About Our Church

The history of the Methodist Church of Maharagama goes back to the year 1935. The church was first established as a small gathering of Methodists, under the leadership of Mr. Arthur Charles Abeywardena, who was the owner of Mahamegawatte Estate. This worship group gathered at the Mahamegawatte Waluwa, which was the home of Mr. Abeywardena.
The small congregation eventually grew into bigger crowds, & Rev. J. S. B. Mendis undertook the ministry. During this time, the church was considered as a church of the Kollupitiya-Wellawatte circuit. In the year 1951, the Southern Colombo circuit was started and the Maharagama Methodist Church became a part of that circuit.
Mr. Abeywardena, by this time, had donated the two buildings to the Methodist congregation. One building was to be used as the main church and the other as the mission house, where the Reverend and his family were to stay. The first official service and sermon, after the dedication of the church and mission house to the congregation, were conducted by Rev. Basil Jackson. This dedication took place on 31st of January, 1953.
On the 5th of July,1958, a new building was dedicated as the Sunday School building.Mr. E. W. Kannaggara was the chief guest at this occasion, and he donated the money to be used for furnishing the doors and windows of the Sunday School building.
According to this history, January 31st of 2017 is the 64th anniversary of the church and the 82nd anniversary of the congregation.

The Methodist Church in Sri Lanka

The First Methodist Bishop who is also known as the father of Methodist Missions, Rev Dr Thomas Coke from the United Kingdom decided open up Methodist missions in the East Indies and set to sail for Srilanka on the 30th December 1813, along with few other missionaries. Although Rev Coke died on the way, the rest of the missionaries arrived in Weligama in Galle in the year 1814. Since then these missionaries held their first service in the Dutch Church in Galle, they took on the responsibility of establishing the Methodist missions in most parts of the country.

The first Methodist Church was founded Batticaloa in the year 1814 and subsequently 08 more schools were established within a very short period. The First Sunday Schools was established on Kollupitiya in the year 1815 and started printing of books for children in the printing press that was established by Havard. The Kollupitiya Methodist Church was built in the year 1854 and subsequently purchased a land in Kollupitiya in 1865 which is where the present Methodist Church, headquarters is located along with the Methodist College.