Church History
Edington Chapel was built in 1904 as The Gospel Hall, Edington. It was partly funded by a Christian Brethren family in Bristol. Plans were drawn up in 1902, after tent meetings had been held in the neighbouring village of Catcott. Services followed the traditional Brethren style, with a Breaking of Bread service on Sunday morning and a Gospel meeting in the evening. A Sunday School and a Children's Class in the week were also held, as well as a regular Ladies Meeting. Until the 1970's the Gospel Hall was very well attended and many families in the villages had heard the Gospel in the small brick building. When the new Edington Surgery and Village Hall were built in 1979, the Gospel Hall became the centre of the community, in a very strategic location, on the main road through the villages and at the junction of the 2 villages of Catcott and Edington.
By the 1980's numbers had fallen considerably and by the mid 1990's just a handful of mainly elderly people attended, although a Children's Club continued to run and a faithful witness was maintained, with speakers from neighbouring towns and villages, preaching the Gospel on Sunday evenings. In the late 1990's an experienced Bible Teacher, David Oram and his wife Helen, moved back into the area and soon others joined the Chapel. A few were from a Brethren background, but most were evangelicals from a Baptist or Anglican tradition. The Children's Club continued and a Youth Club was introduced. The decision to change the name from Gospel Hall, to Edington Chapel was made in 2000. Some minor improvements were made, including the purchase of carpets, curtains and comfortable chairs!
It was soon realised, however, that the facilities in the Chapel were inadequate for the Children and Youth Work which often had 20 or more young people. Outside toilets and a very small kitchen were no longer adequate, especially with Health and Safety legislation. Coffee Mornings and Outreach events often filled the Chapel to capacity and made the facilities inadequate. The small group of Christians began to pray that the Lord would build up the work and that the funds would be available to modernise the building and provide better facilities, including an activity room for youth work, inside toilets, including disabled facilities, a bigger kitchen and a new attractive entrance porch. The regular Tuesday Bible Study and Prayer Study was a time when specific prayers were made for a Christian architect to join the Chapel who could help with drawing up the plans. Within a few months those prayers were wonderfully answered, when a retired architect and his wife moved into the area and joined the Chapel. He had already been involved in re-designing many churches and soon began to draw up plans to make the best use of the space available. A decision was made to purchase some land from the Surgery and to trust that, as the Lord had wonderfully answered prayers already, He would also provide the finances.
In 2006 the Building Project began and the church family moved out for 6 months and hired the Woolavington Community Centre and occasionally Edington Village Hall, for Sunday services. Tuesday Prayer and Bible Study Meetings are held in homes. The re-building is due to be completed by late February, when internal decoration will take several weeks. A Re-Opening Celebration day of Thanksgiving is planned for Saturday April 21st 2007. God has further answered the prayers of His people, as during the month of February, all the remaining financial needs of the £200,000 project were met. A generous grant from the Trust who own the building, has been an enormous help, as has been their encouragement and advice. We have also received a generous grant from another Christian Trust, for which we are very thankful. God has been so faithful to us and we give Him the glory.