In 1816 a public lecture was arranged in Colchester by the New Church already established at Brightlingsea. Given by Rev. Robert Hindmarsh at the Angel Hotel in the High Street and attended by 4-500 people, this was the beginning of the church in the town. Public worship services were held in the Old Meeting House in St Helen’s Lane until about 1853. After a series of public lectures by Rev. Joseph Deans, New Church minister at Brightlingsea, the church was revived in Colchester and a ‘Society’ was formed in 1882. It met in the Shaftesbury Hotel in Culver Street. By 1891 the Society had moved it’s affiliation from the ‘British General Conference Church’ to the ‘American General Church of the Advent of the Lord’. In 1902, the church had moved to Priory Street and now called itself the ‘Colchester Society of the General Church of the New Jerusalem’ – this remains its name today. The corner stone of the existing building in Maldon Road, was laid on 22nd May 1924. The building was later extended in 1967. The inscription on the corner stone is in Hebrew. It reads… ‘The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner.’ Psalm 118 v22
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If anybody would like to expand to this series please do, I would just ask that you could let sadexploration know first so he can keep track of the Church numbers and names to avoid duplication.
To view the church micro stats & information page, please click here
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