Union Church, Nuwara Eliya

Union Church, is an interdenominational church, located on Old Uddpussalawa Road in Nuwara Eliya.[1]

Union Church, Nuwara Eliya
LocationOld Uddpussalawa Road, Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka
DenominationIndia Christian Mission Church
History
Consecrated1906
Architecture
Functional statusActive

The church was founded Rev. Arthur Stephen Paynter in 1906 and was the first church in Nuwara Eliya that was open to all races.

Paynter, was born 8 July 1862 in Bicester, Oxfordshire, England, where his father was a church warden.[2] In 1881 he joined the Salvation Army and traveled to India as a missionary.[2] He traveled throughout India and Ceylon, becoming a Colonel and was in-charge of the Salvation Army in Ceylon.[2] In 1893 Paynter married Anagi (Agnes) Louisa Weerasooriyaa (1863-1962), the daughter of David Weerasooriyaa, from Dodanduwa.[3][4] She had previously joined the Salvation Army on 1 August 1884. They both worked in India and after a few years they resigned from the Salvation Army, over the Army’s refusal to admit non-Europeans to its ranks, founding the India Christian Mission (Raj-i-Masih) on 1 November 1897 in Almora District of then Uttar Pradesh State.[2] They moved to Ceylon in 1904, and decided to start a mission in Nuwara Eliya. They had four children, Evangeline, Arnold (b. 1897), Ava Averil and David (b.1900).[4][5] Arnold continued his father's missionary work and in 1924 established the Nuwara Eliya Children's Home (later renamed "The Paynter Home"), for orphaned children,[4][6] and David was an internationally renowned painter, who received an OBE.[3][7] The Paynters constructed the church as a place of worship for Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, members of the Dutch Reformed Church, Scots Kirk, Church of South India and the Salvation Army.[8] Paynter died on 27 July 1933.[2]

The church continues to function as an interdenominational church, with ministers supplied by the Methodist Church in Sri Lanka.[9]

On 17 May 2013 the building was formally recognised by the Government as an Archaeological Protected Monument.[10]

References
  1. "The Province of Sri Lanka". India Christian Mission Church. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
  2. "The Founder and the beginning". India Christian Mission Church. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
  3. Weerasooriya, R. (3 December 2016). "The Paynter Behind Some of Sri Lanka's Finest Art". Roar Media. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
  4. "The Paynter Memorial Home". The Island. 17 September 2011. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
  5. "Sri Lanka Burgher Family Genealogy". Rootsweb.ancestry.com. Retrieved 16 November 2013.
  6. "Founder". Paynter Home. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
  7. Kappagoda, D. B. T. (1 February 2017). "Art of David Paynter". The Daily News. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
  8. "Ferguson's Ceylon Directory". Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited. 1959: 1009. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  9. Bauswein, Jean-Jacques; Vischer, Lukas Vischer, eds. (1999). The Reformed Family Worldwide: A Survey of Reformed Churches, Theological Schools, and International Organizations. W. B. Eerdmans. p. 466. ISBN 9780802844965.
  10. "PART I : Section (I) — General Government Notifications" (PDF). The Gazette of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. 1811: 423. 17 May 2013.

Further reading
  • Darling, Evangeline, ed. (1991). A Story of a Christian Mission. Nedimala Dehlwala, Sri Lanka: Sridevi Printers (Pvt) Ltd.

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