Carnmoney minister retires after 19 years

Rev Dickinson, who was installed at the Carnmoney Road church in 2002, retired on December 31, 2020.

Throughout his almost 20 years at Carnmoney, many major changes have occurred, including over £4m being invested in property development, the creation of the Newtownabbey Foodbank and the planting of a new church at May Street in Belfast.

Rev Dickinson, who previously served as minister at Seaview Presbyterian and First Killyleagh, and assistant minister at Bloomfield, said: “I’m so thankful for my time at Carnmoney. To see the church’s impact on hundreds of lives and to see people coming to faith, it is very special.

“The church took a stance that the people in the community and outside of the church’s walls should be the ones who matter.

“The church’s Alpha Course was brilliant for welcoming new people to the church and initiatives such as the Newtownabbey Foodbank stemmed from this. Our ties with Holy Trinity Church Brompton helped to develop the Christians Against Poverty programme here.”

Rev Dickinson, whose father served as a minister in Belfast and Londonderry, added: “It has been amazing to worship at Carnmoney.

“There are so many young families and it is vibrant. When the redevelopment work was completed, people who remembered the former buildings said the history of the building had survived. It has been a privilege to have been the church’s minister.”

Speaking on the retirement of Rev Dickinson, Trevor Long, Clerk of the North Belfast Presbytery, one of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland’s 19 regional bodies that has responsibility for overseeing the 21 congregations in its area, said that John had made a “significant contribution to the life and witness of the church in the Newtownabbey area.”

Mr Long said: “Each of our ministers play a unique contribution in the place where God has called them to minister.

“Since John came to Carnmoney, he too has made a significant contribution to the life and witness of the local church in the Newtownabbey area and further afield. Under his leadership the church has seen significant growth both physically, with the building of a new church and halls on the site, and with regards to the number of families and individuals coming to worship on a Sunday.

“I would like to recognise that contribution to church life in the Presbytery, which also includes, along with other congregations, the establishment of Newtownabbey Foodbank, which in these difficult and challenging times has been a powerful social witness of the gospel.

“That outreach has also included the establishment of a new church that has its home in the old May Street Presbyterian Church in Belfast, and a real commitment to the use of the Alpha Course in bringing people together to hear about Jesus and His message.”

Mr Long added: “Not only has John made a significant impact on the congregations of Carnmoney, and previously Seaview, but he has served our Presbytery in many roles including Moderator, Clerk and most recently as Treasurer.

“As he begins his retirement, we recognise that it will not be the one that he had planned, as we were all deeply saddened by the loss of John’s wife Christine to cancer last year. We do pray, in all that he does that he will know God’s blessing and peace.”

Mr Long also said that the Presbytery and the congregation, working together with PCI’s central Linkage Commission, would begin the process of filling the vacancy left by Rev Dickinson.

In the meantime, Rev Philip McCrea, minister of Rosemary Presbyterian Church, has been appointed ‘vacancy convener’ for Carnmoney and he will look after the congregation until a new minister is appointed.

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