Ballinderry Moravian Church, Portmore Road, Lower Ballinderry, Lisburn, County Antrim, BT28 2BF

Ballinderry Moravian Church is a symmetrical, double-height, roughcast rendered barn-style church rebuilt around 1835 following destruction by fire, standing on the north side of Portmore Road in Lower Ballinderry. The building is rectangular in plan and aligned north to south, with a two-storey former manse of similar date attached at its north end. Together with the adjacent graveyard, the church and manse form an important group. Alongside the nearby Kilwarlin Moravian Church, this ensemble represents the distinctive Moravian tradition of arranging associated but separate functions — worship, pastoral residence, and burial ground — in a linear sequence under one roof. The building makes a significant contribution to the social history of the district and is considered of wider national importance.

The roof is pitched natural slate. The roughcast rendered chimneystacks are corbelled and carry four decorative pots; they are positioned at the party wall shared with the former manse. A simple bell-cote sits at the south gable. Rainwater goods are replacement metal, carried on corbelled rendered eaves. External walls are roughcast rendered throughout, except for the principal south gable and its attached porch, which are finished in ruled-and-lined render with stepped painted quoins and a smooth rendered plinth. Windows are round-arched, multi-paned timber-framed sliding sash with painted projecting masonry sills.

The principal facade faces south. At ground-floor level it is abutted by a single-storey entrance porch with a pitched natural slate roof, scalloped timber bargeboard and finial. The exposed walling above shows stepped painted quoins and a double string course. The porch has a double vertically sheeted timber entrance door set within a smooth rendered surround, surmounted by a leaded light oculus and downlight. A round-arched fixed window on the east side of the porch is set in a plain plastered reveal. The west elevation has three windows arranged to the right. The east elevation has three windows arranged to the left. The north gable is abutted by the three-bay former manse, which is of similar height.

The plan layout and internal fabric have remained largely unaltered since the church was constructed in 1835. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1833 to 1838 describe the interior as measuring 38 feet by 23 feet, spacious and well lit. The pulpit, described as a modern and neat structure, stands at the north gable elevated some feet above the floor. A handsome brass chandelier was suspended from the ceiling. A door in the north gable connected the chapel to the minister's dwelling. The walls were of stone and lime and two feet in thickness. The chapel could accommodate 198 people, though at the time the memoir was written, around 1835, the interior had not yet been fully completed. The current church organ was installed in 1851 at a cost of 50 guineas; it was repaired in 1969 after years of neglect.

The church is set on a narrow site lying perpendicular to Portmore Road. The graveyard lies to the east, separated from the church by a narrow gravel pathway and a rubble stone wall with hedging. The graveyard's west boundary wall is lined with mid-19th century grave markers. At the south, the graveyard is partially enclosed by a roughcast rendered wall with stone coping and wrought-iron railings; the east and north boundaries are enclosed by hedging. The church and associated car parking can be reached from the east via Crumlin Road, or from a south entrance comprising a central wrought-iron vehicular gate supported on square roughcast rendered piers with stone pyramidal caps, flanked by a plinth wall and diminished pier of similar style supporting replacement painted metal railings.

The history of the site is well documented. The Moravian Church at Ballinderry was established in Lower Ballinderry by the Moravian minister and evangelist the Reverend John Cennick (1718–1755) in the 1750s. The land for the chapel was purchased from a local farmer named Ben Haddick, and the Marquis of Hertford charged £1 10s. rent for the site. The original chapel was a thatched building erected with the aid of Moravian congregations in Ireland and England. According to Kelly, it was opened on Christmas Day 1751 but was not formally recognised as a congregation until 1755. A letter in the Northern Ireland Environment Agency file states that the church was built on the site of an old cock-fighting pit.

In 1821 the original chapel was rebuilt and slated, a new organ was installed, and the interior was renovated at a total cost of £700 raised by subscription — a Mrs Bates contributed £325 and the Marquis of Hertford contributed £20. A young ladies' academy was also added to the chapel building at this time. On Easter Sunday 1835, the chapel was destroyed in an accidental fire. The current building was quickly constructed and opened on 16th June 1836. A girls' school had been established on the site in 1805.

The Townland Valuation of 1838 records the building as a "Moravian Chapel," a first-class-plus building measuring 60 feet by 25 feet and 14 feet high, valued at £4 14s. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs describe it as "a very neat oblong edifice, one storey high and slated, and situated nearly north and south," with "a neat cupola, a bell and van" over the south end, and "a very handsome two-storey and slated house for the minister's dwelling" attached at the north. The chapel first appears on the 1832 Ordnance Survey map in its current form as a lengthy oblong building extending from Portmore Road, confirming that the chapel and manse were joined from at least that date. The second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858 records the site as "Moravian Church," with one of two small outbuildings shown on the first edition having been removed. No further changes are discernible on later editions.

At the time the Ordnance Survey Memoirs were written, the Moravian membership had been dwindling and the average congregation ranged from 30 to 40 people. The minister, the Reverend John Chambers, received £40 annual income and resided in the attached manse, which the Townland Valuation of 1838 valued at £9 17s. 10d. Griffith's Valuation of 1856 to 1864 valued the chapel at £8. The manse was presumably the next property recorded in the valuation book, then occupied by the Reverend Henry Shaw and valued at £7. This valuation remained unchanged through the Annual Revisions until 1928. During the Irish Famine, Ballinderry Moravian Church helped to support fishermen operating around Lough Neagh.

The graveyard adjoining the church contains a large number of graves; around 1835 the oldest dated from 1767. The Moravian Church was an early European Protestant movement said to have predated Lutheranism. John Cennick is credited with establishing around 200 Moravian communities throughout Ireland. The following of the Moravian Church in Ireland has greatly diminished, but Ballinderry is one of a small number of congregations that have continued to practise the Moravian tradition. The end-to-end arrangement of chapel and manse has been noted by the architectural historian C. E. B. Brett, who described it as an oddity but approved of its practical logic, citing comparable examples at Taghmon in County Westmeath and a Methodist church in Castlebar. Kilwarlin Moravian Church in County Down, also founded by John Cennick, follows the same arrangement, as does the Moravian Church on University Road in Belfast.

The church was listed in 1991. In 1996 the exterior was replastered and the windows were replaced.