The first Protestant missionaries came to Visakhapatnam in 1805. They were from the London Missionary Society (LMS). This was the first protestant missionary society that had come to the Telugu-speaking areas of the Old Madras Presidency in 1805. After
their arrival, they focussed their attention mainly on opening schools,
charity homes and translating the Bible into Telugu. These missionaries
started Sunday worship services in English as well as in Telugu. But
these Sunday worship services were conducted in the school rooms, or at
Missionaries’ residences, or at the residences of some of the members of
the congregation. Surprisingly, for about 30 years, they did not
consider constructing a church building in Visakhapatnam. In
1835, a missionary by the name of Reverend James William Gordon from
the London Missionary Society arrived in Visakhapatnam. On his arrival,
he noticed that there was no chapel in the town and that the English and
Telugu congregations were conducting their worship services in school
rooms. Reverend Gordon decided to construct a chapel and called for a
meeting of the Congregation members and others. In the meeting, it was
decided that a suitable place would be found to raise a sufficiently
large church building. Members then came forward to collect Rs. 500.
After a few months, another missionary, Reverend Edward Porter joined at
Visakhapatnam and both reverends raised sufficient subscriptions from
local, as well as distant parts of India for the church building. They
ultimately chose a place near Old Town Gate where the Mission was
running a small school for native children. They purchased the site and
with the help of a military engineer, they drew plans for construction.
Foundations were dug in November 1835. A committee was formed to
supervise the construction of the building. On 25 September, 1836, the
chapel was dedicated. The English service was conducted in the morning
and the Telugu service was conducted in the afternoon on that day. This
was the first church building in Visakhapatnam, known as “Mission
Chapel”, constructed by the London Missionary Society. Both
the English and Telugu congregations went on conducting their worship
services in the same Mission Chapel building for some years. Later, the
Telugu congregation constructed a separate chapel for themselves on the
main road which was known as “Telugu Chapel”. After some time, the
English congregation started congregating for their services at a small
building called “Gospel House” at Thompson Street in Soldierpet. Their
reasoning was that the new Mission Chapel building is a little away from
their dwellings whereas the “Gospel House” is situated within their
place of habitation. So, for some years, the Mission Chapel building was
used for purposes other than worship services.
The London Missionary Society, after more than 100 years of service, decided
to close their work at Visakhapatnam and shift their base to the
Rayalaseema area in 1911. Their properties in Visakhapatnam were all
taken over by the Canadian Baptist Mission (CBM). Thereby, all the LMS
properties, which included the mission schools, missionary bungalows in
present-day CBM Compound, Gospel House etc., went into the hands of CBM. In
consequence of this change, the congregation worshipping in Gospel
House became Union Chapel. The old Mission Chapel building, which had
ceased to be a place of worship for some years, was repaired and
rededicated as “Andhra Baptist Church” in 1925. For this, a liberal
donation was made by one Mrs. Birra Seethayamma, a new convert from the
local Zamindari family. With little modifications, the first church
building in Visakhapatnam continues as Andhra Baptist Church under CBM
until the present day. The Telugu Chapel on the main road, constructed by LMS, remained as an independent church,
without getting transferred to CBM in 1911, along with all other
properties. This Telugu church was later named as “London Mission
Memorial Church” and is now under the Church of South India.
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