Christ Church, Mirihana

The Anglican Church commenced work in this area in 1822 with the arrival of CMS missionaries. In 1833, a school existed in Mirihana among a few other schools in the Kotte area. Early members of the Church gathered in this school for worship. In September 1889 at a historic meeting with CMS officials, Rev. R.T Dowbiggin a schoolmaster and his wife, Mr. William De Silva and his brothers Joseph, Benjamin and Mudliyar John saw the need for a separate place for divine worship for the Mirihana parishioners. At this meeting a 11 perch block of land from the Mirihana Walauwe(now police station) was donated to build the Church by the De Silva family.

The building of the Church commenced immediately. Funds for the construction came from the congregation and friends, and from the Jubilee fund of the CMS for Africa and the East, the following reference is made to Mirihana: “A new Church has been built at Mirihana, an out-station, which was opened in April 1890…….. Mr. Dowbiggin wrote: “I rejoice to say that a rich spiritual blessing has rested upon several of our congregations during the past eight or ten months, and more especially at Talangama-Mirihana, Nugegoda and Cotta have also been revived……………… “ ( Source: Mirihana, A Desultory History by Frederick Medis)

The Lord Bishop of Colombo Rt. Rev. Dr. R.S Copleston attended the opening and dedication of the chapel on 7 April 1890. (Source: Christ Church, Mirihana, cutting sent by………)

In the early 1930’s with new settlers coming to Nugegoda and the Church at Nugegoda expanding many of the Mirihana congregation were attracted to worship there. As a result Mirihana was left with a few elderly members. They were facing a financial crisis and were unable to upkeep the church buildings. Sunday services became gradually less frequent. In the 1950’s the Church remained neglected and closed for awhile.

In 1964, a young curate, Rev. Patrick Fernando spearheaded the revival of the Church by sending a petition to then Bishop Harold De Soysa. The Church which was closed for a long period got a new lease of life. What he started was taken over by rev. Lloyd Weerasuriya together with Mr. Berty Jayasinghe and wife Margaret and some enthusiastic young people such as Russell Rebert, Sunil De Silva, Reinzie Perera, and Melwin De Silva(all of whom later joined the sacred ministry) who helped reorganize worship at Mirihana. On 6 October 1966, on the Day of the Feast of St. Thomas the doors of the Mirihana Church were open again for worship.

In 1975, Mirihana Church received full status to operate as an independent mission.