It is with a sense of joy and gratitude to God that the Coragarry congregation have moved back into their church building after nearly two years of enforced absence. One lady, on the first Sunday morning after the opening, remarked how good it was to see the light coming in from outside. This was because, while we appreciated the use of the Protestant Hall in Drum for our services, this Hall is one of those with all its windows shuttered, which meant that it didn't matter whether it is night or day or summer or winter inside because it always was the same:-Dim!
The reopening service took place on Saturday 26 May with the Moderator Dr. Paisley performing the reopening ceremony. The minister, Rev. Gordon Dane, first called on Mr. Leslie McKeague, the builder, to present the key to Dr. Paisley who then formally opened the door. Then a plaque was unveiled in the new hallway of the building commemorating the occasion and recalling the fire on 4 July 1999 which had made all the building work necessary. The whole building inside has been refurbished and the only things inside which are from the old building are the communion chairs and table and the pulpit, although even then there had to go a new top on the communion table and a new pulpit desk and pulpit fall on the the pulpit. As for the walls, ceiling and every thing else, they are all new. There is also part of the building which had to be demolished and rebuilt from scratch. This was not rebuilt as it had been but was remodelled and extended so that the church now has a mid-week meeting room for the first time and another small Sunday School room together with better kitchen facilities and other rooms bigger than before. The "Northern Standard" which is the local Monaghan paper reported that the building had been "impressively restored." That paper also went on to report Dr. Paisley's words when he said that those who had attempted to burn the property down had been unsuccessful because "it had already been burned by the power of the Spirit. They thought they were bringing this work to an end but this work cannot be stopped because it is the work of the Holy Spirit of God." The paper also reported the words of Rev. Dane who had remarked on the sense of fellowship there had been in the congregation over the past number of weeks.
The hymns and psalm for the reopening ceremony were those which ha