Our Story
In 1878 a young Methodist preacher and Bible Class
leader in Bury called John Taylor was sick. He was a brass founder by trade and had contracted an industrial disease that had poisoned his body. He had twice travelled to Australia to find a cure. On the second trip he was so sick it was thought he might have to be buried at sea.
On his return to England he saw an article in the ‘Christian Herald’ of some ladies who had opened a ‘Divine Healing Home’ in Southport, so he went. He is reported to have said, “I didn’t know what they would do to me, but I know that God would not turn me away”. He was anointed with oil in accordance with what the Bible says in James chapter 5 and was prayed for. He was wonderfully healed and restored to perfect health!!
As a result of this marvellous act of God, he started to hold meetings in his own home. As the numbers who attended those meetings grew, he changed his premises and began to hold meetings in a larger house on Walmersley Road called ‘Russell Villas’. Many people came to these meetings and a great spiritual awakening began.
At around the turn of the century, an established group of people who had attended these meetings moved to new premises on Brookshaw Street and ‘Brookshaw Street Mission’ was opened. This small upper room had been a sugar boiling toffee works before Mr Taylor and his congregation moved there. It is said that as the people would kneel to pray they needed knives to scrape away the hard sugar deposits.
In December 1927 an evangelistic event was held at the Drill Hall in Bury. The guest speaker was a well known Welsh evangelistic called Stephen Jeffries. Thousands of people from across the town and the region attended these meetings through the week and some amazing miracles of healing took place, it is estimated that 2,000 people became Christians that week.
As a result the Brookshaw Street Mission became too small for this fast growing congregation, and 2 Pentecostal churches became established in the town. Beulah Pentecostal Mission settled in an old laundry building (Clarence Laundry) on Brook Street and the other at Emmanuel Hall on Bell Lane. Both these churches had sizeable congregations that grew and grew over the next 30-40 years, until their individual buildings became too small.
In 1967 the congregation of Beulah Pentecostal Church took over the church here on Parkhills Road. Parkhills Methodist Church had closed 12 months previously. In 1971, the church based at Emmanuel Hall merged with the Beulah congregation at the Parkhills Pentecostal Church and the church underwent a £17,500 face lift. By the end of 1971, Parkhills Pentecostal Church became known as Bethesda Pentecostal Church. Bethesda means ‘a place of healing’ and was an apt name given the roots of the Church and the belief that God was still a God of miracles.
Bruce and Christine Millar came to lead the church in September 1979 accompanied by their four children, Duncan, Alison, Eilean and Francine. Bruce pastored two previous churches in Kent and Staffordshire, and served with the Home Missions Department of Assemblies of God as a full-time evangelist conducting divine healing and church planting missions around the UK. Almost 30 years later, he is in process of transitioning the leadership of the church to Paul Schofield, having served Assemblies of God in various leadership capacities and currently as the Chairman of the North West Regional Council. He holds a Masters of Theology degree with distinction gained from Mattersey Hall in conjunction with the University of Wales and is an external lecturer at this college teaching BA students Pastoral Ministry.
Paul Schofield, himself the son of an Assemblies of God minister, is the Pastor-designate of the church, presently studying and working towards gaining his ministerial credential with Assemblies of God. He has served the church as the manager of its “Christians Against Poverty” ministry and still functions as the Youth and Children’s Pastor during the transition period.
Victoria Smith-Unwin, married to Andrew and mother of three children, Henry, Grace and Samuel, serves as the Assistant Pastor of the Church at present
on maternity leave.
In 1878 a young Methodist preacher and Bible Class leader in Bury called John Taylor was sick. He was a brass founder by trade and had contracted an industrial disease that had poisoned his body. He had twice travelled to Australia to find a cure. On the second trip he was so sick it was thought he might have to be buried at sea.
On his return to England he saw an article in the ‘Christian Herald’ of some ladies who had opened a ‘Divine Healing Home’ in Southport, so he went. He is reported to have said, “I didn’t know what they would do to me, but I know that God would not turn me away”. He was anointed with oil in accordance with what the Bible says in James chapter 5 and was prayed for. He was wonderfully healed and restored to perfect health!!
As a result of this marvellous act of God, he started to hold meetings in his own home. As the numbers who attended those meetings grew, he changed his premises and began to hold meetings in a larger house on Walmersley Road called ‘Russell Villas’. Many people came to these meetings and a great spiritual awakening began.
At around the turn of the century, an established group of people who had attended these meetings moved to new premises on Brookshaw Street and ‘Brookshaw Street Mission’ was opened. This small upper room had been a sugar boiling toffee works before Mr Taylor and his congregation moved there. It is said that as the people would kneel to pray they needed knives to scrape away the hard sugar deposits.
In December 1927 an evangelistic event was held at the Drill Hall in Bury. The guest speaker was a well known Welsh evangelistic called Stephen Jeffries. Thousands of people from across the town and the region attended these meetings through the week and some amazing miracles of healing took place, it is estimated that 2,000 people became Christians that week.
As a result the Brookshaw Street Mission became too small for this fast growing congregation, and 2 Pentecostal churches became established in the town. Beulah Pentecostal Mission settled in an old laundry building (Clarence Laundry) on Brook Street and the other at Emmanuel Hall on Bell Lane. Both these churches had sizeable congregations that grew and grew over the next 30-40 years, until their individual buildings became too small.
In 1967 the congregation of Beulah Pentecostal Church took over the church here on Parkhills Road. Parkhills Methodist Church had closed 12 months previously. In 1971, the church based at Emmanuel Hall merged with the Beulah congregation at the Parkhills Pentecostal Church and the church underwent a £17,500 face lift. By the end of 1971, Parkhills Pentecostal Church became known as Bethesda Pentecostal Church. Bethesda means ‘a place of healing’ and was an apt name given the roots of the Church and the belief that God was still a God of miracles.
Bruce and Christine Millar came to lead the church in September 1979 accompanied by their four children, Duncan, Alison, Eilean and Francine. Bruce pastored two previous churches in Kent and Staffordshire, and served with the Home Missions Department of Assemblies of God as a full-time evangelist conducting divine healing and church planting missions around the UK. Almost 30 years later, he is in process of transitioning the leadership of the church to Paul Schofield, having served Assemblies of God in various leadership capacities and currently as the Chairman of the North West Regional Council. He holds a Masters of Theology degree with distinction gained from Mattersey Hall in conjunction with the University of Wales and is an external lecturer at this college teaching BA students Pastoral Ministry.
Paul Schofield, himself the son of an Assemblies of God minister, is the Pastor-designate of the church, presently studying and working towards gaining his ministerial credential with Assemblies of God. He has served the church as the manager of its “Christians Against Poverty” ministry and still functions as the Youth and Children’s Pastor during the transition period.
Victoria Smith-Unwin, married to Andrew and mother of three children, Henry, Grace and Samuel, serves as the Assistant Pastor of the Church at present
on maternity leave.