Restoring the past. Serving the present. Building for the future.

Our history

In the early 1800s, Ballymacarrett was a district of hand-loom weavers with no place of worship of its own. In August 1835, local Presbyterians resolved to change that. With a site from Lord Templemore and a memorial signed by 193 people, a new congregation was formed. The first stone was laid on 6 June 1836, and on 23 April 1837 the church at the end of Paulett Avenue opened for worship.

Its first minister, Rev. John Meneely, was ordained here in 1838 and served for more than forty years, becoming Moderator of the General Assembly in 1876. As the congregation grew, so did the building, and the architects Young & Mackenzie later gave it its Gothic front of Scrabo sandstone. Inside, stained glass and the burning bush, with its motto Ardens sed virens, ‘burning but flourishing’, still remain.

In 1928 the congregation built a new Lecture Hall for its young people, opened by the Duchess of Abercorn on 6 October 1928. Through the Troubles, the church remained a place of peace, and worshippers sometimes passed an army checkpoint to reach Sunday services.

After 173 years of worship, the last service was held on 12 September 2010, and the building was sold. That December it was listed as a building of special architectural and historic interest, but for the next sixteen years it stood empty and silent.

In October 2026, Place of Victory for All Nations purchased 5 Paulett Avenue. Nearly 190 years after it first opened, its doors are ready to open again for its next chapter.