Congregation vacating historic church
Buxton landmark started by slaves who fled from U.S.
Members of a storied ChathamKent church started by escaped slaves more than 150 years ago are leaving the historic building at the end of the month, the final chapter in the years-long dispute with its former governing body. After years of toiling with the property owner — the British Methodist Episcopal Church — in the hopes of reaching a resolution, the Buxton congregation announced they’ll be vacating the church at the end of June. “It’s so sad .... We realized legally, we could not win,” said church member Bryan Prince. “We’re still reeling from all of it ... feelings are hurt, there’s a certain amount of anger out there.”
The congregation broke with the church in 2003, operating outside of its control for 15 years as the North Buxton Community Church, Prince said. The British Methodist Episcopal Church, which has 10 congregations throughout Ontario, still owned the property in the village of Buxton, about 15 kilometres southwest of Chatham.
In the years after the local congregation split with the provincial organization, both sides tried to negotiate an arrangement over the use of the Buxton church, longtime member Joyce Middleton said. The congregation continued to hold services in the church rentfree while talks with the conference waned after years of back and forth, she said.
“We cared for it and made improvements to it,” said Middleton. “We were operating under the premise that it was our church.” In late 2015, Middleton said, the British Methodist Episcopal organization tried to compel the Buxton congregation to return to its ranks. At one point, the possibility of a two-year lease was tabled. A proposal by the local congregation to buy the church was declined, British Methodist Episcopal Church lawyer Michael Czuma said.
The British Methodist Episcopal Church had filed an application to take the Buxton congregation to court in Toronto this September, Czuma said.
The group was demanding vacant possession of the property but the matter was settled before the court date.
Though the decision to leave is difficult, after years of mounting lawyer bills and hearings, it became clear a resolution wasn’t going to be possible, Prince said. “Everyone in the community was just stunned,” he said. While the Buxton congregation still follows the tenets of the British Methodist Episcopal faith, Prince said his local church wanted to chart its own path outside the direct control of a governing body. That governing body has a congregation in London, the Beth Emmanuel Church, which played a pivotal role in rescuing and restoring a fugitive slave chapel that dates from the 1800s.
Until now, Buxton congregation members tended to the day-to-day operations of their local church, including care and maintenance of the adjacent cemetery. After June 30, the British Methodist Episcopal Church will assume control of the cemetery, Czuma said. The soon-to-be vacant chapel will be used for church retreats, he said. “They’re going to use it. They’re not going to knock it down, it is still going to be used. That’s the plan,” Czuma said.
The church has a special place in the Buxton community, a settlement founded in 1849 by Irish Presbyterian Minister William King and 15 former American slaves. Along with other Underground Railroad refugees and abolitionists, the group purchased 11,564 acres of land to create a community for escaped slaves. By 1859, Buxton had a population of more than 1,000 people. To this day, many Buxton residents are descendants of the village’s earliest Underground Railroad settlers.