Christian revival
Christian revivalism is increased spiritual interest or renewal in the life of a church congregation or society, with a local, national or global effect. This should be distinguished from the use of the term "revival" to refer to an evangelis ...
in
Ulster
Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kin ...
which spread to the rest of the United Kingdom. It has been reported that the revival produced 100,000
converts
Religious conversion is the adoption of a set of beliefs identified with one particular religious denomination to the exclusion of others. Thus "religious conversion" would describe the abandoning of adherence to one denomination and affiliatin ...
County Antrim
County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, ) is one of six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and has a population ...
. In late 1857, through the encouragement of the minister of Connor Presbyterian Church, John Hamilton Moore, four recent converts began meeting in the Kells National Schoolhouse for prayer and Bible study. 1 January 1858 saw the first person converted as a direct result of the prayer meeting, and by the end of 1858 the attendance was around fifty. By Spring 1859 there were 16 prayer meetings in the parish. The revival spread to
Ahoghill
Ahoghill ( or ; ) is a large village and civil parish in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, four miles from Ballymena. It is located in the Mid and East Antrim Borough Council area. It had a population of 3,417 people at the 2011 Census.
In early ...
in March 1859 and then to
Ballymena
Ballymena ( ; from ga, an Baile Meánach , meaning 'the middle townland') is a town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is part of the Borough of Mid and East Antrim.
The town is built on land given to the Adair family by King Charles I i ...
.
Although the revival started with laymen, revival preachers such as Henry Grattan Guinness and Brownlow North soon got involved. On one occasion North preached to 12,000 people at Newtonlimavady. James Bain, pastor of the
Congregational
Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its ...
church at Straid, described a typical Sunday during the revival in the following terms:
Our Sabbath services are continuous, from nine in the morning until ten at night. We are engaged from nine to twelve in prayer meetings for the young, from twelve to two in public service, from two to four in prayer meetings, from five to eight in the evening service, and finally in our evening prayer meeting.
The revival was a largely Presbyterian phenomenon, but not all Presbyterians supported it.
William Gibson
William Ford Gibson (born March 17, 1948) is an American-Canadian speculative fiction writer and essayist widely credited with pioneering the science fiction subgenre known as ''cyberpunk''. Beginning his writing career in the late 1970s, hi ...
Presbyterian Church of Ireland
The Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI; ga, Eaglais Phreispitéireach in Éirinn; Ulster-Scots: ''Prisbytairin Kirk in Airlann'') is the largest Presbyterian denomination in the Republic of Ireland, and the largest Protestant denomination in ...
in 1859, wrote a book about the revival called ''Year of Grace: A History of the Ulster Revival of 1859''. However, another Presbyterian minister wrote a response called ''The Year of Delusion''.
J. Edwin Orr
James Edwin Orr (January 15, 1912 – April 22, 1987) retrieved 2009-08-15 was a Baptist
St. Patrick
ST, St, or St. may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Stanza, in poetry
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* Summa Theologica, a compendium of Catholic philosophy an ...
." According to
Ian Paisley
Ian Richard Kyle Paisley, Baron Bannside, (6 April 1926 – 12 September 2014) was a Northern Irish loyalist politician and Protestant religious leader who served as leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) from 1971 to 2008 and First ...
, the revival is the reason that
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is #Descriptions, variously described as ...
is much more religiously conservative than the rest of the UK or Europe.
*Janice Holmes, ''Religious Revivals in Britain and Ireland, 1859-1905'' (2001)
*Ian R. K. Paisley, ''The "Fifty-Nine" Revival: An Authentic History of the Great Ulster Awakening of 1859'' (1958)
*Rev. John Weir, ''The Ulster Awakening: Its Origin, Progress, and Fruit. With Notes of a Tour of Personal Observation and Inquiry'' (1860)
*Rev. Wiliam Gibson, "The Year of Grace: A History of the Ulster Revival of 1859" (1860)
Ulster RevivalUlster RevivalChristian revivalsHistory of Christianity in IrelandHistory of County Antrim