Armagh Robinson Library was very pleased to host a book launch to celebrate the two hundredth anniversary of
St Mark’s Parish Church, Portadown. The Library’s Keeper, the Very Revd Shane Forster, welcomed everyone to the event, which included parish members.
Viscount Mandeville gifted land to have a church built and £1,000 for that purpose in Portadown. The Parish Minutes of 1826 records the first Easter Vestry taking place on 29 March 1826, and later that year the Church was consecrated on 14 November 1826. The new book, titled ‘St Mark’s Church, Portadown 1826 – 2026’ details the history of the church to coincide with the special anniversary.
The Rector, Revd William Orr, reflects in the book’s foreword, ‘As we celebrate 200 years of the life and witness of St Mark’s Church, we do so as a community of faith, stretching all the way back to 1826, when the Rector and Select Vestry of Drumcree Church of Ireland had the vision to plant a new congregation right in the middle of Portadown. Since then, St Mark’s has been writing its own history with literally thousands of individual stories, and as they say,
if these walls could talk, what a story and what history they could share!’
Copies of the book were presented at the launch to representatives of three libraries, Portadown Library, the Cultural Heritage Service Library and the host library, Armagh Robinson Library.
The book will be available for sale at £15.00 by contacting the Parish Office, telephone 028 38362294
or by e-mail info@stmarksportadown.org