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The church has been in existence since 1886 being started by a local man called Alfred Place. He was converted at Hunslet Carr Methodist church but later left there to begin his own Cottage meetings. The congregation grew until it became imperative that a larger meeting place was found and eventually a new hall at Moorside, which had originally been a stable, was opened. After some time the church moved, this time they crossed Dewsbury Road and began meeting in a room above a bakery in Selbourne Place. Selbourne Place was one of a number of streets containing back-to-back houses, which were built around the area now occupied by our present church. The church was known as the House of Prayer or Place’s Mission Although he could neither read nor write Alfred preached every Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday and when he was not preaching he continued making shoes. Around the turn of the century Place`s Mission linked up with a church in Hull and they held an Annual Conference at Easter time when all the issues relating to the church and worship were discussed. The earliest church records now in existence relate to this time. There was a big debate on baptism at the first conference in 1900 when it was stated “The church believes in baptism by immersion”. In other words none of this drop of water on the forehead approach, instead they had to go right under just as we do now. The minutes of the meeting stated “All members present were in one mind concerning baptism, so much so that there was not one dissenting party in the whole company”. Well, they may have believed in it but they couldn’t be baptised because of the simple reason that they had no pool. The church set out to remedy this and by the next year a new lead lined pool had been installed. Incidentally this pool survived until 1990 when we vacated our old Dewsbury Road premises. We then sold the lead and got a tidy sum for it. Due to lack of space, and the prayers and giving of the congregation, a new purpose built church was opened in June 1991 in Hunslet Hall Road a few hundred yards away from the old building. It has a Sanctuary, Pastor's office, hall, kitchen, four classrooms, boiler house, and inside toilets (something greatly appreciated). In 2002 we extended the car park and are presently looking at extending the building. God is so good!
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Copyright © 2006 Church of the Nazarene
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