NEW BRAUNFELS — In an area known as a stronghold of German heritage, a tiny, predominately black congregation has been celebrating its faith and the city's African-American legacy for nearly 120 years.

As area residents prepare to mark Black History Month with a variety of cultural events in February, congregation members of Allen Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church joined in prayer and song and shared memories Sunday.

The church on East Commerce Street, which originally was named the Colored Methodist Church, will turn 120 this May. The simple white chapel is home to a congregation of only 11 members, but those who attended the service Sunday were outspoken about their will to continue their worship traditions.

Congregation member Esther Ramsey remembered crawling on the church's dented wood floors as a child decades ago. She was baptized, married and saw her daughter baptized in the church.

“We are small in number but we're big in heart,” Ramsey said. “At one time, one of the ministers told me, ‘Don't apologize for that because where there is one or two in number, there's Christ. Whether it's one person here on Sunday morning or if it's none, if it's just a pastor, there's always church.'”

The church, which was founded in the Victorian era, experienced the cultural changes that came with the civil rights movement of the 1950s and '60s.

The Rev. Anthony Evans, president of the National Black Church Initiative that's based in Washington, D.C., said black churches like Allen Chapel inspire social and emotional allegiance more than ever now.

“African American churches had been forced, because of segregation laws, to stay to themselves so they had to create their own theology in reference to their own struggle,” Evans said. “That's where you get the emergence of black theology from. ... The black church not only gave moral instructions but also gave social instructions.”

In New Braunfels, the black community is even smaller than the Texas average. Only 1.7 percent of the New Braunfels population is black, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2006-2008 American Community Survey. In Texas, the black population is 11.5 percent, the survey said.

Allen Chapel, one of very few black churches in New Braunfels, sits within a block of another predominately African-American church, Live Oak Baptist, which is nearly as old as its neighbor.

The Rev. Bobby Lewis, pastor of Allen Chapel, said that although the church has the word “African” in its name, worship is open to people of all races.

Sunday's services at Allen Chapel began with worshippers soulfully singing and tapping their feet to the gospel song “Old-time Religion” while they clasped well-worn Bibles.

Congregation member Carl Durham said his memories of the church bring him to service each Sunday. Durham grew up attending Allen Chapel and has kept returning each week, even after moving to Austin about six years ago.

“As I listen to the message, I have this vision of all the people I remember in this church growing up,” said Durham, who is in his 60s. “It makes me feel like God is more in the midst. Their influence on me brings me closer to God, and this is why I continue to worship here.”