History
A broad-shouldered insurance auditor entered a Christian bookstore in Belfast, later exiting with a copy of The Mysteries of the Kingdom by Prof. Herman Hanko under his arm. Deeply impressed with the rich doctrinal content and warm style of this book on our Lord’s parables, he contacted the Reformed Free Publishing Association (RFPA). Desmond Callender had just become the first subscriber to the Standard Bearer in Northern Ireland.
Troubled by the Calvinistic preaching of his minister, a conscientious deacon in the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster in Larne arranged to speak with him about his error. To his great surprise, Ivan Reid left the discussion convicted from the inspired Scriptures of the truth of God’s particular grace in Christ.
A former Royal Marines Commando started reading Absolute Predestination by the Italian Reformer, Jerome Zanchius. By the time he had finished the book, he had resolved that he would leave the congregation he was attending and join a church that was faithful to the truth. Having heard of a congregation in Larne that preached the sovereignty of God, he drove to that town on the next Lord’s day morning. Stopping in a Larne car park, he asked the first person he saw for directions to the Riverdale Hall. It was just a few yards away and that was Brian Crossett’s first conversation with Ivan Reid.
These spiritual turning points in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the lives of Desmond Callender, Ivan Reid and Brian Crossett—later, all faithful elders in the Covenant Protestant Reformed Church (CPRC) in Northern Ireland—were key events in the beginnings of our congregation. The next few years would bring increased contact with the Protestant Reformed Churches (PRC) in America, and the deepening of our doctrinal understanding and agreement. In time, we became your mission field (twice!), an organized church (twice!) and your sister church (thrice!). Involved in this last sentence are our disbanding (2002), several divisions and many disappointments. But “God meant it unto good” (Gen. 50:20), so we never lost heart. Thus we have been a small part in the most recent 40+ years of the century of your denomination.
We give thanks to our covenant-keeping God for the gracious help He has given us through the PRC, including
- the oversight of the Hudsonville congregation, through its ruling elders and former pastors, Revs. Gise VanBaren (1990-1994), Barry Gritters (1994-2003) and Garry Eriks (2005-2006)
- sending us our missionary-pastor, Rev. Ron Hanko, and his family (1993-2001)
- training our minister, Rev. Angus Stewart (1997-2001), and our missionary, Rev. Martyn McGeown (2006-2010), at the Protestant Reformed Seminary
- helping us to fund the Limerick Reformed Fellowship, our mission field (2010-2021)
- producing quality Reformed materials in the form of RFPA books, pamphlets, the Standard Bearer, Beacon Lights, and more
- transporting this fine literature to us by mail, on pallets or in the luggage of kind people flying east across the Atlantic Ocean
- providing us with faithful preachers for pulpit supply
- giving us sound theological and ecclesiastical advice
- being “Padanaram” for a number of our formerly single men (cf. Gen. 25:20; 28:2)
The thing which most attracted us to the PRC and that undergirds everything for us, both at the very start and throughout all our history, is the truth. The Triune God is absolutely sovereign in Jesus Christ over all things: election and the cross, salvation and grace, the covenant and baptism, the church and the world, preaching and missions, providence and eschatology (Eph. 1:11). The PRC has proved this from Scripture and the Reformed confessions, and taught us this without fear or compromise. This is the message that won our hearts, and this is the blessed and powerful gospel that the Lord has used time and time again to comfort, sustain and build up the CPRC.
Present
The doctrinal and spiritual declension in most of the churches in the Western world is affecting Northern Ireland also, sadly. Some of the people who joined us recently were awakened to this through various issues, such as, their congregation’s craven fearfulness regarding COVID-19, the remarriage of divorced people (while their spouses are living), shallow preaching, modern corruptions in worship, the failure of elders to deal with ecclesiastical problems, and other issues. But ultimately what wins people to, and keeps people in, our church is God’s glorious, irresistible, uncommon grace in the Lord Jesus. When people love the precious truth of Christ, they are unwilling to trade His doctrine (Prov. 23:23).
Especially in the last few years, our heavenly Father has granted more growth to our church. This increases participants at catechism classes and Bible studies, as well as opportunities for good fellowship and group activities.
Jesus Christ, the head of the body, has gathered our congregation from the north, south, east and west (cf. Isa. 43:5-6). Attendance on a typical CPRC Lord’s day includes people who were born in Brazil, Germany, the Republic of Ireland, Kazakhstan, the Philippines, Scotland, Singapore, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United States, besides, of course, believers from Northern Ireland.
After many years of meeting in homes and rented properties, our own church building in Ballymena was completed in 2010 and has been of great benefit to us. Julian Kennedy is our caretaker, ably assisted by Alex Buchanan, as well as other saints, when the need arises. Through a camcorder fixed to the back wall of the sanctuary, we livestream our Sunday services to Sermon.net, YouTube, Facebook and our main website. Using another camcorder and an audio recorder, Stephen Murray makes a second, higher quality recording of the sermon for YouTube, CDs and DVDs.
We hold five catechism classes on Monday evenings, a Tuesday morning Bible study and a Wednesday night Belgic Confession class, besides fortnightly or semi-monthly Bible studies for ladies on Thursdays or Fridays and for men by video-conferencing on Saturday evenings.
By God’s grace, we spread the living Word near and far electronically, and receive good feedback (Isa. 55:10-11). Over 2,000 people are subscribers to the CPRC YouTube channel which contains some 3,600 videos and is approaching half a million views. Our main website is extensive, with lots of articles, books, creeds, debates, interviews, lectures, podcasts, quotes, reviews, sermons, etc. It includes about 4,500 translations in audio, video or written form in over 200 foreign tongues (from Afrikaans to Zulu) on our language pages. There are specific webpages for the hundreds of Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Hungarian, Polish, Burmese, Russian, Afrikaans, German, Indonesian, Dutch, Chinese and French translations. We have been helped in this by saints from all six continents. Our most active translators in the last year or so live in Albania, Argentina, Belarus, France, Hungary, the Republic of Ireland, Italy, Kenya, the Netherlands, Norway, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, Russia, Singapore and South Korea, as well as Nevada in the US.
Each month, we produce the Covenant Reformed News, containing biblical and theological articles by Pastors Hanko and Stewart, which we mail and/or e-mail to about 1,200 people locally and internationally in English, besides the Hungarian and Spanish editions e-mailed to those on the lists of their translators. From the CPRC Bookstore at the manse or parsonage, we have the privilege of sending out each year thousands of pounds (£) worth of Reformed books, pamphlets and audio-visual materials to the Lord’s people in the United Kingdom and around the world.
The superb questions in our “Form for the Public Confession of Faith” sum up the doctrinal, practical and church-political calling of the members and office-bearers of our congregation:
- Do you acknowledge the doctrine contained in the Old and New Testaments and in the Articles of the Christian faith and taught here in this Christian church to be the true and complete doctrine of salvation?
- Have you resolved by the grace of God to adhere to this doctrine; to reject all heresies repugnant thereto and to lead a new and godly life?
- Will you submit to church government and, in case you should be delinquent (which may God graciously forbid), to church discipline?
This also sets forth or suggests the major areas of the work of our instituted congregation in preaching and catechizing, and the administration of the sacraments and oversight. Knowing the apostolic exhortation and warning regarding apostasy (II Tim. 4:1-4), we pray that the Lord will enable us to maintain a “good conscience” before Him (Acts 23:1; I Tim.1:5), and to continue walking in the “old paths” (Jer. 6:16) and witnessing of “the gospel of the kingdom” to “all nations” (Matt. 24:14)!
