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A PARISH church in Augher has won the top prize at the first ever National Trust Awards.
St Macartans was crowned ‘Church of the Year’ at a recent ceremony in London.
St Macartans (The Fourth Chapel), was praised by the judges from The National Churches Trust for being a strong part of the heritage of Tyrone, and for the restoration and maintenance work that had recently been performed on the church by local volunteers.
The awards ceremony took place at the Mercers’ Company Livery Hall in the City of London and was presented by comedian, Hugh Dennis and Rev Canon Ann Easter.
The awards were established as a way of celebrating and promoting the maintenance of historically significant churches.
Claire Walker, the chief executive of the National Churches Trust stated the winner of Church of the Year award would be “a shining example of a church, chapel or meeting house, which is open, available to all and supported by the local community. It should meet the needs of this community and be welcoming to those visiting from near and far.”
Judges for the awards were impressed with the recent restoration work that had been done on St Macartan’s Church. In particular the judges praised a recent major heritage project which oversaw the restoration of the Church’s Clarke Studio stained glass windows, and which was led by a local parish committee member, Martin McKenna.
St Macartan’s Church was completed in 1846 and its famous stained-glass windows were originally installed in 1922. A ‘Saints and Scholars tour’ of these windows became available after the church won a Heritage Award in 2021.
St Macartan’s Church also won the Northern Ireland category for the recent Naylor Awards for Excellence in Church Maintenance, for which it received a £2,500 cash prize.
By Andrew McPhillips