Rev George Speers
Police were called to church
Deacon Samuel Graham outlining his concerns
Sign was removed from outside church in Ballynahinch
Rev George Speers
Renegade Reverend George Speers has been branded an ‘outright liar’ by members of his congregation.
And one man, Sammy Graham, now says he doesn’t trust his own minister, saying he is a “liar” who is “guilty of plagiarism,” and claiming the minister has been copying his sermons from the internet.
The controversial minister has seen his church, Ballynahinch Congregational Church, descend into chaos since it first hit the headlines in early September.
Back then a punch-up at the pulpit broke out when warring factions within the church decided to settle their views amongst the pews.
But this week the Sunday World was contacted by members of the church’s congregation who say they are “frightened and intimidated” by attacks on their vehicles while they attend church.
And they claim Rev Speers’ supporters are behind the attacks.
Incredibly, the police even had to storm the church in order to break up the violent scrum in September, which one source described to the Sunday World as “like something from the Book of Revelation.”
Years of underlying tensions culminated in the pitched battle after Rev Speers was heckled from the pews by members of the congregation.
The PSNI even had to escort the minister from his own church, and protests to get him removed have been going on every Sunday since then.
This week, Sammy Graham, a deacon at the church, spoke to the Sunday World about what’s been happening at Ballynahinch Congregational since it first hit the news.
He claimed: “It has been verified that a needle-sharp instrument has been what’s being put through the side walls of the tyres. People’s cars are being attacked while they are in church when their cars are either parked in the church car park or on the street just outside.”
He also described how the atmosphere in the church he has attended for his entire life has turned sour following the raucous stand-off.
“I’ve been going to the church all my life. I was carried into it as a child. I’m a deacon in the church and have been for over 25 years. It’s soul destroying. There are families split down the middle. Last Sunday we had almost eighty people standing protesting outside the gate peacefully.”
But while many news sources have so far reported the split in the church as being caused by a differing of opinions on the Rev Speers’ Calvinist approach to church services, Mr Graham disagrees.
He alleges: “The issue is not his Calvinist approach to services, it’s his dictatorial approach to trying to run the church and lord it over everyone and take decisions out of the hands of the congregation. The majority of people are against him. He has been voted out legally by a majority of communital members of the church, and still he remains against our wishes.”
Mr Graham, as well as other members of the congregation who contacted the Sunday World this week, claimed that Rev Speers has also been caught out by the congregation lifting sermons from the internet in an attempt to pass them off as his own.
“We even recorded him one morning preaching a sermon about “The Light of the World” where he spoke about his mother training as a nurse by candlelight,” said Mr Graham. “It wasn’t his mother at all, it was another man’s mother who wrote the sermon away back in the 1950s.”
Mr Graham added: “He’s arrogant, dictatorial and a liar. That seems a very strong word for a man to use against his minister, but you can print that. You can say Sammy Graham says the Reverend George Speers is a liar. He’s been taking sermons from the internet to pass off as his own and he’s been caught out at it by the congregation. That’s plagiarism. Not only does he take them from the internet, he actually preaches them word for word and lets on that they’re his.
“That’s not the only time he has been proven to be a liar. I asked him straight to his face in a meeting with over 150 people in attendance: ‘Did you orchestrate a vote that took place to remove five long serving deacons in the church and what role did you play in their removal?’
“He denied it.
“Then I asked him: ‘Did you ask people to come to this meeting and vote those people out of office?’
“Again – he denied it.
“Then another man stood up with an email he had been sent by Mr Greer asking him to come to the meeting to specifically vote these people out of office. Mr Speers then went as white as a ghost, as he stood there with his collar on, and tried to get the meeting to ‘move on’. I have no confidence in a man who tries to preach the word of god and is a liar.”
The Sunday World tried to contact the Rev George Speers at his home and by telephone this week without success.