Wirral Christian Centre

Wirral Christian Centre

Wirral Christian Centre
Wirral Christian Centre
Location in Merseyside
Coordinates: 53°23′06″N 3°02′11″W / 53.3851°N 3.0363°W / 53.3851; -3.0363
OS grid reference SJ 312 881
Location Woodchurch Road, Birkenhead, Wirral, Merseyside
Country England
Denomination Pentecostal
Website Wirral Christian Centre
History
Former name(s) Oxton Road Congregational Church
Architecture
Functional status Active
Heritage designation Grade II
Designated 28 March 1974
Architect(s) William Cole
Architectural type Church
Style Gothic Revival
Groundbreaking 1857
Completed 1858
Construction cost Over £5,000
Specifications
Materials Stone, slate roof

Wirral Christian Centre is a church on Woodchurch Road, Birkenhead, Wirral, Merseyside, England. It is an active Elim Pentecostal Church.[1] The church building, originally Oxton Road Congregational Church, is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building.[2][lower-alpha 1]

History

The building originated as a Congregational church, it was built between 1857 and 1858, and designed by William Cole.[4] The church cost over £5,000, and a further £2,500 was spent during the 1880s on improvements. It was badly damaged by fire in 1992, and was restored, but later became redundant, and fell into disrepair.[5] In 2008 the building was restored again to become the Wirral Christian Centre.[1]

It's first minister was Frederick Smeeton Williams.

Architecture

The church is built in rubble stone and has roofs of Westmorland slate. It consists of a wide six-bay nave with a tower on the north side.[lower-alpha 2] At the corners of the tower are clasping buttresses. There is a west door with a moulded arch at the base of the tower, and above this is a decorative hood mould. In the top stage are paired bell openings. The summit is battlemented with corner pinnacles that have been reduced from their original height. On the other corners of the church are angle buttresses rising to form tall octagonal pinnacles. The nave has a seven-light west window, beneath which is a canted baptistry. The bays of the nave are divided by buttresses and contain three-light windows with Decorated tracery. Towards the east end of the north side is a doorway, over which is a rose window.[2] The interior is described as a "wide short auditorium over a basement".[4]

Controversies

Throughout its history the Wirral Christian Centre has found itself at the centre of many controversies and is still widely criticized online.[6] Former Pastor, Paul Epton, authored a book published in the summer of 1988 entitled 'Love In Action.'[7] The book, now out of print but available online,[8] is harshly reviewed on Amazon as "shockingly unpleasant," "nauseatingly arrogant," and a "self-congratulatory egotistical work of over embellished stories." [9]

In 1997 the Wirral Christian Centre was strongly criticized in an article published in the Sunday Times on Aug 31st.[10] An undercover reporter was employed at the churches nursing home without his references being checked. In his time there the reporter, Chris Hastings, claims to have "observed a catalogue of rule breaches." The report claimed that some residents received only one hot meal a day and that "immobile residents were left in their rooms for long periods while others suffered from bed sores which staff admitted could have been prevented with proper care."[11] The report was written by Paul Nuki, now the Chief Editor of Europe's biggest health information site, NHS Choices,[12] as well as reporters Andrew Alderson and Chris Hastings, however it became overlooked as it was published on the same day that Princess Dianna was killed.

See also

Notes and references

Notes

  1. ↑ Grade II is the lowest of the three grades given to listed buildings and is applied to "buildings of national importance and special interest".[3]
  2. ↑ The church is orientated northwest-southeast, and the directions given in the article refer to its liturgical orientation.

Citations

  1. 1 2 Our History, Wirral Christian Centre, retrieved 5 July 2014
  2. 1 2 Historic England, "Oxton Road Congregational Church, Birkenhead (1291881)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 5 July 2014
  3. ↑ Listed Buildings, Historic England, retrieved 12 April 2015
  4. 1 2 Hartwell, Clare; Hyde, Matthew; Hubbard, Edward; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2011) [1971], Cheshire, The Buildings of England, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, p. 139, ISBN 978-0-300-17043-6
  5. ↑ Birkenhead Wirral, wirralhistory.net, retrieved 5 July 2014
  6. ↑ "Wirral Christian Centre Watch". http://www.wccwatch.com. Retrieved 31 October 2014. External link in |website= (help)
  7. ↑ Love in action. Marshall Pickering. 1988. ISBN 9780551016323.
  8. ↑ "Love In Action ebook" (PDF).
  9. ↑ "Amazon reviews". Amazon.co.uk.
  10. ↑ Nuki, Paul. "Home that fail the old". Sunday Times. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  11. ↑ "Homes that fail the old". Elderly care watch. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  12. ↑ "NHS.uk". Retrieved 19 November 2014.
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