THE MINISTER of the First Derry Presbyterian Church, which overlooks the Bogside area from within the city’s walls, has said he was overwhelmed by the cross-community response to the reopening of the church at the weekend after a nine-year closure.
Rev David Latimer said he hoped the refurbished church, which was closed in 2002 because of dry rot, would become a shared space in the city centre for people of all religious and political beliefs.
After a £2.4 million (€2.8 million) renovation project, the church was reopened on Saturday. A Service was held in the church yesterday morning at which two babies were baptised and last night a gala musical performance for peace took place.
Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness and Catholic Bishop of Derry Dr Séamus Hegarty attended Saturday’s interdenominational ceremony. In the days leading up to the ceremony a number of groups were given a private tour of the renovated building by the Rev Latimer, among them a group of ex-republican prisoners and residents of the Bogside, Brandywell and Creggan areas.
“What we are doing here is happening in a God-given opportunity. The temperature in this shared city of ours is defrosting and the Presbyterian community has a part to play in that process. I have 240 families in my congregation who have given me their unswerving loyalty. Yes it is fair to say that a very small minority does not agree with what I am trying to achieve here, that maybe I’m going too fast in a particular direction, but I can buy into that well-founded pragmatism,” said the Rev Latimer.
“During my time as padre to the 204th North Irish field hospital in Afghanistan in 2008 I became more determined than ever before to make sure that this project would proceed. That was a horrible time . . . I saw war and . . . what I experienced there made me more determined to bring togetherness to my own city,” he added.
He said he was delighted that so many neighbours attended a Presbyterian worship for the first time. That it was terrific for his congregation to return to their spiritual home after such a long absence.
Rev Latimer added that there had been a Presbyterian church on the site since 1690. The building was badly damaged in an arson attack in 1984 but what happened over the weekend in terms of reaching out could only be good.