Arthur Stephen Paynter in 1906 and was the first church in Nuwara Eliya that was open to all races.

Paynter, was born 8 July 1862 in Bicester, Oxfordshire, England, where his father was a church warden.

They both worked in India and after a few years they resigned from the Salvation Army, over the Army's refusal to admit non-Europeans to its ranks, founding the India Christian Mission (Raj-i-Masih) on 1 November 1897 in Almora District of then Uttar Pradesh State.

[2] They moved to Ceylon in 1904, and decided to start a mission in Nuwara Eliya.

[4][5] Arnold continued his father's missionary work and in 1924 established the Nuwara Eliya Children's Home (later renamed "The Paynter Home"), for orphaned children,[4][6] and David was an internationally renowned painter, who received an OBE.