The first Christian fellowship at Grange Park was in 1869 and a building opened in 1874, a large church building which covered the expanse of the current car park right up to the main road and seated 400. The big hall was erected soon after the 1st World War to accommodate the growing church such that before the 2nd World War the church flourished with about 300 people of all ages. After the war there was a steady decline, the large church came down and a small forty-seater built. With the Arrival of Revd John Danso the church grew and in the year 2000 the present extension (Sanctuary) was built to seat circa 100 people.
Church community
Membership
Grange Park United Reformed Church is a member of the East London Group of United Reformed Churches together with the four-part pastorate together with Trinity, Gants Hill and Wanstead.
When in 1972 the Grange Park Congregational Church became Grange Park United Reformed Church. The change of title also ushered a new era of hosting Ghanaians from a Presbyterian background who formed most of the membership with the appointment of Revd J Danso from the 1990s and Rosemary Tusting in the 2000s, while retaining our English, Caribbean and Philipino congregational heritages. A giant leap forward and today the church has a resident minister Revd Shahbaz Javed, who has a 50% serving ministry supported by the ELG ministerial support from Tessa Henry-Robinson and Sujeeth Kumar along with a resource team of elders who are mainly professionals in various capacities and with families to support and holding down full-time jobs
Numbers
We have a membership of 55 Members with an average attendance of 40 on a Sunday morning. Our church fellowship is made up of a wide range of ages, from new-born to the 1980s.
Our times of worship always include children and young people and we have a good relationship with our uniformed organisations who attend several parade services each year.
We have a thriving Girls Brigade of 16 girls from 5 to 18 years old at present led by a strong leadership team who are well integrated into the life of the church. We also have a large boys scout group who attend brigade when invited. We hope to enable them to become more integrated into the life church as had been previously. Together these groups with our church families and others, are mainly local children and present a huge opportunity for developing our mission and community involvement.