For over 100 years the members of this church (Mount Zion) have been a witness to the love and power of Christ Jesus.

 

Mt. Zion owes its beginnings to the deep religious conviction of a slave named Isaac Braxton.  Isaac Braxton, a native-born slave lived on the Edwin Coad Farm.  One day working in the field he professed the religion of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Against great odds he decided to embrace the Methodist religion.  This was annoying to his master, which resulted in his master deciding to whip the idea out of him.  The whipping post could not shake the foundation of this humble slave's faith, and his master sent him across the river to the priests, where they might isolate his new found theory while in solitary confinement.  He was placed in a small cell which possessed only one window and was given only bread and water, while remaining there for one week.  At the end of his punishment, he was unable to renounce his theory and he decided to do more for the Lord.  He was sent back across the river to Captain Bennett’s Farm whereupon he started prayer and praise services from house to house.  This type of worship continued until Dr. Caleb M. Jones (1872) gave the group one acre of land from the Lockman site where a house of worship could be built.  The churchmen went into the woods, hewed out logs and built a house of worship twenty by thirty feet.  This land was deeded to trustees.  After completion of this building, they petitioned the Washington Annual Conference for admission and a pastor was appointed (Rev. R. H. Alexander), and the church was named Mt. Zion in 1908.

  

During the administration of Rev. J. W. Dockett, a new church was erected to replace the one destroyed by fire.  Brothers Sam Shubrooks, William Clayton, Sr., and William Clayton, Jr. helped erect the present Mt. Zion Church which was completed in time to entertain the session of the District Conference in 1908.  In 1927, William and Della Bush exchanged ½ acre of their land for a like amount of the original church lot.

Under the administration of the late R. H. Johnson, the building was renovated, and the church hall was completed and a new modern parsonage was erected.  The first District Conference in St. Mary’s County was held in Mt. Zion in 1945.  In 2013, Mt. Zion United Methodist Church, a vibrant congregation was led by Pastor Derrick Walton, who was a strong spiritual leader.  Under his leadership the church continued to grow in unity.  Then Rev. Doris Rothwell came and continued the tradition of church leadership and growth.  In 2021, Rev. Bruce K. Jackson, Sr. joins us as our new Pastor.