About us

The Church where six roads meet had its beginning in a warehouse in Pettish in 1813, when Rev.James Chater came to Ceylon from Burma. He had first gone to India, hoping to work with William Carey, but was refused permission to stay by the East India Company, he went to Burma, but came on from there to Ceylon.

In all probability the site of the original Church was in Prince Street, next to the Pettah Post Office, where the Asiatic Trading Co., now stands, There is a little alley known as Chapel Lane there still.

While preaching and teaching in English, Chater studied Sinhalese and founded a Sinhalese Congregation at Grandpass in 1818 and later at Hanwella. About 1826, Rev. Ebenezer Daniel came to Ceylon and took over the Pettah Church, relieving Mr.Charter to evangelize in the Country areas.

In the early days the membership was mainly European and Burgher, but there were some Portuguese speaking members and services were \conducted in that language too.

After Rev.Ebenezer Daniel, the Church was served by a succession of Missionaries including the Rev. Charles Dawson who later, in 1840, set up the first mission press in Kandy. Rev.Jacob Davies gathered a group of young people, trained young men as evangelists and with his wife’s help, greatly enlarged the Sunday School.

In 1850 the Church took a courageous decision. Feeling that the state of the membership was unsatisfactory, the Church dissolved itself and reconstituted the membership a fresh, after a searching examination of those who were enrolled. This was the beginning of a new phase in the life of the Church: membership increased, two Sunday services were held, and a prayer meeting on Mondays, and a Sunday School of 60. At this time a building fund was started.

Until this time the Church met in a warehouse, but in 1851 a new Church Building was opened, the membership being at 37. This was the Church in the Pettah. Later on the Pettah was rapidly becoming a commercial area and the residents were moving out to quieter places about three or four miles away. The Church too looked for quieter pastures and a plot of land was found in Cinnamon Gardens. The foundation stone of the present Church was laid on 4th April 1876, and a building was completed in 1877. In the 1870s a Sinhalese Baptist Church also used the Pettah premises, though they had their own Pastor and Church Meeting. This Church also moved out to the present site and continued its separate existence for many years: the membership consisted mainly of pupils and staff of the Girls Boarding School. The two Churches united during the Ministry of Rev.E.Sutton Smith (1959-1974).

In 1891 the Manse was built. In 1895 the Ferguson family in memory of Mr.A.M.Ferguson donated the Ferguson Hall and the boundary walls and wrought-iron railings. An organ was installed during the ministry of Rev.Fred Bennet, 1920-30. The Weller Hall was built in 1954,and the new class rooms in 1962.

The Christian Endeavour Society was started about 1910, during the ministry of Rev.R.O.Price.

The first edition of the Newsletter appeared in 1932; before that all news of the Church appeared in the Baptist Messenger the denominational magazine.

Under the leadership of Rev.P.M.Goodall (1980-1987) the Church became more aware of the needs of the community who are its immediate neighbors and various forms of community service have been undertaken mostly in a small way.

For the first time since its establishment, the Lord blessed the Church with a Sri Lankan minister, when Rev. Kingsley B Perera was appointed as Pastor and served till 1997. With a growing

Sinhala and Tamil congregation and a need for evangelical work in all three languages, his appointment was very timely. Whilst serving as Pastor the Sri Lanka Baptist Sangamaya sent Rev. Kingsley Perera for further studies to Spurgeon’s College in the United Kingdom, and the Baptist Missionary Society sent Rev. Paul Henstock to serve in the interim.

A Community Service building to provide accommodation for all the activities which have already been started, as well as a number of new once, Dev Piya Sevana, the Community Service Centre was opened in February, 1994.

After Rev. Kingsley Perera, the Church has been served by Sri Lankan Pastors. In 2006 the Church appointed Rev. Gary Dean (2006 – 2014) from the USA, a missionary attached to Operation Mobilization, as Co Pastor. During his tenure Rev. Gary Dean led the Church to a major shift by introducing the Purpose Driven Church (PDC) concept. The Church accepted the PDC model formally in 2009 and incorporated this into the life of the Church with appropriate amendments made to the Church Constitution in 2012.

With a growing Sinhala and Tamil congregation it was felt that the bilingual worship service in Sinhala and Tamil was inadequate and in 2018 the Church decided that there should be three separate services in the three languages.

Cinnamon Gardens Baptist Church is affiliated to the Sri Lanka Baptist Sangamaya and is closely associated with all the activities of the Sangamaya.

NOTE: A more detailed history is found in “Chronicles of Grace – A record of two hundred years of God’s faithfulness” a book on the history of the Church published to coincide with the 200th Anniversary celebrations in 2013.