BME Church of Owen Sound

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.

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.

What Methodists believe and how they worship