One of Northern Ireland’s best-known evangelists has suffered a serious heart attack, Alf McCreary reported in yesterday’s Belfast Telegraph
The report states:
Pastor James McConnell, who is 74, took ill on Sunday of last week, just two hours before he was due to conduct morning service.
He was taken to Antrim Area Hospital where he remains in a stable condition.
According to the Whitewell Metropolitan Tabernacle, where Mr McConnell is a senior pastor, he suffered “quite considerable damage” to his heart resulting in him requiring “triple heart bypass surgery,” which is expected to take place in four to six weeks.
Mr McConnell will be away indefinitely from his church on Belfast’s Shore Road which attracts large congregations to its Sunday and midweek services.
It is only the second time in over 54 years of service that Mr McConnell has not held his services, which are regularly attended by First Minister Peter Robinson and wife Iris among others.
Mr McConnell has had a remarkable career as a preacher and evangelist. He started in an Orange hall decades ago before establishing the Whitewell Tabernacle, where his spirited preaching attracted large audiences.
His regular congregation grew and he set up the Metropolitan Tabernacle in 1994.
He also carried his message to other venues in Northern Ireland, and in the past few months held successful rallies at Ravenhill rugby ground and the Odyssey Arena in April.
In January this year the often controversial pastor also delivered an emotional sermon to over a thousand people in predominately Catholic west Belfast.
In 2009, the east Belfast preacher smashed up a Romanian children’s home funded by his congregation because he learned a paedophile ring he believed to be close to the Romanian Government had designs on the home.
While Mr McConnell is recovering associate pastor, David Purse, his nominated successor, will be in charge, and took the main services last Sunday.
Profile
James McConnell was born on May 15, 1938 into humble beginnings in east Belfast. He was ordained to the Christian Ministry when he was 17 and within two years had founded the Whitewell church. The pastor preaches not only to his crowd at the Whitewell Metropolitan Tabernacle in Belfast but also at larger