About the Maggie O'Neill Centre

In the 1980s, Maggie O'Neill and a few of her relatives bought a building. It was an empty building on Liverpool Road in Huyton. It was built in the 1930s as a congregational hall. By the time they took it on, it was falling apart.

Maggie, her daughters and her daughters-in-law started meeting there, and in each other’s homes. Through the 1980s and 1990s, a handful of pastors came and went.

Over in the United States, there was a young Brummie called John Hemus. He had gone to America in his early twenties. Now in his thirties, he began to feel called home to the UK to start a church. On a visit, he met Maggie. She walked straight up to him. She said, “I’ve been praying, and God said you’re going to be my pastor.”

John laughed it off. He was running a thriving business in America, and his future looked settled.

But within a couple of years, he knew he had to come home. Everything fell into place. John and his wife Sherri closed the business and sold their home. They packed up their young family and moved to Huyton, off their own backs. It was the start of the adventure of a lifetime.

Funnily enough, John had arrived in America at 23. It was a family of Scousers who took him in and gave him a job. So it was no coincidence that he’d be called back to their city all those years later.

John and Sherri had a vision. They wanted to turn the old church hall into space for the community and for business. John wanted offices that would bring services into the heart of the community. Today, counselling services, therapists and other charities are based at the centre. When John arrived, it was a mouldy old building. Now it’s a business and community hub for Knowsley and Liverpool.

We named the building after Maggie to honour her. It helps us always remember how it began. It was a woman with a vision in her mind, love in her heart and family by her side.