Newcastle upon Tyne church started in the mid 1960s as an offshoot of the Leeds church but quickly progressing to full church status.

Early meetings were held in a hotel, and also in a watchtower/dungeon on the medieval city walls before moving to the Friends Meeting House, and then for the last 31 years in the superb premises of Newcastle Civic Centre.

Membership rose to a high of 100+ in the mid 70s, and a sister congregation was formed in Middlesbrough to cover people living in the South of the region.

Newcastle peaked at 80 in the mid 80s. Following the doctrinal change members were lost, because they felt the church leadership was not leading the process of change enthusiastically and progress towards New Covenant practices was not fast enough. Only 2 members went to ‘hard line’ congregations.

The church has been pastored by Colin Adair, Paul Suckling, Richard Frankel, David Stirk, Owen Willis, David Magowan, Robert Harrison and other ministers for short periods. Since 1981 the congregation has been served by Local Elder George Hinds and his wife Sheila, ably assisted by Jack Smith and the rest of the members of the congregation.

Newcastle is an ageing congregation overall, but does have a spread of ages from 1 year old to 96 years old. In fact we probably hold the record for the oldest active song leader in the church – 96 years old Tom Seymour.

George Hinds