 1956, was obtained and built into the new organ in the church
by the firm of Charles A. Smethurst of Manchester, England. This not only
saved an appreciable amount of money but made a better organ as well.
A slight hitch occurred when it was discovered that an error had been
made in calculating the height of the organ loft. However, adjustments
were able to be made to the pipes to make them fit without adversely affecting
the organ's performance.
In response to an appeal in the press, a choice of bells, each 2'
high and 2'4" across was offered by Hollymount Parish Church, Claremorris,
Co Mayo. One was bought for St Molua's for £10, transported to Belfast
and hung in the bell tower. After a number of years the bell apparently
cracked and problems with access made repairs extremely difficult. Finally,
in 1987, it was replaced by a recorded peal of bells donated by Mrs Mary
Fox in memory of her husband.
The original design of the font cover was one of the projects rejected
by the Select Vestry. The height, at over six feet, was considered to
be excessive and possibly a danger if it fell over. In spite of Mr Hanna's
protest that it was based on a medieval design, when a heavy locked cover
was a defence against those who practised witchcraft from having bogus
satanic baptisms, a shorter cover was substituted.
The heating of the church provided a lot of problems and created considerable
friction as the artistic aims of the architect and the heating engineers
more practical concern for the comfort of the worshippers clashed. In
the end an independent heating consultant had to be brought in. Mr Hanna's
elegant metal radiator screens had to be sacrificed when the independent
assessor assured those concerned that they could reduce the heat output
by as much as 50%. Problems with heating went hand in hand with the problem
of draughts, particularly from the large west window. Additional tubular
electric heaters only partly solved this problem for many years. Tubular
heaters were also only partly successful in the choir stalls, where the
choir members often had reason to be thankful for their long robes.
The electrical installations by G.E.C. appear to have created relatively
few problems, although there were differences at times between the heating
engineer and the firm's representative who, incidentally, was also responsible
for the lighting of the new Coventry Cathedral and of the apse of St Anne's
Cathedral in Belfast.
The hall, Scandinavian in design, had no steel in its structure but
was supported by laminated trusses, a type of structure relatively new
in Northern Ireland and employed here in a Church of Ireland hall for
the first time. According to the architect it was 'designed to suit every
activity known to church halls'. However, no one seemed to have told Mr
Hanna that the standard height of stage scenery was about a foot higher
than his new stage allowed. This, and the siting of the stage at the lower
end of the immense sloping roof, was to create ongoing problems and expense
for the Drama Club and others.
Just under a year after the first sod had been cut, the hall was ready.
It was opened on 3 March 1962 by Mrs Mitchell with the Bishop as preacher.
Again the weather was unkind. A heavy fall of snow the previous day blanketed
the site.
The temporary hall was removed and transferred to St Gall's Church
in Carnalea, Bangor, County Down. As the chairs were part of the 'package'
they went too and new seating had to be provided as, until the church
was ready, services were to be held in the new hall. Folding wooden chairs
were purchased - again an economical choice - which created a new problem.
Worshippers had to be advised not to lean forward when seated in them
as they were liable to tip up!
On 3 November 1962, the church was consecrated by the Bishop. Pageantry
reflected the importance of the occasion. The ceremonial chanting of psalms
round the outside of the church ended with the Bishop knocking for admission
at the west door before proceeding to the Holy Table where he declared
that, "The building was set apart from all profane and common uses,
this house of God under the dedication St Molua, Stormont, to the glory
of the Ever Blessed Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen".
The preacher on this important day was the Archbishop of Armagh and
Primate of all Ireland, Dr James McCann. The anthem was Parry's 'I was
glad when they said unto me, we will go into the house of the Lord' and
the hymn 'All people that on earth do dwell' was sung to Vaughan Williams'
setting. A week of special services followed for different groups in the
parish and a service of Holy Communion was held each morning at 7.30.
Two days after the consecration the first wedding took place in the church.
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