Berry began preach­ing at 17, and joined the De­troit Con­fer­ence of the Meth­od­ist Epis­co­pal Church in 1874. He served as as­so­ci­ate ed­it­or of the Mi­chi­gan Christ­ian Ad­vo­cate (1886-90), ed­it­or of the Ep­worth Her­ald (1890-1904), and a Meth­od­ist Epis­co­pal bi­shop (1904-1928). He led the drive to es­tab­lish Ep­worth Leagues (the youth fel­low­ship of the Meth­od­ist Epis­co­pal Church) across Amer­i­ca, and his in­ter­est in Gos­pel mu­sic de­vel­oped from a de­sire to provide suit­a­ble songs for Ep­worth League meet­ings. His works in­clude:

• Songs of the Soul (co-ed­it­ed with James Black) (Cin­cin­na­ti, Ohio: Cran­ston & Cur­tis, 1894)

Hymns

1. Sweet Voic­es
2. Thy Bro­ther Calls to Thee