Mass & Service Times
Sunday
- 11:30
About Ballinamallard Methodist Church
Ballinamallard Methodist Church is a congregation of the Methodist Church in Ireland in Ballinamallard, County Fermanagh. It is part of the Ballinamallard & Trillick in the North Western District.
History
The first Methodist preacher to come to Ballinamallard was Hugh Saunderson, who arrived in 1768 and preached at a farmhouse belonging to the Myles family, later staying at the house of William Armstrong at Sydare. The first class meeting was held at Knocknamoul, in the home of William Graham. John Wesley preached at Sydare, about a mile from the village, on 2 May 1769, and returned there in 1771, 1773, 1775, 1787 and 1789.
Ballinamallard first appeared on the list of circuits in 1794, when the ministers were Bleakley Dowling and James M'Keown and the circuit also took in Irvinestown and Pettigo. From about 1817 it dropped off that list, caught up in the dispute that split Irish Methodism in 1818 into the Primitives, who held that Methodists should remain members of the Church of Ireland and receive the sacraments there, and the Wesleyans, who held that the time had come to form a separate church with its own clergy. The two bodies came together again in 1878 and Ballinamallard appeared once more on the list of circuits.
The building
The Wesleyan congregation in the village worshipped in the building that later became the church hall, while the Primitive church stood on the site of the Soldiers of the Cross Hall. The Ballinamallard church was rebuilt in 1868.
A site for a new church was given by John Campbell and the memorial stones were laid on 5 September 1902. The church was dedicated on 15 April 1904. The new church and stables, the conversion of the old church into a national school and the school furniture cost £2250. The old church had been handed back to the Methodist church and converted into the church hall by 1966. An organ was installed in 1960, and in 1975 the windows were replaced, each given as a memorial gift. New halls were opened in 1987.
Clergy
- Minister Rev John Beacom
