Our History
Gloucester Elim Church currently meets in a recently refurbished building on Parkend Road, Gloucester, very close to the city centre.
However, the Elim church in Gloucester officially started in 1934, when the pentecostal church that occupied the former Railway Mission Hall joined the Elim Four Square Gospel Alliance.
This is one of the earliest photos of Gloucester Elim, portraying the Elim Mandolin band in the late 1930s. At Gloucester Elim we have always been blessed with people with good musical gifts, up to today.
That first building, in Millbrook Street, was destroyed by a WWII bomb in 1941.
The congregation did not lose heart and replaced the bombed building with a larger temporary one in 1950. Then, in 1957, the Elim Pentecostal Church took over a cinema in Parkend Road to accommodate larger congregations.
This was initially refurbished and adapted to accommodate for its new use, however the existing cinema seating and the balcony were retained until a further refurbishment.
At the beginning church was mainly attended in the evenings, and you would have had to get there early to secure a seat in the balcony, or downstairs.
The church later purchased the land adjacent the cinema building and used it to create what is currently our car park and most importantly the Charity Shop.
During the 1950s Gloucester Elim ran a very popular kids program called Sunshine Corner at the band stand in the adjacent Gloucester Park. The program included children songs, story telling and is still remembered today.
As the years passed, Gloucester Elim Church has evolved and become more and more an international congregation; however, it still retains some of the original families. In fact, relatives of the folks that attended church at the very beginning are still part of the church today.