Kilwarlin Moravian Church & Ancient Battlefield Garden
Hillsborough, County Down
Kilwarlin Moravian Church is a congregation of the Province called the Moravian Church in Great Britain and Ireland.
Welcome to the Cathedral Church of Christ the Redeemer, a 17th century church, built on a site used for Christian worship for almost 1500 years. St Colman of Dromore set up a small daub and wattle church on this site in 510 AD.
It stands in the centre of the historic, yet rapidly growing market town of Dromore in the heart of County Down, on the north bank of the River Lagan and serves as one of two Diocesan Cathedrals for the united Church of Ireland (Anglican) Diocese of Down and Dromore.
A medieval church, about which no record exists, was destroyed in the late 1500s. It was King James I who, in 1609, issued letters Patent giving the church of St Colman a new title and a new status. That building was destroyed in 1641 by Irish Insurgents.
A new structure, of which small portions are still visible, was built by Bishop Jeremy Taylor some twenty years later in 1661. A narrow structure of around 20 feet wide and 100 feet long was first built. This forms the base of the current tower aisle. A tower was then built, but soon dismantled. The Percy aisle was added by Bishop Thomas Percy in 1811. This aisle sits at right angles to the tower aisle, opposite the pulpit.
A semi circular sanctuary in memory of Jeremy Taylor was designed by Thomas Drew FRSA during the ministry of Canon Beresford Knox in 1870. The organ aisle and baptistery were added at the same time creating an L shaped building. Finally, the church was made rectangular with the addition of the Harding aisle parallel to the tower aisle in 1899.
