Small community church tucked away in East Worthing celebrates 80th anniversary

Tucked away in a crescent, the church was built in September 1946 and the pastor, the Rev Gadalla Tiab, says the 80th anniversary is a significant milestone for the congregation.

A celebration service was held on Saturday, September 5, with Gill Davison leading the worship and Stuart Davison, former regional minister team leader, and Peter Buchers, moderator of South Eastern Baptist Association and pastor of Crawley Baptist Church, as guest speakers.

The building, in Pendine Avenue, was first opened as East Worthing Evangelical Free Church in December 1934. It was used as a store in the Second World War and served as a gas mask collection point.

Worthing Baptist Church purchased the building in September 1946 and it was re-registered as East Worthing Baptist Church in January 1947, later becoming an independent member of the Baptist Union of Great Britain.

Graham Taylor, a deacon and church secretary, joined the church in 1984, having been brought up in East Worthing. He later wrote a booklet about the history of the church, which he said took a lot of research.

Graham said: “I wanted to put as much detail as I could but we had a big gap where numbers went down in the mid-1960s to the 1980s, so we didn't have a lot of people who could help. I had to look through all the old papers at the library.”

Graham was born in a maternity home in Farncombe Road and attended Lyndhurst Primary and St Andrew's School, so he was able to record some of the history of East Worthing, as well as the story of the church.

He said: “I think this area of the town has changed less than other areas of Worthing. Many of the roads look the same as they did in 1946. I put in bits about the East Worthing area that I had experienced.”

Graham said there were no young families when he first joined the church but over the years, he has taught many of the children who have come to worship there.

The church has a different feel now, he said, being much more open. One big improvement has been the introduction of a coffee bar at the back.

Mr Taylor said: “That has made it more informal. After the services, we have tea and coffee. When I first came, we didn't have that. At the end of the service, you went out and shook hands and then you went home. Now, we are talking and the children are running about, it is much more alive.”

Another recent change was the removal of the church organ, which Mr Tiab insisted on as he said it took up too much space and limited what they could do. He said it was not a popular decision with everyone but taking it out had really opened out the space, proving beneficial for both the church and the food foundation.

Mr Tiab, who was born and raised in Egypt, was inducted as minister in November 16, 2019, with great excitement for the future, only to be thwarted by the Covid pandemic.

He said it was a small community church and although there was a strong congregation of 20 to 30 regulars, there were many more who told him they never knew it was there.

Mr Tiab had been working with the church for 14 months and decided to accept the pastorate because the people were very friendly. He said he 'didn’t feel like a stranger or a foreigner'.

It was sad to have to close the doors due to government regulations, he said, but as it turned out, it was not for long. Worthing Food Foundation set up a foodbank there in April 2020, supplying food to people in need during the pandemic and continuing to do so to this day.

Mr Taylor said each minister had had their own ideas and brought something new to the church. One prominent name was the Rev Alan Stephens in the 1990s, who came out of retirement to serve at East Worthing.

Leaflets promoting Mr Stephens' inspirational preaching came with a 'warning' in bold: “It has been determined that listening to this man's message could change your life.”

Described as a 'silver-tongued evangelist', Mr Stephens ran Sunday Night at Eight meetings, with Salvation Army musical group The Offkeys performing and his wife Joy playing the piano. The free event was 'a joyful, lively and cheerful hour-long treat'.

Mr Stephens was born in Lambeth and started preacher exams in September 1945, having served in the RAF during the Second World War. He was ordained nine years later and by the time he came to Worthing, he had almost 50 years' experience.

After serving as a Methodist minister for 12 years, from 1951 to 1963, Mr Stephens switched to itinerant evangelism, working with his great friend Billy Graham for 11 years. He was part of the 1966 Billy Graham Greater London Crusade at Earls Court and his missionary stints included Canada, Kenya and Portugal.

Mr Stephens was also based at Harefield Baptist Church as pastor from 1969 to 1974 and then moved to East Hill Baptist Church in Wandsworth to work full time.

He retired to Bexhill-on-Sea in 1992 but he missed having his own congregation. He moved to Halsbury Road, Worthing, in December 1994 and was inducted as minister at East Worthing Baptist Church on Saturday, December 10, 1994. Mr Stephens served at East Worthing until 1999 and died in Dartford in May 2015 at the age of 90.

Missionary work remains an important part of church life at East Worthing and indeed Mr Tiab left for Egypt two days after the 80th anniversary celebrations.

He is passionate about helping the poor in Egypt and first started a church mission at the Arabic Community Church in Brighton in 2012. He has been involved there since 2004, when he was asked to help start the church as a place for Christians from Muslim backgrounds.

When he came to East Worthing, Mr Tiab shared this missionary work, including an annual community sports tournament, held with the backing of the Egyptian embassy and the government.