A historic church dating back to 1860 and the arrival of slaves through the Underground Railroad, is closing.
Historian and Cemetery Board member Bryan Prince says the congregation broke away from the British Methodist Episcopal conference – or BME – in 2003 and became an independent church.
“Within the last three years, the leadership of the BME has claimed that the church is their property, and the people of North Buxton very much resisted that,” Prince says. “It was our ancestors who bought the land, built the church, maintained it over all those years, we all volunteered to build the Church Hall beside it, we care for the cemetery and the grounds, it’s home, it’s where we all went ot Sunday School, got married, where our loved ones are buried.”
However, because of a conference in 1913, the BME church is the legal owner of the building, and now wants to reclaim the property.
“They gave us three choices, either return to the BME fold, sign a two year lease, or they take the premises,” Prince explains.” This dragged on for quite some time with lawyers back and forth, finally we realized we can’t keep spending money and not win the legal battle. We asked could we lease it or could we buy it, and they said no.”
The final service at the church will be this Sunday at 11am.
For the foreseeable future, Prince says services will be held at the Buxton Museum.