Sedbergh Congs

The dilapidating building above was once the Sedbergh Congregational Chapel. Colin Hinson, transcribing James C. Miall’s 1868 Congregationalism in Yorkshire quotes:

The unsatisfactory ministry in the parish church led the pious people in Sedberg, about the year 1823, to unite together for prayer and reading the Scriptures. Mr. Batty, at that time a Congregational lay-preacher at Dent, was invited to preach to them. Occasional aid was also obtained from neighbouring ministers. In 1825 help was given by students from Airedale College, and in 1826 a church was formed, consisting of eighteen members.

The present chapel was erected in 1828. The infant cause has grown up under circumstances likely to test powerfully the motives of its adherents.

What a wonderfully erudite final sentence! Many existing chapels and churches test their members’ and pastors’ motives and patience, too. The Sedbergh Chapel joined the URC in 1972 and became some kind of ecumenical venture sometime thereafter which presumably concluded in closure. May we at Salem Chapel, though sometimes tested and vexed, patiently endure to the end so that He who offers recompense will have reason to award. If we serve the local church for any reason other than God's glory and Christ's honour, trials and troubles will persuade us to give up and give in.