In 2003, the New Testament Church of God celebrated its 50th Anniversary of witness in the United Kingdom. Today, we salute our Founding Father and First National Overseer, the late Dr. Oliver A. Lyseight, who went on to his reward on Tuesday, 28th February 2006.
The following is an extract from a book written by Dr. S. E. Arnold “From Scepticism to Hope”, along with an interview conducted with Dr. Oliver & Mrs. Rose Lyseight detailing their involvement in our early beginnings.
The emergence of the New Testament Church of God in Britain was a direct result of the large number of NTCG members who were among the migrants who came to Britain. For those who had never travelled beyond the confines of their village markets, the challenge of the voyage across the wide Atlantic, the uncomfortable train journey across Italy, Switzerland and France to Calais, and across the English Channel to Dover were traumatic experiences that many have never forgotten. Some travelled other routes or by air, whilst a minority came on the famous banana boats.
Among the émigrés were pastors who for the first time were exposed to the harsh expression of riotous and licentious living on boats, and so they made no delay in registering their evangelistic concerns for the souls of their shipmates. Many preached and prayed for them that they should not forget God in their search for riches and pleasure. On arrival in Britain many Christians were shocked by the attitude of the indigenous population to worship and church attendance, and sensing a need within the growing Black community for fellowship and spiritual guidance away from home, and realizing that many of their friends were falling prey to the spiritual inertia that was ‘rampant everywhere’, Rev Dr O A Lyseight, Mrs Lyseight, and other colleagues (G S Peddie and I Monfries (both now deceased) H D Brown, G A Johnson and Sister Salmon embarked upon a plan to establish a fellowship to preserve their spiritual life until they could return to the Caribbean. Many of them had no intentions of remaining in Britain for more than about five years, especially those who faced hostility and severe hardship in finding adequate housing. Often, as they searched for accommodation to let, they came across signs in shop windows which read, “NO IRISH, NO NIGGERS, NO DOGS.”
OL : Well, when I came here, I started at the Methodist Church, before we heard about a Pentecostal church. It was not really out church, but we used to go there. It was alright but the time came when they removed that pastor, that was the one that was friendly and nice to us. And another one came who seemed like he was friendly too. He wrote to me ‘cause he wanted me to come and preach for them. So he wrote a letter that I am to be the preacher and gave it to me to give them. We both went there the Sunday evening, they were having their evening prayer service… and when I went to the man who was in charge to show him the letter, he didn’t want it…
CP : He didn’t want it?!
OL : No! When I told him what the man said in the letter, he said “You’re not going to be the preacher here – that man is going to preach!” (that was the white man).
CP : Oh! This was a white congregation?!
OL : Mmhm… however, I knew that man. They had him there as the chief Deacon of the church, that they even call him Overseer. Yes! And he didn’t like us, just didn’t like us. We got along with all the others, but that one just didn’t like us. Yes! So, Sis Lyseight have to just touch me and say “come on”.
Such conditions created despair, and some African Caribbean people who had left good jobs at home could not cope with the frustrations. Some actually lost hope and became mentally ill and were committed to institutions or repatriated. Others sought for the Church as the only place of refuge as they were cut off from loved ones and hopelessly trapped in situations and systems that were unfamiliar and obscure.
OL: People were coming into the Country and when they come, some of them have friends and the friends, if they don’t even go to church, would know where we are. And they would tell them that so an’so an’ so, is at such an’ such a place, and sometimes they take them themselves. Sometimes we don’t know them personally from home, but they come from Jamaica and they are from the New Testament Church of God and so they come to service and we all pull together.
CP: So, Dr. Lyseight, was this the reason you started this great church?
OL: Yes, the reason why we started the church is that the people were not welcome when they go into the churches around and when we meet them up and talk with them, they say they’re not going back. They weren’t going to church and some of them were even backsliding. So I decided, along with two of the other brothers, that we have got to start something. But where to start? We didn’t have a place, but Bro. Stephen did have a house and we used to have prayer meetings there. But to start a church work, we couldn’t start it there. They insult them there when they go to the other churches and they have to go home. So I met some of the brethren that came from my District in Claremont ( Jamaica) and they agreed that we should start something. And the Welsh gentleman, a very nice person, when I met him and was talking with him and ask him where I can get somewhere to start a church and he didn’t want to tell me (chuckles). He said, “come to our church and bring them”.
I said “ I can’t bring them because you have a man there that is insulting them when the people come. So we have to get somewhere to start our own, to keep our people. He said okay then, when we first started in Wolverhampton, we were at the YMCA, Stafford Road, and he sent me to the Secretary at the YMCA.
The first public service by the Wolverhampton group was held in the YMCA Hall in Waterloo Road, in September 1953. Under the direction of O A Lyseight and H D Brown. When the Church was later organized with twenty-five members, three White British families were included. About the same time, G A Johnson, Enos Gordon and other believers began a fellowship in Handsworth, Birmingham. Contact was made between the Wolverhampton group and the Handsworth group, and O A Lyseight often visited Handsworth to minister to that group. Both O A Lyseight and J A Johnson were ministers of the New Testament Church of God in Jamaica before coming to England. In time general leaders of the Church of God officially recognized the groups in Wolverhampton and Handsworth, and O A Lyseight was set as the National Overseer, a position he held for twenty-four years.
CP: So when you started at the YMCA, how did you come about calling yourselves the New Testament Church of God?
OL: We were New Testament Church of God from back home, so when we came here…
CP: You just carried that name right through from the beginning…
OL: Oh yes. And it was a good thing too; because when the church was developing we had to get it registered in that name, The New Testament Church of God as we know it.
CP: So, how did it start then? Did you just come here from Jamaica and yourselves together decided that you were going to start the church?
OL: Well… I was here before and some of our men were here before me. But when I came, I met another two brothers and aahm… I had to stop with them for a little while until I got settled. And after I got settled I began to make enquiries for a place of worship. For we used to go to the Methodist but the minister that was there was a bit prejudiced as well.
CP: So when time transpired and you were to become the first National Overseer of England & Wales, what was it like for you, the day when that took place?
OL: Well the day that that took place, it wasn’t that anybody really came and invoked me… I got a letter from America, the General Headquarters, informing me that they had decided to make me the Overseer and that I should start from such a time.
CP: So it was more an appointment more than the people selecting you?
OL: Mmhm.
The evangelistic fervour of the members of the Church burned high and soon groups of believers also started churches in other parts of the country; in homes and school halls, by men and women who had a firm faith in God and wanted to maintain a sound spiritual standard of living in what they saw as a very loose and permissive society.
Over the next few years churches grew in London, Leeds, Manchester and other large cities. This period also saw gave rise to the role of women in the church…
CP: Okay… I’m going to ask our first lady Lyseight some questions now. What were some of the challenges that you found being the first lady of the church in the 70s and 80s? Was it different for you from Dr. Lyseight?
RL: Firstly, as you made mention of that, when I was asked to be first lady, it wasn’t a post as such. There wasn’t a portfolio given to me – nothing! I just mean nothing! I’m just talking about the early days, because by the 70s we were advanced you know! So I was then in the Ladies’ Department. I was appointed definitely from the United States, not them coming here, but by letter to him. Because there was another Sister who tried to introduce this thing, but the thing is, it wasn’t officially done so it wasn’t accepted. But anyway, the General Secretary over there, discovered that it wasn’t the Overseer’s wife so they wrote to him and said that the Overseer’s wife is supposed to be the Ladies’ President.
Well, they sent nothing at all to me, in terms of literature to say this was how it was done in the States. But, I wasn’t afraid (ha, ha, ha.) and I took up the mantel and God just drop it in my mind! Because he (OL) didn’t have any instructions and God just open my eyes and I looked at how he run the church generally. So I said, he has board members… I’m going to get board members (laughs). And I count them, how many he has, just like that! I haven’t got anything to read you know! He had a State Secretary… (laughs)
CP: So you got one!
RL: I said, he has District Pastors, I’m going to get District Presidents and the local and so forth and my mind just open like that! So I start to plan these board meetings.
Firstly, I said I want women who can represent the church in holy living. That when we stand up in these meetings, people can look on us, you know! We must be presentable, good representatives for the women of the church. And the Lord just lead me to people, and they never say no. I just asked and they agree, so God is good.
When you really say yes to God, and you’re not looking a place for yourself… mmhm. And the Lord just drop things into my heart and mind – planned! And just like how they have state conferences, a sey alright, I’m going down that line as well. So to prevent it being too costly to these women who were in the posts, I say alright when your Minister is coming to the State Office, plan it the same time!
CP: And that’s how they do it even today…
RL: So they are on one side having their state conference and we are on the other side having our state conference as well! So it was no problem and the Lord just gave me plans and plans, until it grew sooooo much that even the general secretary in the church. Listen! (Excited) … and the thing just got off the floor, and the general secretary wrote to me and said to me, Sis. Lyseight, how every time we get the reports, you have new bands?
And then one year now, they ask me to come and speak on the subject “How you did it” in the States at the General Assembly. But you see when I reach there, I just feel like I’m in Wolverhampton, because you know when you know what yuh doing.
CP: Yes… did you have this title by the way, the “Willing Workers Band?”
RL: It change so many times, the first one was “Ladies Willing Workers Band” then it change to the “Ladies Auxiliaries” then it come now to this “Women’s Ministries” so I hope they don’t change it again (laughs out loud). What I’m saying now, these district seminars (and I’m speaking the truth and nothing but the truth!). No instructions, nothing! And like how they have District Convention…
CP: You just mirrored them.
RL: Yes and I say alright, to have the full support and co-operation of this auxiliary business now, we the board members going to plan and pass to the district presidents and let them contact the local presidents and they must feed us back.
And we want everybody; regardless of what size your church is, to get involved; that when we meet you don’t feel like you’re ‘little me’. And I say like even now don’t let the small church feel so small. Put together and have one big thing, so you don’t have to name out ‘little this’ and ‘little that’ to let everybody feel wanted and it did work you know!
CP: Before I ask you about the main focus of the band, tell me more about America…
RL: (laughs out loud) At that time you know (you feel the excitement in her voice) you didn’t have so many black people from the West Indies. No! It’s lately now you have us – and you know who was state secretary at the time – Sis Joyce Arnold – and she was still working as a nurse. But I asked her and she accepted it. So she was my state secretary.
So, when I went there, I was the only black one that spoke. It was well accepted, the white people just crowd around me you know. “Say that word again – we like that – truly!” One of them asked for it in writing, for it was well accepted, for all eyes were just plucked out. You know, I felt on that rostrum you know (because it was a big thing) but really and truly, I felt so relaxed – just like I was in Wolverhampton same way.
I am telling you truth my dear sister, when you are doing things not for your glory, the Lord just give you ideas, because I was in the kitchen there, washing dishes, and everything just come to me.
Alright, come on now, we had some men at that time you know, they want to know everything… why this and why that. (Because they weren’t so knowledgeable about this ladies’ business). So, we wanted the ladies to have a Sunday, because all these ladies just sit down like that, we wanted to have a ladies Sunday. And ah have to work on it you know, to get THE MINISTERS, to let us have a day. Through the Lord, we got it!
Secondly now, we used to have these choirs, big choirs, young ladies choirs, joy bells, everything just big, you know – because they come from the States and want to know how we do it, with uniform and everything like that.
Now the general office always have their state convention in the morning until 5:00 p.m. and we must have from 10 am and finish by 5:00. So I said no – this thing was growing and the allotment of time was not sufficient. So we decide we’re gonna have to face them and say, well then, couldn’t we have something for a longer time – but we didn’t want the word convention (‘cause there’s so many conventions going on).
So we had a date of October as a memorial or celebration – then this auxiliary started in the States. So we always had that day here in October. So we say alright, if we get through with that (chuckles), they could just give us the weekend (you know) around that date.
So, it so happen that we presented this request, Sis Lewis was in the States and say well alright, we could call it Seminar. Ok, because we say we don’t want convention. So when we did ask for it, we got it! So that’s what cause us now to have this ladies seminar…
CP: Every October…
RL: Every first weekend of October…
CP: This is a wonderful piece of history.
CP: So did you ever envisage that it would be anything like this, with the amount of Districts, that we have now? (Dr. & Sis. Lyseight both laugh).
OL: To tell you the truth, I couldn’t envisage that at the time, but before we started, another brother, Bro. Ttenant and myself used to go around to many of the white churches that were in Birmingham and other places in the Country and we would get these invitations and we go & preach for them. Once, I got this invitation to preach in a church in Birmingham and it was a Sunday morning service and it was me alone amongst all of them (chuckles) and the service started and when we were praying, somebody spoke in tongues and he got up and gave the interpretation and said that we were going to have a big church in this Country and over 5,000 people would come to accept the Lord. Yes, he prophesied it!
CP: And that was right at the beginning when you were at the YMCA?
OL: Yes. He prophesied that. I didn’t see it – I didn’t have any prophecy of myself.
So when the time came Bro. Tennant, who always stick with me in anything I am doing, we went to a church in Dudley one Sunday evening and a gentleman was preaching there. And when he preached and service was over and he was greeting the brethren he came down to greet me and Bro. Tennant and said, I presume you two men are preachers, but I don’t think you are getting the opportunity here to preach - which was true.
So he said I can get places for you to go and preach if you give me your name and address. Bro. Tennant said to him, let this man give you his address because he can write better than me (ha ha). So I gave him my name and address and this man now, gave my name to a lot of his friends and they always send letters inviting me to come and speak.
CP: So your vision was just for those people who were rejected to have a place where they could come together and worship their God?
OL: Yes. Definitely.
The starting of the Church in the London area was similarly born out of a felt need among Immigrant members of the NTCG to maintain a sound spiritual standard of living in what they saw as a very loose and permissive society. One young man with a deep burden over the condition was James Tomlin from the New Testament Church of God at Bombay, Manchester, Jamaica.
He arrived in London in May of 1955. Conscious of the spiritual hunger among friends in his area, he wrote back to a friend and minister in Jamaica urging him to come to England to start a church. He rented a church hall in preparation for the coming of his friend, and in October of that same year, the Reverend S.U. Thompson, leaving his wife and young family in Jamaica, arrived in London.
Unfortunately he became ill on arrival and was not able to attend the first meeting of the group. He recalls that the meeting was held at the St. Stephens Parish Hall. Dorset Road, Oval, London SW9. However, the group soon moved to St. Paul's Church hall at Alladice Street, Brixton. In those days, the support of the Church of England parish priests and other church leaders in assisting NTCG local branches in finding suitable places where they could house their followers was invaluable. Other ministers and members who found occasional fellowship in other organizations often visited the Brixton group.
Among these were Reverend E. Swaby and Mother E. Beccan, a lay preacher at that time. Before long, Swaby was encouraged to start a prayer meeting in his home in Kilburn, N.W. London, and out of that a Church was formed at Kilburn. One of the first converts to join this fellowship was C. L. Hastings who was converted in the Billy Graham Crusade in London in June of 1955. Hastings who trained as a Research Engineer, was later to become a leader, pioneering Churches in Reading, and Slough, and working in setting up Sunday Schools in Letchworth and Aldershot.
The Brixton Church became a focus for revival under the dynamic leadership of S. U. Thompson and soon a branch was formed at Croydon when the late Peter Barrett came to England. He found a former believer from Jamaica, Mercedes Amos, and prayer meetings were started in her home. Other believers living in the area soon found a meeting place and a new Church was on its way.
In 1961, the Church at Brixton purchased a building at Offley Road, Oval, and began to experience rapid growth. Soon the building became too small for the congregation, and the pastor began tithing members (i.e. giving one tenth of them away) to start new groups in different areas. This pattern of growth led to the development of Churches at Catford, Clapham and Deptford.
As mentioned earlier, the group that formed the Church in Kilburn was started by prayer meetings at Pastor Swaby's home. They moved to a Scout hall on Kilburn High Road, but after a few weeks, had to move to another Scout Hall at Greyhound Road. There, they experienced some of the racial harassments that were not uncommon in those days, as White youngsters took pleasure in stoning the building while they worshipped. However, this was soon brought under control. The Church remained there and grew, as believers especially from Jamaica, were attracted to this place for worship.
When a pastor was later found for the Kilburn group in the person of E. G. Cummings, Pastor Swaby began pioneering a Church in Deptford, while Mother Beccan spent her time assisting in the development of a work with some Polish brethren at Marble Arch. However, Pastor Swaby still held the position of District Pastor for the newly developing Kilburn District.
In time, Reverend E. G. Kellywright who was assisting in the Church at Stoke Newington was appointed to replace Cummings as pastor at Kilburn. He and his congregation purchased a redundant, and dilapidated Methodist Church building at Willesden High Road, in 1964. The brethren lovingly and enthusiastically set about to redeem the building from destruction, and demonstrated that they had brought with them skills of the trade from the Caribbean.
Then followed over the years, a series of changes in the pastorate in which ministers such as R. Kennedy, K. Peterkin and I. Brooks made their unique contributions to the Church's growth and development. In 1986, the Reverend I. Lewinson was transferred to this pastorate and the Church continues to enjoy increase in spite of the retirement of some members back to the Caribbean, and the regression of others who find the way too straight and narrow.
The Church at Deptford was started with ten members from the Oval group, In a Sunday School Hall which was later burned down. When the Rev. Ferdinand Hylton, himself a veteran of the faith, took over the pastorate, he purchased a church building there and pastored it for seventeen years. Now there is in Deptford a flourishing Church under the leadership of the Rev. H. Strachan.
The work of pioneer, Pastor E. Beccan, was not confined to that among the Polish brethren; she was a fervent and hard worker, assisting wherever she was called upon to serve. Her greatest contribution was in the development of the Church at Mile End where a neatly built chapel now stands at Grove Lane, much to her credit. Rev. Joel Edwards then pastored this church, his unique charismatic leadership, saw tremendous growth in that Inner City. Rev Davey Johnson is now pastoring this church.
As was the experience of several young men who came to this country seeking work but later took up the ministry, James Tomlin was to become a pioneering minister. A prayer group was started in the home of Mother Letts who lived In Catford, but attended the Oval Church. As it developed, James Tomlin was made the pastor. The Church grew rapidly, and when Pastor Tomlin left to return to Jamaica, the Rev. D. Miller was sent there as pastor.
Some years later, a redundant Methodist church building was bought at Lee High Road, London S.E.12. Pastor Miller served successfully until his retirement in January, 1987: at present, this church is still experiencing good growth under the leadership of the Rev. U.L. Simpson, formerly pastor at Aldershot, home of the British Army.
Over in Stoke Newington, North London, a group of believers under the leadership of Reverend C. Marsh began meeting at the Town Hall in 1957. Before long, Marsh and his followers joined the New Testament Church of God and moved to the Bouverie Road Scout Hall for worship. Once per week, the young fellowship met at the Congregational Church hall at Tottenham, for their Youth meetings. The Rev. Dr. Clifford Hill was the minister at that time.
By 1963, there was a division in the group and the members who remained faithful to the NTCG purchased a redundant Congregational Church building at Cricketfield Road and Downs Park Road, Clapton, and moved there. Among the early leaders of the Stoke Newington group were V. R. N Nelson, E. G. Kellywright, Arnold Williams, I. N. Carter, A. M. Scott, S. E. Arnold, F. Hosang, M. Brown, J. Arnold (nee Scott), O. Paris, and others.
The first National Convention of the young and fledgling NTCG was held at the Villa Road Methodist Church, Handsworth, Birmingham. The meetings challenged the members to undertake the task of spreading the gospel in Britain, as they perceived the country to be ripe for harvesting. S. U. Thompson was one of the speakers at that meeting. He took a photograph in front of the building and sent it home to his family. One of the children, on seeing the picture remarked, 'Daddy is becoming a white man!' Ironically, the Rev. S. U. Thompson later pastored this Church where he has served for twenty-four years. This was the first building to be purchased by the young organization in 1963, when G. A. Johnson was the pastor, and it also became, for many years, the national offices and Convention arena for the general Church.
The formation of the NTCG in the North of England had three separate streams. Immigrant believers who sought work in the cities of the then flourishing steel and textile industries soon found that they too needed the Church to succor them from the cold. In 1956, F. F. Poyser, a young minister from Jamaica, gathered six other believers in a kitchen of an immigrant home off Granville Road, Sheffield, and laid the foundation for what has now become one of our largest churches in the nation. It is now pastored by Dr Joseph Roberts.
About the same time, Curtis Grey, a young man working on the buses, felt a deep call of God to start a group in Leeds. He, along with Isaiah Campbell, started a fellowship at his home at 43 Louis Street and the Church was organized on 14 May 1959. Rev Grey also pioneered Churches in Bradford, Huddersfield, Halifax, and campaigned in Newcastle-upon- Tyne where the Gospel tent was burned down. The Church in Leeds formally under the leadership of Rev. C. L. Hastings has seen much growth over the years. It is now pastored by Rev Levi Bailey (National Executive Council Member)
About 1965, C. Grey was transferred to pastor the Wolverhampton Church, in West Midlands. His evangelistic zeal led him to organize Churches in Stafford, Redditch, Wellinghall, and Cardiff, South Wales. Rev Grey was sent to Liberia as a Missionary in 1973, he later served as Missionary Overseer in Nigeria where he has served a number of years and the Church has experienced extensive growth. He is now Superintendent Church of God West and Central Africa.
The third stream to join the NTCG was the Manchester group, which began in the bed-sit of Mary Jane Higgins who came to England in 1956. Finding no suitable place to worship in the Moss Side area where most African Caribbean’s were settling at that time. Evangelist Higgins began to hold prayer meetings in her home. Brother and Sister S. Nembhard, Brother and Sister L. Ricketts, Brother McCrae and others who also held prayer meetings in their homes assisted her.
Sister Nembhard desiring to see the church established wrote to the general headquarters of the Church of God at Cleveland Tennessee USA requesting; help. She was directed to contact the Rev. O. A. Lyseight who was the Overseer of the Church in England and residing at Wolverhampton. Up until that time, the Manchester group did not know of the existence of the NTCG. The Rev. O. A. Lyseight upon receiving the call from Manchester visited the group taking along the Rev. G. A. Johnson, the Rev. Elisha Tennant and Brother Humphrey.
Concerned that the Church would not progress in the limited space in a bedsit, Sister Nembhard succeeded in renting the Webster Street School Hall from the Council for one pound and twenty pence per week for Sunday worship. The group then voted to have a leader and the Rev. O. A. Lyseight appointed Evangelist Victoria Nelson from Birmingham to be the official leader.
Unfortunately her tenure was not to last long, as quarrels among them did not permit her to exercise her office. She had to throw in the towel and return to Birmingham.
CP: What were some of the actual challenges that you faced?
OL: The challenges, of such, were from some of the Ministers. Everybody wanted to be head because even one day I went over the Birmingham and they were having a meeting at a certain place. So when I went there now, I found this other man on the floor and he was taking over everything there in Birmingham.
CP: And he wasn’t one that you had established as the leader there?
OL: Not me, but at that time there was a kind of a run-jossle between two of them there. That evening now, when we were to decide who was to be leader up there, the other man took about two vans with all his relatives and friends and brought them there as if they were his members, so that they could vote for him. And they voted for him you know. When they took the count, he won it. But when our mission secretary from America saw what was going on he just asked him if he was a member – he wasn’t a member and the people who voted for him were not members. So the superintendent appointed me to be the leader of the church. The other one that was there didn’t think that I should be the leader of the church there, so he started to cut against me and called the people – without my knowledge.
CP: Right, so the challenges came more from inside than outside.
OL: That’s right!
The Rev. O. A. Lyseight returned to Manchester in an effort to restore fellowship and organized a tent meeting at Fairlawn Street. He also appointed Jeremiah McIntyre from Balsal Heath, Birmingham as the pastor towards the end of 1959. The Rev. Jeremiah McIntyre commuted from Birmingham to Manchester for several months until he was able to move there to reside and established the Church in 1960 with 10 members.
CP: So when you were setting up there with Pastor McIntyre, what would you say was the biggest challenge, or one of the major challenges that the church had to face?
OL: Rev. Louis Hughes stopped in England, even slept with us, and then moved around to a few places with us. And then he even went over aahm…Bexleyheath. Our West Indians were very bad in the area. When yuh hear they could fight and cut up one another! So, he moved around and get to know the area and say we should go in there and start to work. So that’s what we did. We went there and started but I couldn’t do everything myself so we appoint some of the men from Wolverhampton here to go there and then during that same time, Pastor McIntyre came into the Country. So when he came, we didn’t have anything for him to do, we sent him with those men that we had asked. They were glad for that too, for McIntyre was a more outspoken preacher than they were…
Under Rev. McIntyre’s leadership the church grew rapidly, even though some of the pioneer members had left to form groups of their own. Through his leadership Churches were also organized at Crewe, Preston, Bolton, Oldham and Southampton. Some evangelistic efforts were also made in Liverpool and Cheetham Hill, Manchester, but no groups were organized.
After the Rev. Jeremiah McIntyre was transferred to London in 1967, the Rev. Glenford Elijah Hutchinson was appointed pastor. He and his wife led the church for twelve years making tremendous gains. It is reported that 209 new members were added to the Church during their tenure. They left the pastorate to minister in the USA, in 1979. The Rev. T E. Caine now pastors the Church in Manchester, which has seen tremendous growth.
National Headquarters – Overstone
Discreetly tucked away amidst luscious trees and thirty-two acres of rolling parklands stood the beautiful Victorian Manor that houses the National Headquarters of the New Testament Church of God. The building was built in during 1860-1864 and was designed by W. A. Teulon. The property was formerly owned by Lady Wantage, daughter of Lord Overstone and in 1929 was occupied by the Overstone Girls School for fifty years as a private residential college.
The then headmaster, Colonel Peter Clarke, is reported to have conceded that the high cost of repair estimate at £250,000 was beyond the ability of the school to raise at that time and so there was no alternative but to ell. Nine months later, Rev. Jeremiah McIntyre purchased the Manor which housed 116 rooms, along with the Henrietta Franklyn Hall for over £140,000.
And so it happened that, in these famous Halls, this African Caribbean Church pitched its camp. Perhaps, if there were ghosts, they might have been wondering what has gone wrong with the world. But from this building, the New Testament Church of God trained students for ministry and administered over 106 congregations throughout England & Wales.
April 16, 2001 was a tragic morning for the New Testament Church of God when we woke up to a fire at Overstone College which consumed two-thirds of the building. Today, the Headquarters operate from the remaining 40% of the building.
This brief review of the Church is not presumed to be the chronological and historical account of its development in Britain but is rather a sketch of the early beginnings. It must be clearly understood that most of these Black-led Churches and the New Testament Church of God in particular, were branches of organizations already existing in other parts of the world. The NTCG is an integral part of the Church of God, which is established in over one hundred and sixteen countries of the world. The Church is also established in fourteen countries of Europe. The fact that the membership is mainly black in the UK is because those who established the Church were immigrant families from the Caribbean.
The NTCG has been branded as a ' Black Church' or Black people's church. The truth is the foundation faith of most of the Caribbean people was laid by: Western missionaries who came to the colonies hundreds of years ago. In most cases the religious heritage of the Caribbean people was mainly
British. Pentecostalism and its accompanying gifts were introduced from American in the early twentieth century.
CP: Yes. Now, I’m going to ask this last one… considering your years of experience and knowledge, if there was a word of knowledge that you wanted to pass on to the new Administrative Bishop, Revd Eric Brown, what would that be?
RL: You asking me?
CP: Both of you (smile) together if you like …
OL: Is she… let she answer that!
RL: Ha ha! What I am observing and I was even saying to my husband today, the church has some comparison to Israel coming over from Canaan. There were obligations to Israel to love one another and to have God and that still applies to the church to this age.
And as you know the church is a body, not bodies, but a body! And we are members of each other and when you read Ephesians 4 it talks about the impact of the joints forming the body.
In the early years when there wasn’t so much money around, people were more flexible to have fellowship – not friendship now – fellowship. You don’t have to be relatives but you just belong to the church. So what I’m saying now, what I’m discovering, there are a lot of people now coming into the church but don’t understand the body of the church, that fellowship, that unity, that oneness and if we go back (even in the scriptures) you see that we serve one another, you don’t have to be my friend, friendship is a different thing but the body… the church needs to be taught now, there are a lot of people coming into church, don’t know the church… just come and sing and get happy and go home… and they mind their own business, church is not nuh mind your own business – it’s a oneness! Because you will have people sitting right there in the church and they are as lonely as ever if they were in the world, I mean lonely… yet they are a part of the body!
So I was saying, I think the time is right, because Jesus is coming for a church of unity – and it’s a glorious church you see we have here you know. You belong to the church and I belong to the church – you wouldn’t feel out, regardless of your status regardless of what you can do, you should be so accepted in the body, because I was even saying to somebody today, little do you realise, just a little hug from somebody what it does… I discovered it one day and I say oh my gosh, it was just like the person was just waiting for it… yes! That warmth, believe you me.
So what I would advise him, regardless of his responsibilities, get that out that the church is being taught to fellowship with one another. But what I’m seeing, regardless of your country or your nation, the Bible applies to anybody and everybody – is one direction, one instruction, one admonition.
CP: Dr. Lyseight, Sis. Lyseight… I am so grateful for all this information, if I didn’t have to go home and look after my daughter, I would take my shoes off and put my feet up and listen to you all evening…
OL/RL: Ha ha ha… you’re welcome my dear. |
