This year marks the 30th anniversary of the beginning of the
Coragarry Free Presbyterian Congregation . Coragarry congregation,
which was the first Free Presbyteiran Church in the Irish Republic,
was formed in 1971 after Rev. Ivan Foster had a gospel Mission
in Coragarry Orange Hall near the village of Drum Co. Monaghan.
For a short time Mr. Charles Gill, then a student minister and
now an elder in the Crossgar congregation looked after the work.
10th May 1975 was the date of the opening of the new building.
This was completed under the supervision of the Rev. Michael Patrick
who was then the minister of the Clogher Valley congregation.
With the voluntary labour the church was built for £ 11,
176. Many will remember on the day of the opening being jeered
by IRA sympathisers on the Diamond in Clones as they passed through.
Shortly after the new Church was opened a manse was purchased
and Rev. Austin Allan was installed as the first ordained minister
of the congregation. Rev. Allan stayed only a few years before
accepting a call to Clogher Valley congregation. He was followed
in Coragarry by Rev. Allan Smylie. In the summer of 1982 Maurice
Baxter became a student minister in Coragarry and when he had
completed his studies accepted a call to be the minister. His
ordination took place on 8 February 1985. Rev. Baxter stayed for
another three years before moving to Mullaglass Free Presbyterian
Church. Rev. David Sinton then did a few years in Coragarry as
a student minister and in October 1991 the present minister Rev.
Gordon Dane was installed there after moving from the Aughnacloy
congregation. He will complete 10 years in the congregation in
October 2001.
The latest episode in our history was the arson attack on 4 July
1999. Much damage was done but the refurbished and extended building
will re-opened on Saturday 26 May 2001.
Our Church building is situated near the Monaghan Cavan border, a mile and a half from Drum on the Clones Road. Coming through Monaghan you would head towards Cootehill. After you pass through the village of Rockcorry you follow to the end of an estate wall on your left. At the end of this wall the road dips into a hollow and then out to the top of another hill. At the top of this hill there is a monument on your right hidden by trees and a sign pointing to Drum Presbyterian Church. Take this road to your right and cross straight over the cross roads at the end of it. This will take you to Drum. You then go a mile and a half out on the Clones side of Drum and the Church will be on the left coming from Drum.
Along with the Westminster Confession of Faith these Articles form the Subsidiary standards of the Free Presbyterian Church.
ARTICLES OF FAITH OF THE FREE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
The Free Presbyterian Church believes:
1. The absolute authority and divine verbal inspiration of the
Old and New Testaments as the Word of God.
2 There is but one living and true God and in the Godhead there are three Persons, equal in power and glory, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost.
3. The eternal Sonship, virgin Birth and deity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
4. The personality of God the Holy Spirit and the absolute necessity of His work in regeneration and sanctification and His infilling of the indwelt believer for power to live and witness for Christ.
5. The substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus Christ and His resurrection as the only way of salvation through faith.
6. God has appointed besides the Word and prayer the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper.
6a Baptism- The Free Presbyterian church of Ulster, under Christ the great King and Head of the Church, realises that bitter controversy raging around the ordinance of Christian Baptism has divided the Body of Christ when that Body should have been united in Christian love and Holy Ghost power to stem the onslaughts and hell- inspired assaults of modernism, hereby affirms that each member of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster shall have liberty to decide for himself the course to adopt, each member giving due honour in love to the views held by differing brethren.
6b The Lord's Supper- The Lord's Supper has been appointed by our Lord for remembrance of Him in His work as Saviour. Its purpose to the child of God is for the strengthening, and putting of a visible difference between the redeemed and the unregenerate. This Sacrament will be observed once each month in every Free Presbyterian Congregation, or more frequently as each congregation shall decide.
7. The visible and personal return of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
8. These Articles together with the Larger and Shorter Catechisms and the Westminster Confession of Faith, form the Subordinate standards of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster.