Our History

Horton Street Historic Chapel

This Chapel was originally built in the 1840s.

A larger church building was built in the early 1960s, and was used until 1995, when the Sherwood Road Worship Centre was opened.  That building and surrounding land has been sold, but the historic Chapel is still used by the Uniting Church - click Port Macquarie Horton St Chapel for further information.

Sherwood Road Worship Centre

Perhaps the biggest challenge to ever face the Port Macquarie Uniting Church’s Parish Council was whether to expand the Horton St Church or purchase land and build a new church outside the town’s centre.  This topic was hotly contested for many years. With more than a century-long family history of attending church in Horton Street many worshippers were reluctant to move elsewhere, but others saw the church building as inadequate at that time and incapable of providing opportunities for expansion into the future. Combined services of the two morning services were not possible on the Horton St site and these were held in the Port Macquarie High School auditorium.

Many proposals to expand the church building to accommodate more people were considered, but were not given the green light. Thoughts of demolishing the hall or the chapel to make way for onsite parking were also raised. The search for new land was undertaken from the early 1980’s with the Sherwood Rd site purchased in 1992.  Work on construction of the worship centre, administration and Lifeline took place in 1995.

The ministers at that time were Rev Ray Atkinson and Rev Eric Drury.

The excess land was transferred to UnitingCare (now Uniting), who have used that land for Mingaletta Aged Care and Family Services, and more recently some affordable units.