Appendix 8
Chichester Branch of the Old Baptist Union (1899 to 1905)
(Second Edition)
In his Review of the first edition of this book in the Baptist Quarterly (Vol. XXXVII, No. 4 October 1997) the Rev. Michael Collis, Minister of Stafford Baptist Church, drew attention to a series of reports in the Old Baptist Union’s magazine, ‘New Testament Christianity’ regarding a Church of The Old Baptist Union in Chichester from 1899 to August 1905.
The first reference to Chichester is in the September 1900 issue and interestingly Claud Coffin, the author found it “hard to conceive a city with some 11,000 inhabitants being without a Baptist Church”, but was informed that “for some 30 or more years those who once formed a Baptist cause have been scattered among the various existing denominations;” and he mentions the acquisition of the former Baptist Church by the Unitarians.
In March 1899 a Mr. John Gibson, previously Pastor of a church at Battersea and at Worthing since 1894 “was led to gather a small company in a cottage (in Chichester) and instruct them in the Word of God more perfectly, with the result that several were healed of incurable diseases and led to the Saviour.” With a view to establishing a centre of the Old Baptist Union in Chichester they commenced to meet in St Martin’s Hall and requested prayer “for a suitable place of our own in which to worship.”Reference to the healing ministry and to the laying on of hands is repeated again and again in the reports and it seems clear that there was a strong ‘Pentecostal element’ in the church.
Claud and Cresley Coffin joined the Old Baptist Union as the result of the preaching of Deaconess (Mrs.) Sarah Gibson, wife of John Gibson, at Gosport and came to Chichester in mid 1900. Later he was sent to Germany to open up Old Baptist Union work there but was forced to return to England by the 1914-18 war, and thereafter served Baptist Union circles.
By November 1900 Claud reported three baptisms. “Not having the means of baptising in the city, the service was held at the Worthing Church on Wednesday, 3rd October.” On 17th October two more were baptised and received the laying on of hands; through which they were given new light on, and knowledge of, the Word of God and the power of the Holy Ghost in His glorious fullness as never before,” On Sunday, 21st October, they met “for the first time since the formation of the little Church around the Lord’s Table and the Rev. Algernon C. Coffin, Claud’s brother was the preacher.
The directory in the December 1900 issue shows Claud Coffin as Pastor, meetings being held (pro tem) at 6, Green Lane.
By February 1901, Algernon Coffin had replaced his brother as Pastor, but then went to India until June 1903, returning to the Chichester work on 13th December 1903. In April 1901, Algernon says “Many have again been proving the power of God to heal their diseases and sicknesses. During February, there have been twelve cases of anointing”. On 10th February that year Algernon also “had the joy of speaking to about 30 inmates of Chichester Workhouse...”
From about October 1901 to February 1903, Walter Rudbin was Pastor of the Chichester church. He was a carpenter by trade and married Martha, second daughter of Pastor and Mrs. John Gibson and worked at Brighton in 1890 as assistant to the Rev. J. J. Winser, having been ordained as Deacon on 2nd December 1889. The Chichester Church was still meeting at 6, Green Lane.
In July 1902 reference is made to a new hall, then undergoing renovation and in May 1903 the meeting place is given as Crane Street Hall, with J. Gibson of Worthing as Pastor.
In January 1904, Algernon Coffin had again become Pastor and the Church still met at Crane Street Hall but in April that year he says that since re-commencing the work they had had ‘a very uphill time’. On Sunday afternoon of 8th May 1904 Algernon addressed “a large open-air meeting in Halnaker, about four miles from Chichester”, and this seems to have been repeated each Sunday for some months – with the disapproval of the vicar!
Finally, in the October 1905 issue of “N. T. Christianity” Algernon reports that “The work at Chichester, after passing through many vicissitudes, has had to be abandoned”, and on 28th May that year he had started a new work at Slinfold, near Horsham, cycling to and from Chichester for eleven weeks (some 600 miles) before moving to Slinfold. The work there was short-lived, however, and Algernon was appointed in July 1906 to the Old Baptist Union Church at Uighell Street, Brighton, later known as Preston Park Baptist Church and was pastor at Horeb Tabernacle, Preston Park until 1928.
He eventually joined the Elim Church and pastored churches at Worthing, Grimsby, Exeter, Glossop and Hastings but then circa 1938 left the Elim Church and his funeral service was in 1952 conducted by his brother at Hastings Baptist Church, Wellington Square – an interesting progression from Old Baptist Union to Elim to mainstream Baptist.