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. This is today’s Leaside church.
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 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.
