| The name United Reformed Church
is abbreviated to the URC. It is, as its name suggests, a reformed church.
It follows the thinking of John Calvin (1509-64), Martin Luther (1483-1546)
and others. Martin Luther (1483-1546) was the founder of the German Reformation.
Luther's study of the writings of St Paul and Augustine of Hippo led him
to the belief that men and women could only be justified, by the grace of
God, through faith rather than through good works or religious observances.
Though he originally intended to bring about the reform of the Roman Catholic
Church, his work led to the fracture of that Church and the foundation of
national church bodies. |
| John Calvin was a French Reformer
best known for his work in Geneva and his definitive work, The Institutes.
In Geneva Calvin created a community with a four-fold ministry (pastor,
doctor, elder, deacon) on which almost all subsequent Reformed churches
were based to some degree. Calvin's teachings, which shaped the beliefs
of most non-Lutheran Reformed churches, stress the primacy of Scripture
in matters of faith, justification through grace by faith and a strong view
of God's omnipotence and therefore the 'predestination' of God's elect,
combined with a greater emphasis on church discipline than in Luther's teaching.
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It was on Wednesday the 20th of June 1850 that Northfleet
Chapel, as it was then known, first opened its doors for public Worship.
This was the culmination of a process that began about 1764 or 1765. Early
attempts to establish an Independent Church in Northfleet came from members
of the Princes Street Congregational Church, Gravesend. This attempt was
met with strong opposition and it took 40 years of perseverance before a
foothold was established in 1807. A small room in a dwelling house owned
by a Mr Venus in Lower Northfleet was then used for three years. The success
of this Non-Conformist Chapel resulted in them outgrowing this accommodation
and a larger room was found when a Mr Lockett erected a building. |
| After 18 years in the upper room of this building
the unsafe state of the roof forced the Chapel to seek other premises within
the area. Temporary accommodation was found in the old Engine House at the
bottom of Granby Road, this was used for about 15 months. Early in 1828,
Mr Pitcher, the owner of the dockyard, erected a wooden building at the
Undershore behind Dock Row. This building was capable of holding 250 people.
It was leased from Mr Pitcher for the next 21 years |
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At the end of that period it was decided that
the Chapel should have its own building. By the 1850's the Horse Guard Barracks,
that occupied the land between Springhead Road and Dover Road, were being
re-developed for housing. A plot was purchased for £144 and a Chapel and
Hall was erected. The interior of that building as it was just before Christmas
2000 is shown above and on the left. The Church held its 150th Anniversary
Service on Sunday June 18th 2000 when the Moderator of the Southern Province
of the United Reformed Church - Revd David Helyar was the guest speaker.
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