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This Sunday, 3rd November, the Kinghan Church for the Deaf celebrates the sixth anniversary of the opening of its building in Botanic Avenue, Belfast. This is a church build specifically for ministry to deaf people with special lighting and seating arrangements. The membership of around 120 attend from as far away as Cookstown and Armagh.
"We are the only Presbyterian church in Ireland that has the necessary facilities to enable deaf people to participate fully in an act of worship," explained the minister, Rev George Grindle MBE, who has been involved with this special congregation for over 29 years.
"The Presbyterian Church took an interest in the needs of deaf people when in 1857 it established the first mission to the deaf in Ireland. This had the single task of ministering to people who could not hear at who at that time were largely ignored.
"The sad thing is that even today people with hearing difficulties can be forgotten about," says Mr Grindle. "In my work I come across many who have become hard of hearing and because of this they often tend to drop out of society simply because they don't expect to be involved. I think that much more needs to be done for this growing section of the community both in churches and elsewhere to help them to continue to have a good quality of life. I would encourage churches to consider installing 'loop audio systems' specifically for people with hearing aids and also to see if there are other ways that they could assist people with hearing difficulties."
The Kinghan Church continues its work mainly through Sunday services and taking religious education classes in the deaf department at Jordanstown Schools. The congregation is outward looking too and over the last years has supported other christain work in Belfast and in Nazareth. This year it is helping the Presbyterian Nightlight Ministry that works on the Golden Mile both financially and also by allowing Nightlight to use the Kinghan Church as its new headquarters.
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