Cornwallis Street Baptist Church, Baptist church in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
New Horizons Baptist Church is a Baptist church on Cornwallis Street in Halifax, Nova Scotia, founded in 1832 by Black Refugees. It was renamed from Cornwallis Street Baptist Church in 2018, and a Parks Canada plaque outside honours its first leader, Richard Preston.
New Horizons Baptist Church was established in 1832 by Black Refugees in Halifax. Under Richard Preston it became the "Mother Church" of a network of Black Baptist churches in Nova Scotia, with daughter congregations at Preston (1842), Beechville (1844), Hammonds Plains (1845), Africville (1849) and Dartmouth. Meetings held in the church gave rise to the African Friendly Society, the African Abolition Society and the African United Baptist Association of Nova Scotia. It was renamed Cornwallis Street Baptist Church in 1892 and took its present name in 2018.
Meetings at the church produced the African Friendly Society, the African Abolition Society and the African United Baptist Association of Nova Scotia. For over 30 years the congregation ran a Hot Lunch Program for local schoolchildren, who called it "The Dinner Church". Singer Portia White was a member and choir director here.
The church stands on Cornwallis Street in Halifax; a Parks Canada plaque honouring Rev. Richard Preston, designated a person of national significance in 2009, is mounted outside. Sunday services follow the Baptist tradition of the Canadian Baptists of Atlantic Canada. Contact the congregation before planning a visit, since the building is in regular community use.
The name change was decided in two stages: in September 2017 the leadership invited congregation members to submit entries, and in May 2018 the congregation approved "New Horizons Baptist Church". The former name, adopted in 1892, came from the street the church stands on.
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