Bethesda Church Royton

The first part of this short church history was prepared by the then Pastor, C J Pegington, for the bi-centenary celebrations in 1975:-

A Short History of the Church

The Church traces its origins back to 1775. Little is known of those early years except that a William Taylor provided a small meeting-place in Cotton Street. It was a single upstairs room with bare walls and diamond panes in the window. Here in the difficult years of the late 18th century, when Christianity was much under attack, a little Church was formed. This small group of men and women began to meet regularly for prayer and worship, united by their faith in God, love for God and belief in the Bible as God’s infallible Word.
Among those who preached here in those early years was John Kershaw, later to become pastor of Hope Chapel, Rochdale, and a man much used of God in this area. He preached his first sermon outside Rochdale, in Royton, in 1814 and continued to minister once a month, for some time. The church had a number of pastors before Mr Thomas Suttle was called to the pastorate in 1858. A Sunday School was started in 1852 and in 1860 the first chapel was built on the present site. Thomas Suttle continued as pastor until, in 1867, he collapsed in the pulpit while preaching. During his ministry people were drawn from a wide area to the Church and this continued for many years. One deacon, who died in 1910, lived in Littleborough and was a regular attender for forty-five years, walking the seven miles each time to attend meetings.
Thomas Butterworth became pastor on the death of Thomas Suttle in 1867. He was called to another Church in 1887 and W B Suttle, the son of Thomas Suttle, was elected pastor. He remained in office until his death in 1925. During his pastorate, the Old Chapel was pulled down, being too small for the Church’s needs, and the present building erected. It was opened on February 25th, 1894, at a total cost of £2,500. In 1911 the premises were further enlarged by the purchase of two adjoining cottages and their conversion into a large schoolroom.
On the death of Mr Suttle the Church remained without a pastor until 1954 when Mr A Sowerbutts was called, continuing until 1966. The present pastor Dr C J Pegington, began his ministry in October, 1972.
All the members and friends at Bethesda look back with gratitude and praise to God for His faithfulness and goodness to those who have gone before. While never a large fellowship, the Lord has kept His witness to His truth alive, and we rejoice to stand for the same great truths that our predecessors stood for and which we believe the Apostles of our Lord preached.

Dr Pegington moved on from the pastorate in 1978 and the Church moved in to what can only be described as turbulent times.

From the earliest times of my own memory (Born in 1947) the ‘Chapel’ and ‘Sunday School’ had co-existed alongside each other with separate identities. They had separate organisational meetings and also separate financial accounts, yet were largely held by the same people – but not entirely so.

Baptism by total immersion was required for membership of the Church. However, my own mother, Eveline Goodwin, and my favourite aunt, Ada Goodwin, although pillars in the Sunday School, because they had not being baptised, never made it to ‘Chapel’ meetings or even the communion table. This ‘schizophrenia’ could be seen in one of the plaques on the chapel wall. It recorded of one lady that she had been a Sunday School teacher for forty years but a Church member for only twenty.

The characters of the two institutions were in stark contrast with each other. The Chapel, being of the Strict and Particular theological kind, was strict and particular also in its practice, whereas the Sunday School was much more relaxed and a far friendlier place to be – in earlier days they had even had concerts and ‘Day Trips’ were often on the calendar. By 1965 the guitar was being used to accompany the children’s songs in the Sunday School, but even after a Chapel meeting vote (carried only by the casting vote of the chairman) to allow its use in the chapel it was still restricted and resisted. With the addition of the advent of the ‘Charismatic Movement’ into the mix, an explosion of some kind was almost inevitable.

The leadership evolved into three lay Elders: one ‘Charismatic’, of whom half the church approved, one traditional ‘Strict Baptist’, of whom the other half approved, and one really nice young man called Mark Robertshaw, who was liked by everyone. Things went on shakily for a while but when Mark tragically had a heart attack and died, the whole Church was devastated. All who knew him would want to bring praise to God for having had the privilege to know and fellowship with such a friendly, personable and Godly young man.

The fat was in the fire again and most of the traditional Strict Baptists, many of whom had arrived under Pastor Pegington’s ministry, left. Only one of those who left at that time actually lived in Royton - a lovely lady of American origin. As time went by, for the sake of peace, the ‘Charismatic’ Elder stepped down leaving the traditional Strict Baptist Elder as sole leader. However, the situation proved too difficult and he also finally left the church. You will have worked out by now that I was that ‘Charismatic Elder’ and I am grateful to God and to the other Elder that, though we did not seem able to work together, at least we remain good friends.

Although I have used the term ‘Charismatic’ I would resist it as a title. I prefer to think that we are today carrying on the values that were always to the fore in the old Sunday School.
Throughout all this time my father, Frank Goodwin, had been a deacon of the church and had always worked hard to try to keep people together. On the outside he was a Strict Baptist but on the inside he too was a ‘Sunday School’ man. This can be clearly seen from an incident that happened one Sunday evening. Communion was taken after the evening Service on the first Sunday in the month and all those who had not been baptised by total immersion were required to leave at that point. No one had to police this; it was just ‘understood’. On one such evening there was a young man in the congregation with slight learning difficulties. Not being privy to the rules, he didn’t leave but sat with the rest of us waiting for what would happen next. As it happened it was my Dad’s turn to serve that night, so what would he do when he got to the young man? I was very interested to see. He served him with the bread and then later he served him with the wine. In his head he knew he was breaking the rules but his heart would not let him do other than what he did – which was to show the kindness of Christ.

My Dad had overseen many moves for change over the years in the church. He had been the first person to invite a lady to pray aloud in a prayer meeting, He was the chairman at the meeting which voted on the use of guitars and it was his casting vote that allowed them in. He had officiated at the meeting when the Church decided to move from a system of Pastor and Deacons to a leadership based around Elders. He also chaired the meeting that appointed me as Elder in 1990, which signalled the end of the two-tier church. He did this knowing that the first thing that I would do would be to take out the old pulpit and pews and seat the church in a more people friendly and inclusive way.

Dad joined the church around 1930 and only God knows how much blessing he and mum brought to so many of the people of Royton and Oldham over the sixty odd years of their service together for him. Mum did get baptised after the fall of the ‘strict’ regime. I believe her simple honest heart had forbidden her to come under it. She died in 1994 and Dad died in 1998. We at Bethesda remain indebted to them, as we are to all the godly men and women that have been part of an abiding witness to the faithfulness of God and the truth of His word for over 228 years now.

As we have in the past, so we continue now above all things to hold the Bible as God’s word and we seek to be faithful to it in our understanding and practice. When I became pastor in 1990, believing that the bible teaches that denominations are a sin, we chose to drop references to such from our name and to be called simply ‘Bethesda’, which we interpret as ‘a pool of healing’. As we go forward into the future we seek to become more and more the family or community of God. We long, pray and work that others may see the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ and join with us in worship and praise to such a great and magnificent God as our God is.

There was a time when I did not invite people to Church because I was embarrassed by what we were. Now I have no hesitation in giving a very warm invitation to any that do not already belong to a church. If the door is open please feel free to just drop in, you will be made most welcome. If you are more comfortable to make contact by phone or email, that’s ok too.

The Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron and his sons, ‘This is how you are to bless the Israelites (People of Royton). Say to them:

“The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you
and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn His face towards you
and give you peace.”

“So they will put my name on the Israelites (People of Royton), and I will bless them.”

Bethesda Church History