Corby Pentecostal Church celebrates 73rd anniversary

The Pentecostal Church in Studfall Avenue marked 73 years with a busy weekend of celebrations.

Visiting preachers from Whitewell Metropolitan Tabernacle in Belfast joined in a tribute to the Assemblies of God church alongside members past and present.

Church treasurer Marjorie Cowie told the Northants Telegraph: “We had a visit from a pastor and two students from the Metropolitan Tabernacle in Belfast.

“We had special meetings all weekend and it was a great time. Then they came yesterday morning to the coffee morning and spoke to the ladies there before they flew back to Belfast.

“We had a good crowd come on Saturday night and Sunday night and Sunday morning.

“A good time was had by all.”

The congregation watched a photographic presentation of significant events over the years from the original mobile church in the 40s to a recent joint water baptism with Hope Church.

The Irish Bible students shared a message of finding hope in Jesus among a troubled world, paying tribute to the faithfulness of the church members over the years.

Pentecostalism is a form of Christianity that emphasises the work of the Holy Spirit and the direct experience of the presence of God by the believer. Pentecostals believe that faith must be powerfully experiential, and not something found merely through ritual or thinking.

Corby’s Pentecostal Church was started by Archie Friday, who came into the town with a caravan which he set up on Studfall Avenue, on a piece of derelict ground, opposite where the church is now.

Archie came to the town around 1948, running the church out of the caravan.

The church received a grant from Stewarts and Lloyds and In 1950 the church that stands today was built.

The church is no longer as thriving as it once was but has seen some growth recently.

Marjorie said: “We have grown this past little while but it’s been a declining congregation really. We’ve started to get younger ones coming in, so hopefully we’ll start growing again.

“Faith has been declining a bit sadly enough but all we can do is keep going and spreading the word.

“We have a group on a Monday, a craft and coffee morning, that’s doing very well. We’re quite happy to provide warm spaces for people.”