Ballymena a town beset with charismatic deceit as new Mid Antrim Vineyard church is founded

Jeremiah 12:10: “Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.”

No doubt most readers will be familiar with the old saying, it never rains but it pours.

It essentially means that unwelcome occurrences come thick and fast one after the other or all at the same time.

And one might apply that to Ballymena in County Antrim, a town already troubled by the charismatic, Wrightbus-linked Green Pastures Church and now faced with a new church in a similar, shallow, easy-believist vein.

That church is Mid Antrim Vineyard, formed out of the extremely troubling Causeway Coast Vineyard church, based in Coleraine on the north coast of Northern Ireland.

It will be ran by Hugh and Alyson Reid (pictured, top), who have apparently been part of Causeway Coast Vineyard for the past 10 years and live in the Ballymena area.

As we have discussed on numerous occasions, anything associated with Causeway Coast Vineyard, or indeed the Vineyard movement in general, ought to be treated with the utmost of caution.

Infamously, the former lead pastor of Causeway Coast Vineyard, Alan Scott (pictured, below), told his sadly credulous followers when speaking at Causeway Coast Vineyard that he was “all in” with the Pope and poured scorn on the notion one could be opposed to the worship of Mary through the rosary, a dreadful Romish blasphemy and deceit.

Was he swiftly ejected from the pulpit (well, stage, pulpits are terribly old fashioned don’t you know?) and told in no uncertain terms such Christ-denying blasphemy would not be tolerated?

Of course not – he continued without fear of reproach before he got a big move to sunny California to take over at Anaheim Vineyard.

One of the key figures in Causeway Coast Vineyard is Peter Lynas, a hardened and determined ecumenist who has rightly earned the moniker, ‘Papist’ Peter Lynas.

Causeway Coast Vineyard’s lead pastors currently are husband and wife duo (that much-beloved combination of so many charismatic fellowships) Neil and Janet Young (1 Timothy 2:11-12, pictured, below) and Neil Young, as we have previously referred to, has something of a penchant for quoting Romanists on his Twitter page.

And back in May this year, Causeway Coast Vineyard held their ‘Encounter More’ conference, with two of the headline attractions being representatives of that awful, heretical US based megachurch, Bethel Ministries.

They were Jeremy Riddle, a leading character in the Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) scene, and Havilah Cunnington, a self-proclaimed prophet who is anything but. You can read about her ludicrous ‘prophecy’ by clicking here.

Causeway Coast Vineyard had further Bethel representatives present at their services in April on the same weekend that heretical organisation held a conference organised by Journey Community Church in Antrim.

Bethel Ministries is linked with all sorts of bizarre, outrageous practices and beliefs and is corrosive to any who come in contact with it.

From encouraging students at its ‘Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry’ going to a morgue to try to raise people from the dead to claiming God manifests Himself at their meetings through the medium of gold dust and feathers, it is plain to see this is a church which does not over burden itself with acquainting itself with the Word of God.

Throw into the mix the disputed claims of ‘grave sucking’ and the promotion of extra biblical revelation, and you have a church which is fearfully at odds with God’s Word.

But Causeway Coast Vineyard, which Hugh and Alyson Reid have been attending and leading small groups in throughout all of these blasphemes, was trumpeting these characters as wonderful examples to follow.

Also featuring at that conference were ABBA ‘prayer dancing’ and Rome supporting Pete Greig and another big fan of compromise with Romish blasphemies, Mike Pilavachi (pictured, below).

So anyone attending Mid Antrim Vineyard will be going to meetings ran by people who are happy to promote and be linked with a church which promotes heretics, false prophets and Romish compromisers.

We said at the start it never rains but it pours, and this is a veritable deluge of devilish deceits on offer.

Another very practical concern is over Hugh and Alyson Reid, the couple (there you are again!) who are taking on this new venture, which held its first service on 3 November.

Are they theologically trained? What qualifications do they have to be shepherds of what they would consider to be God’s flock (and no doubt there may well be some truly born again among it)?

This is the problem with so many of these charismatic, fellowship type churches. Of course, many training colleges are to be studiously avoided rather than studied at, but are these just enthusiastic individuals who have taken it upon themselves to have the spiritual oversight of, possibly, hundreds of souls?

There is a fine example of the setting up of, essentially, any old individual to be a priest or pastor and the fruitlessness of such in the book of Judges.

Judges 17:7-8, 10, 12-13 says: “And there was a young man out of Beth-lehem-judah of the family of Judah, who was a Levite, and he sojourned there. And the man departed out of the city from Beth-lehem-judah to sojourn where he could find a place: and he came to mount Ephraim to the house of Micah, as he journeyed. And Micah said unto him, Dwell with me, and be unto me a father and a priest, and I will give thee ten shekels of silver by the year, and a suit of apparel, and thy victuals. So the Levite went in. And Micah consecrated the Levite; and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah. Then said Micah, Now know I that the Lord will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest.”

What was the qualification of this man to be a priest to Micah? Simply that he was a Levite.

Did it matter that he was not qualified for the role and was happy to serve in a house where idols were set up? Not to them, it didn’t.

What are the qualifications of these set up as pastors here in Mid Antrim Vineyard? The fact they call themselves Christian?

The instability of such a situation was quickly exposed in the next chapter when this Levite, receiving a better offer, dropped Micah like a hot potato and took the false idols with him.

We have referred to enthusiasm and we do not dispute the genuine nature of Hugh and Alyson Reid’s efforts, and we would ask readers to pray for them that they might be awakened to the grave errors in the Vineyard movement, which go right to its roots, and reject such charismatic deceptions.

Likewise, we must also pray that such efforts, in their current guise, will not take off and instead that Ballymena, already having the similar charismatic deceptions of Green Pastures inflicted upon it, would experience a tremendous heaven-sent revival and not a revival which exists solely in the imaginations of those running such churches.

Let that also be our prayer for the rest of Northern Ireland, that God would move in mighty power throughout our country and bring great times of refreshing to this land.

Let us not be carried away by the lights and music of the charismatic delusion, but let us firmly set our eyes upon Christ, serious study of His Word and dedication to living a holy, righteous, sanctified life.

Acts 3:19: “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord”.

Wrightbus apparently saved, but Green Pastures criticism should focus on its heretic promoting

Colossians 3:1-2: “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.”

While the whole sorry saga surrounding the future of the financially stricken Wrightbus, and the Green Pastures Church so closely linked to the owners which has benefited from around £16 million of donations in recent years from the struggling firm, has played out, there is an even greater shame than the mess which has filled newspapers for the past number of weeks.

It is absolutely tragic that the jobs of so many people, affecting so many families, could be left hanging by a thread.

Mercifully, it appears these jobs will now be saved following an announcement of a deal in principle having been struck.

A lot of ire has been focused on Green Pastures, the church ran by self-proclaimed “visionary” Jeff Wright, who also happens to be the majority shareholder of the Cornerstone Group which owned Wrightbus.

This has included peaceful protests at Green Pastures these past few Sundays, and much of the anger surrounds the frankly eye-watering level of financial support the church has received.

£16 million could pay for a lot of hymn books and pews, not that a church like Green Pastures would favour such old-fashioned items like that.

The generosity of Wrightbus seemed to fly in the face of conventional wisdom as well, given they made a “charitable donation” of more than £4 million to Green Pastures in the same year as Wrightbus recorded a pre-tax loss of £1.15 million.

We are far from being financiers or hot shot business leaders, but surely even a child would understand that doesn’t make a great deal of sense?

The anger and frustration of workers was further exacerbated by what seemed to be the glacial pace discussions over a rescue deal for the business from an English investor seemed to be progressing, with the “visionary” Pastor Jeff Wright again drawing a great deal of criticism.

The reason for this was due to the seemingly rather bizarre arrangement whereby the Wrightbus premises are owned separately from the manufacturing business and held in a company called Whirlwind Property Two, which is not part of the Wright group and is therefore not under the control of the administrator.

That property company is controlled by Pastor Jeff Wright.

Pastor Jeff Wright is one of the most senior figures, if not the most senior figure in Green Pastures and his church issued a statement on their Facebook page on 27th September, two days after it became apparent just how much of a hole Wrightbus was in.

Given his status, it is hard to imagine how he didn’t play a role in the composition of the statement, which could merely state how grateful Green Pastures was for the eye-watering donations it has received.

They said: “As any church would be, we are devastated by the huge number of job losses at the Wright Group and we are especially heartbroken because of the impact this will have on so many individuals and families in our local towns and communities.

“We understand the hurt, anger and confusion felt by so many, as many within our own congregation have been personally affected by these job losses and we are doing all we can to support them at this time.

“As with any donation we receive as a church, we are incredibly grateful for the support the Wright family have offered us. They, along with many others, chose to be generous when their family business enabled them to do so.

“The leadership, staff and people of Green Pastures Church will continue to love and serve people in our community in and through these challenging times.”

Cold comfort was the theme of the more charitable responses by those responding to the statement on Facebook.

And while Green Pastures and Pastor Jeff Wright have been on the receiving end of scathing criticism throughout this saga, we want to address something else about Green Pastures and Pastor Jeff Wright.

That is the leading role that Green Pastures and Pastor Jeff Wright are playing in the increasingly prominent charismania movement in Northern Ireland.

Green Pastures is typical of such churches in that services are more akin to rock concerts and where all forms of traditional worship are eschewed in favour of worldly entertainment.

And they welcomed into their midst in the spring one of the leading characters in the wretched American megachurch, Bethel Supernatural Ministries.

There are so many issues with Bethel it is hard to know where to start, but some of its dreadful charismatic excesses can be seen by clicking here.

Havilah Cunnington (or Havilah Cunning-one, pictured, below) of Bethel Supernatural Ministries performed at Green Pastures and claims to be a “prophet” and even sells a “Prophetic Personalities” course for $49 which apparently leads people to be “unleash[ed] into a bold life of hearing from heaven”.

Colossians 2:8 bears a warning for us of falling for the nonsense spewed out by the like of Havilah Cunning-one. It says: “Beware lest any man (or woman, in this instance) spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.”

We have highlighted her outrageous claims and ludicrous excuse for prophesy previously, which you can read about by clicking here.

To recommend Havilah Cunning-one to anyone as a spiritual guide is reprehensible and yet that is what Pastor Jeff Wright has done by having her at Green Pastures.

While there may well be justifiable criticism of both Pastor Jeff Wright and Green Pastures over their role in Wrightbus’ collapse, there is much more fault to be found in promoting such disgraceful nonsense in the name of Christ.

The elevation of so many characters with no theological training in so many churches, particularly those in the charismaniac movement, is reminiscent of the religious situation in the days of the evil king of Israel, Jeroboam the son of Nebat.

1 Kings 13:33: “After this thing Jeroboam returned not from his evil way, but made again of the lowest of the people priests of the high places: whosoever would, he consecrated him, and he became one of the priests of the high places.”

“Whosoever would” became a priest, and that appears to be the chief qualification to become a ‘pastor’ in so many of these churches.

Such a selection process was considered a symptom of Jeroboam carrying on in his “evil way” and the result was the dreadful pollution of religion in the land and the promotion of paganism and idolatry.

This is what we are seeing in Ulster today, sadly.

And what this does is leads to widespread ignorance, an environment in which all manner of false teaching can flourish as the listener is stripped of the power of discernment.

Hosea 4:6: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.”

Creating such an environment at Green Pastures where so many people are taken in by the bright lights, loud music and razzmatazz is what this church should be receiving most criticism for.

Dear reader, make sure your voice is heard audibly and continually sounding forth against such churches as that of Green Pastures.

Let us never be afraid to speak out against any fellowship which fails to abide by Biblical standards and any church which promotes heretics like those who find their home within the likes of Bethel.

Let us guard our separation diligently.

2 Corinthians 6:17: “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you”.

Green Pastures church welcomes in Bethel heretic ‘prophet’ Havilah Cunnington

2 Peter 2:1-2: “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.”

There is a proliferation of charismatic churches springing up and, on the face of it, prospering throughout Northern Ireland at present, and among the most notable of these is Green Pastures, based in the Ballymena area in County Antrim.

Like many of the more notable of these movements, leading figures within them have close familial links to very high ranking and well to do businessmen, and Green Pastures is no exception.

Lead pastor, Jeff Wright, is the son of Wrightbus founder, Sir William Wright, a major figure in Northern Ireland industry.

And that same business acumen is carried over into the church, as Green Pastures was able to stump up £4 million a number of years ago to purchase a huge 97 acre site just outside Ballymena.

As well as building a church there, the plans also include, according to the Belfast Telegraph, “social housing, a hotel, car showroom, riverside restaurants, an outdoor pursuits centre, a training and education centre, student accommodation, a nursing home, an all-weather football pitch and a wedding chapel.”

Plans to also build a supermarket had to be abandoned last year following an outcry from business owners in the town centre who were concerned that such a move would have a detrimental effect on businesses in the town.

Such work is apparently well under way, and last month they welcomed in a representative of another church which has created its own mini village format, Bethel Supernatural Ministries based in Redding in California.

Havilah Cunnington (Cunning-one, perhaps) is a leading figure in Bethel and claims to be a prophet. She is a character we featured previously on this page as she was one of the figures invited to the ‘Encounter More’ Conference ran by leading lights in the charismaniac deceit, Causeway Coast Vineyard last month.

And the night after she finished her run at Causeway Coast Vineyard, she was performing on stage at Green Pastures.

We will remind readers of how she is a profitable ‘prophet’.

Havilah Cunning-one offers a “Prophetic Personalities” course, in which she “teach[es] on four types of prophetic gifts, unleashing you into a bold life of hearing from Heaven.”

There we were thinking God spoke through His Word.

Romans 10:17: “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

This “Prophetic Personalities” course costs $49, apparently. It is odd that if Havilah Cunning-one is so keen for people to be “unleash[ed] into a bold life of hearing from heaven” she should put a price on it.

Mind you, for $49 you do get “added bonuses” such as a “Deep Dive Cheatsheet for each Personality Type, 30 days of Activations, Private Q&A for Students and Private Facebook Community.”

A bargain, we’re sure you will agree.

We also looked at that time at one of her great ‘prophecies’, featured in an online video, appropriately called “The Trash Can”, in which she spoke “prophetically over” attendees, telling them, rather illuminatingly, “some of you have been birthing something”.

Her tremendous word from God was nothing more than a generic statement which could just have easily been spoken by a fortune teller hoping to dupe the undiscerning.

And sadly it is such spiritual fortune tellers which are polluting pulpits up and down the land today, never mind the fact that Havilah Cunning-one is acting outside the bounds set by God.

1 Timothy 2:11-12 illustrates this clearly: “Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.”

We are told in God’s Word that we will know if someone is truly a prophet if their word comes true.

Deuteronomy 18:21-22: “And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken? When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.”

How can anyone in any possible way judge if Havilah Cunnington’s prophecy is coming or will come true? It is so vague and generic you couldn’t possibly make that call.

You might just as well stand up at the front of a church gathering and say, “some of you are thinking of buying a new car”. It is self-evidently nonsense to trumpet it as prophesy.

The passage quoted above says we are not to “be afraid of him” (or her in this case) whose word does not come to pass.

That word “afraid” carries the meaning of “standing in awe” and how many people erroneously stand in awe of such false prophets as Havilah Cunnington?

How many people are lured in to this nonsense by churches such as Green Pastures?

In addition to Pastor Jeff Wright (pictured, above), there appears to be a number of other pastors, “many pastors” (Jeremiah 12:10) in fact, including Pastor Barry Weir, ‘Pastor’ Karen Weir, Pastor Jonny Mullan, Pastor Trevor Dunlop and Pastor Jason Kennedy.

These individuals do a great disservice to the people under their direction by recommending a false prophet to them.

Indeed, there is much to be concerned about with Green Pastures Church.

There are the standard, but no less offensive to God, marks of God defiance present in so many such churches such as the rock music, absence of head covering for females and the eschewing of respectful dress for church, traditional hymns, the Authorised Version of the Bible and proper, Biblical gender roles within the church.

A look at their website also shows that their youth groups are called RIOT and Revolution, which are hardly the sort of things you would want to be promoting, and they even run classes on how to worship God through dance.

This is quite clearly a church which has incorporated the world so as to make it attractive to the world.

And this is quite obvious when they bring in Havilah Cunnington, a senior figure in Bethel Ministries, which claims extra-Biblical revelation and where some of its ministry students have visited morgues to try to raise people from the dead.

We would urge readers to avoid Green Pastures at all costs and not to be taken in by their charismatic blend of matiness, worldly entertainment and pre-service cups of coffee.

1 Corinthians 1:17-18: “For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.”

Ballymena Presbyterian church invites Papists to ecumenical prayer meeting

The High Kirk Presbyterian Church in Ballymena has held an ecumenical prayer meeting to which practising Roman Catholics, who offer prayer to Mary and to dead so-called ‘Saints’, were warmly invited.

Entitled ‘Prayers of Blessing for Ballymena’, the event hosted by the allegedly Protestant church was advertised in the Roman Catholic parish bulletin in the County Antrim town.

Demonstrating the continued unchanged nature of the Church of Rome, the Roman Catholic faithful in the town are also advised in the same bulletin, just a couple of lines down, that they can gain a “plenary indulgence” between the 1st and 8th of November by “visiting a cemetery or church and praying for the dead”.

The issue of indulgences was the proverbial “straw that broke the camel’s back” for Martin Luther 501 years ago and prompted the then Roman Catholic monk to nail his 95 Theses to the door of the Church in Wittenberg.

And over half a millennium later, Rome is still offering its false gospel of works-based salvation to its poor, deluded adherents.

Not only that, they are still teaching the blasphemy of offering prayers for the dead, something which is utterly contrary to the Bible’s teaching.

As we have said in previous articles, there is a fine Scriptural example in the story of David and his adulterous child with Bathsheba.

Remember, that David, despite his sin (and we are all sinners), was called a man after God’s own heart.

His view, when his child died, as articulated in 2 Samuel 12:22-23, was: “And he said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept: for I said, Who can tell whether God will be gracious to me, that the child may live? But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.”

David ceased to petition God for his child when he died, as he knew there was no point, yet Rome is to this day blasphemously claiming, and this particular indulgence is coming from the Pope himself, that prayers for the dead are profitable both for the deceased and for the person offering the prayer.

And this is what High Kirk Presbyterian Church in Ballymena is seeking to associate themselves with. Shame on them.

The ecumenical prayer meeting they hosted was held on Thursday, 1 November, the day after Reformation Day, and the 1st of November just so happens to have been the first day of the week of indulgence granted by “that Antichrist”, the Pope.

So there could well have been those practising Romanists who had offered prayers for the dead in a Papist graveyard before heading across town to High Kirk Presbyterian Church to offer prayers there.

What a dreadfully confused situation this is.

Adding to the confusion is the question of to whom were the prayers offered in High Kirk Presbyterian Church? Rome encourages the praying to Mary and to dead ‘Saints’.

The Bible teaches in 1 Timothy 2:5 that “there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus”.

“No man cometh unto the Father, but by me”, says Jesus in John 14:6.

But here we have Romanists, who are told by their religious leaders to offer up all manner of polluted worship, coming into a so-called Protestant church and being encouraged to take part in what is clearly an ecumenical prayer meeting.

There will be no true blessing in Ballymena while church leaders reject the Biblical principle of separation from the workers of evil.

This is clearly commanded in Ephesians 5:11: “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.”

This church, whose minister is Rev Norman Cameron (pictured, top), has a track record for ecumenical compromise, with last year’s Christmas service featuring a performance by the choir of a local Roman Catholic primary school, St Brigid’s, while in 2013 they hosted an event called ‘City Changing Unity’, with that event description saying its target was “transforming communities through inter-church partnerships”.

This is brazenly ecumenical activity.

As the week of plenary indulgences proves, Rome has moved not one iota from its anti-Scriptural stance of more than 500 years ago.

Sadly, so many formerly Protestant churches have departed from the true faith and have rejected God and His Word.

We don’t see practitioners of other faiths, and they false faiths, conceding ground the way these lily-livered alleged Protestants are.

Let us fearlessly take our stand, hold fast our glorious Protestant heritage and never give in to the enemies of the gospel.

Jeremiah 2:11: “Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit.”

Jeremiah 2:32: “Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number.”