Colchester New Church

In the minutes of the 46th General Conference in 1853, Colchester New Church is listed as having 11 members, and renting a chapel in St. Helen's Lane with U. W. Mattacks as the leader.

[2] After this point the history of the Colchester New Church is uncertain until 1880 when George McQueen found the Writings of Swedenborg.

Their first official worship was conducted on April 16 of the same year, and in June they rented a room, Shaftsbury Hall.

C. Griffiths withdrew from the Colchester society because he disagreed with the members' strong sympathies for the General Church of the New Jerusalem.

William Frederic Pendleton (of the General Church) gave a sermon that greatly pleased the members in Colchester.

[3][4] In 1905 William Frederic Pendleton (by now the bishop of the General Church of the New Jerusalem) visited Colchester and discussed the possibility of opening a school, but it was decided that the time was not yet ripe for that.

In 2024, a celebration was held to mark the centenary of the laying of the foundation stone, of the original church building in Maldon Road, on 22nd May 1924.