About Us
We share the gospel of Jesus Christ, gives hope to believers, cares for those in need to establish to the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.
Our History
As African American congregation on Chicago’s south side, Methodism in Black Chicago had its start in the latter part of the19th century, when Reverend S.C. Goosby established a mission church on the south side of the city. Near the end of the century, Reverend E.A. White expanded the mission work and by 1895 the first African American congregation of the Methodist Episcopal Church was established.
Gorham United Methodist Church began its journey thirty-five years after the establishment of the first Black congregation of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Chicago. Gorham United Methodist Church was founded in 1928 and it was known as Indiana Avenue Methodist Church due to its location on Indiana Avenue in Chicago’s Washington Park community.
In 1939, there was a merger of the Methodist Episcopal Church (North), the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and the Methodist Protestant Church which formed the United Methodist Church. In the late 1940s, Indiana Avenue Methodist Church was renamedGorham United Methodist Church in honor of its first Pastor, Reverend Pettis T. Gorham.