by Gregory Holman, KSMU/Ozarks Public Radio
Father Moses Berry died Jan. 12 following a brief stint in hospice care after months in the hospital, according to online postings by family members and two Orthodox parishes. He was in his early 70s.
With the Ozarks community, Father Moses shared a mission to remember the vibrant history of African Americans in southwest Missouri — alongside one of the most destructive chapters in the life of the nation: slavery.
Funeral services for Father Moses Berry are scheduled to be held on Monday, Jan. 15, at 6 p.m. at Theotokos Unexpected Joy Church, 810 Woodbine Rd., Ash Grove. A Divine Liturgy and burial is scheduled for the church at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 16, followed by a meal.
Recalling the origins of his Ozarks Afro-American Heritage Museum in a 2003 interview on Ozarks Public Television's OzarksWatch, Moses said, “All of our friends encouraged us to start a museum. Well, we weren’t quite ready to do that, but I’m always moved by the African American proverb that says ‘start before you’re ready.’ ”
Back in 2002, hundreds of people showed up for the grand opening of the museum on Ash Grove's Main Street — some traveling from as far away as Kansas City.
Up through 2013, Father Moses curated the museum in the town where he was born and where his ancestors lived.
Father Moses said, “William Berry — there's not much known about William Berry, except that he rode into Ash Grove sometime around 1869 driving a matched pair of Percheron horses with fancy harness. And that's about all we know about, you know, his origins. We all — but we do know that his wife Caroline Boone Berry was raised on the Boone plantation, just outside of town. She was actually Nathan Boone‘s granddaughter, Daniel Boone's great-granddaughter, and my great-grandmother.”
The museum collection, now digitized online by Berry’s daughter, Dorothy, at oaahm.omeka.net, includes a trove of artifacts dating back to the 1830s. The quilts, furniture, portraits — even toys and horse equipment — reflect family tradition, Black American life and rural culture.
The museum collection also documents the physical legacy of enslavement — with ankle chains, screw locks, neck irons and slave-trading medallions.
In the 2003 OzarksWatch interview, Moses matter-of-factly demonstrated some of the mechanisms of slavery's bonds: “Well, I have this collection of manacles and shackles and ball and chain from the slave era of our country. This particular piece is, you know, called neck iron. It goes on like this: You put this around the neck, and this padlock, which is a lock called the screw lock, and the screw lock goes in this little hole, and that's how they held the slave secure.”
Video tells story of Father Moses Berry
Local video journalist Ed Fillmer, while serving as “Journalist in Residence” at The History Museum on the Square, produced a video about Father Moses Berry. In 2003, Fillmer spent a few days with Moses at his black history museum in Ash Grove. Fillmer wrote: “This is one man's story about being black in a predominately white area, and what the decades have taught him about racial inequities and faith in family.”
A nationally known community leader
But Father Moses’s renown went far beyond local TV.
The faithful called Father Moses Berry a “beautiful soul” and a “great priest of the church.” In 2022, a council of church leadership including Eastern Orthodox Archbishop Daniel recognized Father Moses with one of their highest honors for a priest, the Jeweled Cross. Last year, he was inducted into the Missouri Public Affairs Hall of Fame.
The New York Times called him “a one-man racial reconciliation committee,” citing his work to share Black history and Orthodox Christian spirituality.
And for many loved ones and friends, Berry was simply “Abba Moses.” “Abba” is a biblical word referring to the close, intimate relationship between child and father — a bit like “papa.”
In a book on the Orthodox Christian church in America, scholar D. Oliver Herbel writes that Father Moses was characterized by a search for “otherwordly Christianity” and links between the Black experience in America and the ancient African church.
With his wife, Magdalena Berry, Father Moses had two children, Elijah and Dorothy. After spending much of his adult life ministering in cities including St. Louis, Boston and San Francisco, Father Moses returned to his hometown in 1998, inheriting the family farm.
Before setting out to plant a new congregation in Ash Grove — Theotokos Unexpected Joy Orthodox Church — he felt the call of home.
“It’s home to me,” Father Moses said. “It's, as a matter of fact, when I came back here, it was almost like coming to a mythical place. Because all my most fond memories occurred in this town. So, sort of like a little Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn town, and I grew up here. So coming back was more than just returning home. And you know the old expression, people say you can never come home. I found that not to be the case here.”
