St. Matthias

History

The older of the two churches on the site began as a Church of Ireland mission church for Andersonstown. Land was procured in 1891, and the corrugated iron building on the Glen Road was dedicated by the Church of Ireland Bishop of Down on 13 August 1892. A simple bell rang out there each Sunday morning; the parish magazine reported in October 1969 that the bell had snapped before a recent service.

A meeting in the vestry of St Luke's, Northumberland Street, decided in June 1969 that the church should close. The parish priest of St Teresa's then bought the church and the site for Catholic use, and by mutual agreement between the two parishes the building remained under the patronage of St Matthias the Apostle. Mass was celebrated there for the first time on 24 February 1970. In October 1972 the church was the setting for the final vows of two sisters of the Holy Cross and the first profession of five others.

Proposals in the late 1980s to demolish the building and replace it with a larger church were shelved. The church instead closed in 1992 for internal renovations, during which the sanctuary was re-ordered and a new altar, ambo, cross and tabernacle installed. It re-opened for Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve 1992.

The building

There are two churches on the site. The original is a corrugated iron building known as the Wee Tin Church, which was built by Harland and Wolff and has an arched doorway. The second is a modern church.

Notable people

Ted Hassen grew up in a house across the road from the church and became a Church of Ireland minister. In 1972 he built a branch church at Muckamore dedicated to St Matthias. He alerted the parish priest of St Teresa's to the interest of Stewards Supermarket in the Glen Road site, which led to the church being bought for Catholic use. He was installed as a canon in the Cathedral Church of St Anne on the eve of All Saints 1993 and died on 2 October 1999.