The construction of the present day church took
place during the years 1889 - 1891 on a site granted to the church
through the Belfast Corporation, following the disposal of the
estates of the second Marquis of Donegal. The site was
acquired by the congregation for the princely sum of five pounds
Stirling. The congregation which had been formed 2 years
earlier in 1887 held their morning and evening services together
with their afternoon Sunday school classes in the newly built Ballynafiegh Orange Hall, while their new house of worship was being
constructed on its present site, oddly enough they had opted for a
site which would have been roughly where the car park of Dunne's
stores at the embankment is sited. The Belfast Corporation
though otherwise and luckily for us their better judgement
prevailed.
The period of the 1880's and 1890's during which Belfast received it's city charter, saw a huge population explosion in the area with many Presbyterians moving into the newly developed Ballynafeigh area. A new Presbyterian Church was needed and a large one at that and it was considered very large at the time seating approximately 1,100 persons. Little wonder at the opening of the present day Newtownbreda Presbyterian church in 1892 a few months after Cooke one speaker referred to our church as "That Cathedral of Presbyterianism down the road" . Called after Dr. Henry Cooke that champion of traditional Presbyterianism as a memorial to his memory, it was doubly fitting as Dr. Cooke was at one time a resident of the Ormeau Rd. The church was constructed by Messers H Laverty & Sons at a cost of £6,667 pounds was largely gifted to them, save for the sum of almost £1,500 pounds raised locally through public subscription.
The preacher on the opening service conducted on Sunday May 1st 1892 was The Rev Doctor George Matheson, a blind Scot who wrote several of the hymn's still in use today in the current church hymnal. It is believed that the text for his sermon that day was "God is spirit, God is life, God is love: and to this day we are reminded of it by the blue and gold lettering sited above the church apse. The first minister the Rev John Mc Millan of Dundalk was nominated for a call was rumoured to be a supporter of home rule but through correspondence these rumours where completely dispelled. His call was accepted by Newry Presbytery on July 9th 1892 he was installed as first resident incumbent at Cooke Centenary Church. A congregation reception was held in his honour on Friday 5th August 1892. His first years at Cooke were not easy ones firstly he found himself embattled over the subject of communion wine, he personally a great champion of temperance and an able advocate of temperance reform objected for conscience's sake to the use of alcoholic wine at communion services. Some argued that acholic wine should be used, as indeed was though to be their practice during the congregation occupancy of Ballynafeigh Orange Hall, after a lengthly debate, which one gathers went to the point of exhaustion it was decided to use non alcoholic wine. Bearing in mind the minute quantities used by each person one wonders if temperance is being confused with total abstinence. Finance during the early years was a constant worry to the church, there were prolonged arguments over debt reductions. There were problems over the ministers stipend their financial problems became so acute that at one stage there were those who proposed that the minister be paid no salary, until the debts were paid. How they could have expected Dr. Mc Millan to live on "fresh air alone" has never been explained thankfully wiser and kinder council prevailed and no such action was taken. An invition to the Countess of Shaftsbury to open a grand Christmas bazaar to be held in the Ulster hall in Dec 1893, to aid the new church funds was replied to with a sharp refusal, with insulting remarks about the Presbyterian Church in general and Cooke congregation in particular. The congregation were so annoyed over this they threatened to publish her reply in the press. The countess was forced to make a hasty apology, unfortunately her letter was lost without trace, and the exact content of it is therefore unknown. For those who knew him he was a "Blood and Thunder" preacher and yet as a person respected.....
