Rev. Owens: ‘A model minister for ministers’ in Boston

The Rev. Richard M. Owens, pastor of the People’s Baptist Church for more than four decades and former leader of the Black Ministerial Alliance, died last month at the Arrowhead Health Care in Riverdale, Georgia. He was 98.

During his 45-year tenure at People’s Baptist, church membership grew to all-time highs. Founded 200 years ago, the Baptist church was the first African American church in New England and is the oldest black Baptist church outside of the South.

Rev. Owens started at the church in 1934 as an assistant pastor and became pastor two years later.

Owens was born in Vernon Hill, Virginia, the youngest of sixteen children. After high school, Rev. Owens preached at the New Vernon Baptist Church in Halifax County, Virginia and was ordained three years later at Jerusalem Baptist Church in Roanoke, Virginia. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the Virginia Theological Seminary and College in 1930. After preaching at several churches, Owens came north to attend Andover Newton Theological School. In 1937, he graduated and married Viola Mabel Coleman.

During his time in Boston, Rev. Owens set a standard for community involvement. He marched with Dr, Martin Luther King when he came to Boston to protest school desegregation in 1965. He served as court chaplain in Roxbury Juvenile District Court and became the first black to sit on the board of trustees of New England Baptist Hospital.

The Rev. Michael Haynes, the returned pastor of Roxbury’s 12th Baptist Church, said in a published report that Rev. Owens was “a sort of the model minister for ministers in this town. He was known as the dean of Boston’s black clergy… His approach was bringing people together. He was not a part of arguments or fights but was a reconciler.”

Rev. Owens said as much in his 1995 autobiography, “I Wanted to Preach.”

“While I wanted to preach, and preach I did, I soon discovered that preaching was not just in the pulpit alone and that my ministry was not confined to the church alone,” Owens wrote. “The courts, the streets, the prisons, and the neighborhoods are excellent places to witness the redemptive love of Jesus and the saving power of the Gospel.”

Rev. Owens moved to Georgia five years ago to be closer to his family.

In addition to a daughter, Rev. Owens leaves one grandchild. A funeral service was held last week at the Christians for Change Baptist Church in College Park, Georgia.