Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong was the first member of the Worldwide Church of God, at the time called the Radio Church of God, to speak in Manchester when he invited PT magazine readers to a meeting in 1954.  He and Richard Armstrong baptised the first lady in the area some time after the meeting.

The first congregation was formed in 1960 after a series of campaign lectures led by Rod Meredith and was the first established in the North of England. 

In the early years the visiting was covered by Robin Jones but his area included Scotland also, so he was well stretched over the area.

Ernest Martin pastored the congregation while he was still lecturing at Ambassador College in Bricket Wood, coming up at week-ends for the services and visiting when he could during college breaks. 

In 1964 David Bedford moved into the area to do the visiting, and generally run the area under Ernest Martin.  The area at that time stretched from the Lake District in the north to Stoke on Trent in the south and from Hull to North Wales, including the Isle of Man when time permitted.

In December 1964, in order to ease the travelling time for many members, two centres were established – one being in Leeds and one in Warrington. 

While David Bedford now pastored the Leeds church, he and his family still lived in Sale to cover the visiting for Warrington as well. 

Both congregations still met together for the “Holy Days” when attendance grew to over the 300 mark.

Leon Walker became the pastor of Warrington, followed by Robert Morton.  When the attendance reached over 200 in 1974, the congregation expanded into three groups following a series of lecture meetings in the area. 

We now had services in Lancaster, Liverpool and Salford, Greater Manchester.

Since then the congregation has met in various halls but for the last number of years have met in the Quaker hall in Eccles, Greater Manchester, with the potential attendance of 25 to 30.

In March, 2008, we moved location in order to partner with St. Andrew's Church, Woodward Road, Carr Clough, Prestwich, Greater Manchester, M25 9TY.  Our first service was a combined one with St. Andrew's congregation on Maundy Thursday.

Other pastors of the group have included Greg Albrecht, Barry Bourne, David Silcox, John Jewell, Jonathan Buck, Jeremy Rapson, Edward Smith, and the present pastor David Bedford.

David Bedford