About Us
Are you new to the church or the area? If so, you are very welcome! Please do check out our New to Church page to get all the information about what goes on at our church.
We are a dynamic church made up of people from many different walks of life. We enjoy seeing new people and are confident that you will feel right at home. Our Sunday mornings begin with a warm welcome and an invitation to join us in celebrating the good news about Jesus Christ. Our worship is vibrant and lively as we lift up His name together. We expect God to meet with us and speak to us.
We are also very active in our local community working alongside other agencies and running our own projects in order to express the love of God in a practical way.
A Brief History of our Church
It is believed that during the years from 1812 onwards a small group of ministers, farmers and labourers from around the Magor area started meetings in cottages. They moved to a permanent site in a cottage provided by Revd William Morgan, the Baptist minister at Llanvaches, on the site of the present worship area. This group prospered and in 1816 the cottage became Ebenezer Baptist Chapel and the Trust deed setting up the church was signed. In Hebrew the word ‘Ebenezer’ means ‘Stone of help’ and is taken from 1 Samuel ch7 v12. At that time the population of Magor was estimated at 300 housed mainly in about 40 cottages and outlying farms.
During the 19th century Sunday school and other activities were started and a larger building was opened in 1873 (the current schoolroom). As the village grew so did the chapel congregation and there were activities most days of the week – no TV or similar modern entertainments! The original chapel was used for a day school.
The original chapel on the right with the 1873 building on the left
Then in 1906 the original chapel was rebuilt with three windows and a higher roof to improve the facilities for Sunday school and other meetings.
The 1906 improvements with Red House on the right
In 1929 an extension to the worship area allowed the installation of a pipe organ and choir gallery. The membership remained at around 100 for many years until the development plan for Magor and Undy in the 1970s and onwards drew many new folk to the area, some of whom joined the chapel. Daughter churches were planted at Underwood and Caldicot, which are now independent, however the Mission church at Redwick had to close because of the lack of members.
In 1982 an extension at the rear of the building was constructed mainly by volunteers to provide more classrooms. Land belonging to the church was made available to the then Baptist Housing Association to construct flats for the elderly which were opened as St David’s Court in 1983. In 1993 the premises were substantially refurbished and extended with a new worship area on the site of the original building combined with Red House next door, thanks to the generous legacy from a worshipper who farmed in Redwick.
The church celebrated its Bi-centenary in 2016 with a yearlong programme of special events including an Easter concert, a schools competition, exhibition of historical pictures, a drama chronicling the 200 year history of the church and a festival of flowers.