On October 12, 1974 Heaton Moor Evangelical Church opened their new building on Green Lane in Heaton Moor.

The church’s formal beginning was in November 1971, when it drew up and accepted its basis of faith and constitution. Its practical beginning took place two years before that, when Sunday services started on October 19, 1969. And the idea of its formation came even earlier at informal meetings of interested folk in 1967 and 1968. Yet the unseen beginnings, go back to the 1930s.

The fact that a few Christians were praying for a local evangelical church was not generally known until after the new fellowship had come into being, when one of the ladies told the elders: ‘This is just what we have been praying for all these years – now God has answered our prayers!’ So Heaton Moor Evangelical Church can trace its unseen beginnings over more than 40 years, and since then another forty years as an active evangelical church.

From those earliest days the church drew folk from a variety of backgrounds including Anglican, Baptist, Methodist, Brethren, and independent. Among those who came in were some who had life-long attachments locally in non-evangelical denominations. Some of these people were coming in this period to a final disillusionment with comprehensive denominations.

To such believers the idea of a true local church seemed not only required by the New Testament but also very appealing. It could provide spiritual food for those who up to then had lacked it; it would be a local fellowship for those who had hitherto been church-commuters; and it would be a witness in the locality to the one gospel.

The church started Sunday services in the local Crusader Hall, which was above a Victorian row of shops on Heaton Moor Road

All the early developments, as indeed all the growth, came as God worked through the fellowship of believers. What struck those who came into the church was the particularly warm and vibrant sense of belonging together in the Lord.

The church appreciated other gifts such as teaching, administration, caring, giving and hospitality. Indeed, hospitality had been a feature of the church. It was not a case of folk inviting just those who would invite them back. Some members made a real effort to invite those who were lonely or in any kind of spiritual, physical or other need.

The church sought to actively involve the majority of members in the day-to-day work of the church. This was felt to be important as from its commencement the church had desired that those who lead should seek out gifts in the church and encourage their use.

A growing youth group and thriving children’s work soon created some problems in facilities and accommodation and the new building was opened on October 12, 1974. Now the church could develop its activities.

Perhaps less exciting, but nonetheless important, the present building has seen changes. Designed as a dual-purpose building for a fellowship of about 150, the rear section was soon in use as the congregation grew. Classrooms, a storeroom, a toilet for the disabled, and a refurbished kitchen have been added. But even with these improvements the limitations of an existing building were realised when the decision was taken to change from the traditional seating plan to the present pattern.

This short review brings us up to the 40th anniversary in October 2009. The future is known only to God. In the meantime our task is to faithfully continue, building on the foundations that have been laid, adapting to meet the needs of a fast changing world where one thing does not change – the need of the human being to be ‘born again’. To share this message on the ‘Moor’, in the ‘Heatons’ and beyond was the vision of the pioneers back in 1969. Our present aim, to know Jesus and make Him known, reflects this unchanging desire, and we do this in faith.

Today we share that task with Christians in the other Heatons Partnership churches, reaching out with the gospel through Alpha courses, through the Family Fun Days, and through the developing schools work. Ours is a tiny but not insignificant part in the much bigger purpose of God in building His Church.