# BME Church of Owen Sound

Methodist church in Owen Sound, Ontario.

Source: https://owensound.church/churches/bme-church-of-owen-sound/
Last verified: 2026-09-19

## Service times
- Sunday 11:00 a.m. (Sunday Worship)

The congregation states that the building is not wheelchair accessible at present. It publishes no office telephone number; contact is by email.

## Address
245 11th Street West, Owen Sound, ON N4K 3S7

## Contact
- Website: https://bmechurchofowensound.com
- Email: bmechurchofowensound@gmail.com
- Affiliation: British Methodist Episcopal Church of Canada

## What they believe
The British Methodist Episcopal Church is a Methodist body, organized in Canada in 1856 by Black Canadians who separated from the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Methodists hold the historic creeds and John Wesley's account of salvation: grace offered to everyone, assurance of forgiveness as an ordinary part of Christian experience, and holiness of life as the goal towards which grace works.

## What to expect
The congregation describes itself as having been 'a cornerstone for the Black community for over 150 years'. The building was designated under the Ontario Heritage Act in 1987, and the congregation is restoring it and developing a Legacy Hall to tell the story of African Canadian heritage in Grey County.

## About this congregation
The BME Church of Owen Sound has met on 11th Street West since February 1911, when the congregation bought the building from the Westside Methodists for a dollar. Before that it worshipped in a church of its own that came to be called Little Zion.

The congregation itself is older than the building and almost as old as the city. It traces its beginnings to the freedom seekers who reached the head of Georgian Bay from 1839 by the Underground Railroad, and was organized in 1856 within the British Methodist Episcopal Church, the body formed that year by Black Canadians who had separated from the African Methodist Episcopal Church. One of its early ministers, the Reverend Thomas Henry Miller, helped found the Emancipation Picnic in 1862, which is still held each August in Harrison Park and is the longest-running celebration of its kind in Canada. Among its trustees was Dad Henson, a cousin of Josiah Henson.

The church was designated under the Ontario Heritage Act in 1987. Worship is on Sunday morning at eleven.

## About this listing
Part of OwenSound.church. These listings cover a growing selection of congregations in Owen Sound; they are not yet exhaustive.
Checked against: bmechurchofowensound.com (retrieved 2026-09-19); owensoundtourism.ca (retrieved 2026-09-19); doorsopenontario.on.ca (retrieved 2026-09-19).
What Methodist churches believe: https://owensound.church/denominations/methodist/