Leaside Church began as a Congregational Church, the first building on the site being in 1814. This Church became too small and the present builing dates from 1859.
In 1972 there was a national amalgamation of the Congregational, and Presbyterian Churches to form the United Reformed Church. This amalgamation was closely followed locally in 1978 by the uniting of the Methodist Church in New Road, whose church dated from 1839, with the URC to form an LEP (Local Ecumenical Project) based in the URC premises.
The union has proved very successful with oversight more or less alternating between Methodist and URC ministers. Our present minister, Rev Frank Okai-Sam, was ordained in the Methodist Church but today’s church members just think of themselves as “Leasiders”.
In 2006 Leaside Church became part of the Herts and Essex Border Ecumenical Area (HAEBEA), a grouping of seventeen churches (Methodist, United Reformed, Anglican) located in the towns of Hertford, Ware, Hoddesdon, Cheshunt, Harlow, Epping and various villages in between. In 2023 Bishop’s Stortford and Stansted joined HAEBEA.
In 2024 the four Methodist Churches (Hertford, Hoddesdon, Harlow and Bishop’s Stortford) formed a new Methodist Circuit. The four URC Churches (Hatfield Heath, Ongar, Epping and Roydon) formed a Mission Partnership, together with Leaside and Stansted as members of both groupings.
In response to God’s call, the Churches seek to support one another in love, fellowship and leadership to further their Christian witness in their communities and the wider world.
This is today’s Leaside Church, sharing the love of Jesus in service to the Community of Ware.
