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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia:

African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME Church)


African American Methodist denomination formally organized in 1816. It originated with a group of black Philadelphians who withdrew in 1787 from St. George's Methodist Episcopal Church (see Methodism) because of racial discrimination and built Bethel African Methodist Church. In 1799 Richard Allen became minister of Bethel, and in 1816 he was consecrated bishop of the newly organized African Methodist Episcopal Church. Limited at first to the Northern states, the church spread rapidly in the South after the Civil War. It founded many colleges and seminaries, notably Wilberforce University (1856) in Ohio. In the late 20th century the church claimed 3,500,000 members and 8,000 congregations. Its headquarters are in Washington, D.C.

For more information on African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME Church), visit Britannica.com.

 
 
US History Encyclopedia: African Methodist Episcopal Church

African Methodist Episcopal Church (AMEC), the first separatist African American denomination. Many Methodist churches, especially in Philadelphia, had large numbers of black members whose growing hostility to racial discrimination within the church prompted Richard Allen, a licensed Methodist preacher, to lead a mass withdrawal from St. George's Methodist Episcopal Church, Philadelphia, in 1787. Allen subsequently helped to organize the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church of Philadelphia. In 1816, five black congregations came together to create the African Methodist Episcopal Church, with Allen as its first bishop.

The AMEC's strength resided in its benevolent associations—the Free African Societies—which concerned themselves with racial solidarity and abolitionism. Bethel Church was a station on the Underground Railroad and many members of First AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, were involved in the Denmark Vesey slave uprising of 1822. AME churches sought to provide both social services and education. Bishop Daniel Payne spearheaded the campaign to establish Wilberforce University, the first institution of higher education founded by African Americans, in 1856. The AMEC grew from 20,000 members in 1861 to 400,000 in 1896, a process aided by expansion into the Caribbean and Africa.

Church structures and doctrines were modeled after the original Methodist Episcopal Church. AME bishops tend to have greater power than among the United Methodists, and the Church places a great emphasis on social service, for which congregations have a host of auxiliary organizations to accomplish their objectives. The Church is run by a General Conference that meets every four years, but has no established national headquarters. It supports five colleges and two seminaries and began to ordain women in 1948.

Associated with the AMEC, though a separate denomination, is the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (AMEZC). In 1796, Peter Williams led a group of black Methodists out of the John Street Methodist Episcopal Church in New York City. This group established Zion Church, which was incorporated as an African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1801, with the provision that membership be limited to those of African descent. Zion Church retained a close relationship with the African Methodist Episcopal Church until 1820, when a conflict arose over AMEC preachers sent to New York by Richard Allen. The first bishop of the AMEZC was James Varick, who had helped establish Freedom's Journal, the first black newspaper in the United States. The AMEZC grew to 350,000 members by 1896. Two of its more prominent members were Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass. Like the AMEC, the AMEZC is run by a General Conference, but its bishops have considerable autonomy in interpreting Church regulations. There is no court of appeal for episcopal decisions and the traditions of a local church may override aspects of church teaching. The Church maintains one college and one seminary, both in Livingston, North Carolina. In 1891, it became the first black denomination to permit the ordination of women.

In the twentieth century, the AMEC showed an increasing interest in black liberation theology, pentecostalism, and political activism. Floyd Flake, pastor of Allen AME Church in Queens, New York, won several terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1999, the African Methodist Episcopal Church had 2,500,000 members and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church had 1,276,000 members.

Bibliography

Gregg, Howard D. History of the African Methodist Episcopal Church: The Black Church in Action. Nashville, Tenn.: AMEC, 1980.

Lincoln, C. Eric, and Lawrence H. Mamiya. The Black Church in the African American Experience. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1990.

Little, Lawrence S. Disciples of Liberty: The African Methodist Episcopal Church in the Age of Imperialism, 1884–1916. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2000.

Walls, William J. The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church: Reality of the Black Church. Charlotte, N.C.: A.M.E. Zion Publishing House, 1974.

—Jeremy Bonner

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: African Methodist Episcopal Church,
Methodist denomination (see Methodism). It was established in 1816 in Philadelphia with Richard Allen as its first bishop. In 1991 there were about 3.5 million members in the United States.

 
Wikipedia: African Methodist Episcopal Church
African Methodist Episcopal Church
Classification Protestant
Orientation Methodist
Polity Episcopal
Founder Richard Allen
Origin 1816
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Separated from Methodist Episcopal Church
Associations National Council of Churches; World Council of Churches; Churches Uniting in Christ
Statistics
Congregations 7,000
Members 5 million (2.5 million in the United States)

The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the "AME Church", is a Christian denomination founded by Bishop Richard Allen in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1816.

Church name

  • African: The AME church was organized by people of African descent. The church was not founded in Africa, nor is it only for persons of African descent. The church is open to people of all races.
  • Methodist: The church's roots are in the Methodist church. Members of St. George's Methodist Church left the congregation when faced with racial discrimination, but continued with the Methodist doctrine and the order of worship.
  • Episcopal: The AME church operates under an episcopal form of church government. The denomination leaders are Bishops of the church. Episcopal, in this sense, refers to the form of government under which the church operates.

Motto

"God Our Father, Christ Our Redeemer, Man Our Brother"

Derived from Bishop Daniel Payne (1811-1893).


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History

The African Methodist Episcopal Church has a unique history in that it is the first major religious denomination in the Western World that had its origin over sociological rather than theological beliefs and differences, and the first African-American organized and incorporated denomination in the US. The AME church is also the church that sponsored the first independent historical black college, Wilberforce University. The church was born in protest against slavery—against dehumanization of African people, brought to the American continent as free labor. This fit well with the Methodist church's philosophy since its founder John Wesley had once called the slave-trade "that execrable sum of all villanies".

The AMEC grew out of the Free African Society(FAS) which Richard Allen, Absalom Jones, and others established in Philadelphia in 1787. The church was organized by African-American members of St. George's Methodist Episcopal Church. The incident that led to this was the removal of Absalom Jones (1746–1818) from St. George's by the trustees while he was in the act of prayer. The congregation supported the act of the trustees, and Allen and Jones led the African-American members out of St. George's as a body. Allen went on to form the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1793. In general, they adopted the doctrines and form of government of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Jones affiliated with the Protestant Episcopal Church and would go on to become the first African-American priest in the Episcopal Church.

When officials at St. George’s MEC pulled blacks off their knees while praying, FAS members discovered just how far American Methodists would go to enforce racial discrimination against African Americans. Hence, these members of St. George’s made plans to transform their mutual aid society into an African congregation. Although most wanted to affiliate with the Protestant Episcopal Church, Allen led a small group who resolved to remain Methodists. In 1794 Bethel AME was dedicated with Allen as pastor. To establish Bethel’s independence from interfering white Methodists, Allen, a former Delaware slave, successfully sued in the Pennsylvania courts in 1807 and 1815 for the right of his congregation to exist as an independent institution. Because black Methodists in other middle Atlantic communities encountered racism and desired religious autonomy, Allen called them to meet in Philadelphia to form a new Wesleyan denomination, the AME.

While the AME is doctrinally Methodist, clergy, scholars, and lay persons have written important works which demonstrate the distinctive theology and praxis which have defined this Wesleyan body. Bishop Benjamin W. Arnett, in an address to the 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions, reminded the audience of the presence of blacks in the formation of Christianity. Bishop Benjamin T. Tanner wrote in 1895 in The Color of Solomon – What? that biblical scholars wrongly portrayed the son of David as a white man. In the post civil rights era theologians James Cone, Cecil W. Cone, and Jacqueline Grant who came out of the AME tradition critiqued Euro-centric Christianity and African American churches for their shortcomings in fully impacting the plight of those oppressed by racism, sexism, and economic disadvantage.


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Beliefs

The AME Motto, "God Our Father, Christ Our Redeemer, Man Our Brother", reflects the basic beliefs of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

The basic foundations of the beliefs of the church can be summarized in the The Apostles' Creed and The Twenty Five Articles of Religion.

Church mission

The Mission of the African Methodist Episcopal Church is to minister to the spiritual, intellectual, physical, emotional, and environmental needs of all people by spreading Christ's liberating gospel through word and deed. At every level of the Connection and in every local church, the African Methodist Episcopal Church shall engage in carrying out the spirit of the original Free African Society, out of which the A.M.E. Church evolved: that is, to seek out and save the lost, and serve the needy through a continuing program of (1) preaching the gospel, (2) feeding the hungry, (3) clothing the naked, (4) housing the homeless, (5) cheering the fallen, (6) providing jobs for the jobless, (7) administering to the needs of those in prisons, hospitals, nursing homes, asylums and mental institutions, senior citizens' homes; caring for the sick, the shut-in, the mentally and socially disturbed, and (8) encouraging thrift and economic advancement. [1]

Colleges, seminaries and universities

The African Methodist Episcopal Church has been one of the forerunners of education within the African-American Community.

Former Colleges & Universities of the AME Church

Senior Colleges within the United States

Junior Colleges within the United States

Theological Seminaries within the United States

  • Jackson Theological Seminary Website
  • Payne Theological Seminary Website
  • Turner Theological Seminary Website

Structure

The General Conference

The General Conference is the supreme body of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. It is composed of the Bishops, as ex-officio presidents, according to the rank of election, and an equal number of ministerial and lay delegates, elected by each of the Annual Conferences and the lay Electoral Colleges of the Annual Conferences. Other ex-officio members are: the General Officers, College Presidents, Deans of Theological Seminaries; Chaplains in the Regular Armed Forces of the U.S.A. The General Conference meets quadrennially (every four years), but may have extra sessions in certain emergencies.

Council of Bishops

The Council of Bishops is the Executive Branch of the Connectional Church. It has the general oversight of the Church during the interim between General Conferences. The Council of Bishops shall meet annually at such time and place as the majority of the Council shall determine and also at such other times as may be deemed necessary in the discharging its responsibility as the Executive Branch of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. The Council of Bishops shall hold at least two public sessions at each annual meeting. At the first, complaints and petitions against a Bishop shall be heard, at the second, the decisions of the Council shall be made public. All decisions shall be in writing.

Board of Incorporators

The Board of Incorporators, also known as the General Board of Trustees, has the supervision, in trust, of all connectional property of the Church and is vested with authority to act in behalf of the Connectional Church wherever necessary.

The General Board

The General Board is in many respects the administrative body and is comprised of various departmental Commissions made up of the respective Secretary-Treasurer, the General Secretary of the A.M.E,. Church the General Treasurer and the members of the various Commissions and one Bishop as presiding officer with the other Bishops associating.

Judicial Council

The Judicial Council is the highest judicatory body of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. It is an appellate court, elected by the General Conference and is amenable to it.

Overview

The AME church estimates around 5,000,000 members worldwide (2.5 million in America), 9000 ministers, and 7000 congregations in more than 30 nations in North and South America, Africa, and Europe. Twenty bishops and 12 general officers comprised the leadership of the denomination

The AME Church is a member of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA (NCC), and the World Council of Churches.

It is not the same as the U.A.M.E. Church founded in Delaware by Peter Spencer in 1813, or the AME Zion Church, founded in New York by James Varick.

Bishops

Active Bishops

  • E. Earl McCloud, Jr.
  • Richard Franklin Norris
  • Adam Jefferson Richardson, Jr.
  • Robert Vaughn Webster
  • Phillip Robert Cousin, Sr.
  • John Richard Bryant
  • William Phillips DeVeaux, Sr.
  • Preston Warren Williams, II
  • Cornal Garnett Henning, Sr.
  • Theodore Larry Kirkland
  • Gregory Gerald McKinley Ingram
  • McKinley Young
  • Richard Allen Chappelle, Sr.
  • Vashti Murphy McKenzie
  • David Rwhynica Daniels, Jr
  • Samuel Lawrence Green, Sr.
  • Carolyn Tyler Guidry
  • Paul J. M. Kawimbe
  • Sarah Frances Davis
  • James Levert Davis
  • Wilfred Jacobus Messiah

Notable AME ministers and educators

  • Bishop William Heard (1850-1937), AME minister and educator. Appointed by the U.S. government as "Minister Resident/Consul General" to Liberia (1895-1898)[1]
  • Bishop Daniel Payne (1811-1893), historian, educator and AME minister. First African-American president of an African-American university, Wilberforce University, in the U.S. [2]
  • Dr. Jamye Coleman Williams (1918 - ), educator, community leader. Former editor of the AME Church Review; recipient of the NAACP Presidential Award (1999).[3]
  • Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie, first female AME bishop in church history, best-selling author.
  • Bishop Carolyn Tyler Guidry (1937- ), second female AME bishop in church history. [4]
  • Rev. Dr. Floyd H. Flake (1945- ), former U.S. Congressman from New York (1986-1998); senior pastor of 23,000 member Allen AME Church in Jamaica, Queens, New York; President of Wilberforce University, Ohio.
  • Rev. Dr. Frank M. Reid III (1951-) Pastor of the 19,000 member Bethel A.M.E. Church in Baltimroe. Rev. Reid started "The Bethel Outreach of Love" Broadcast was the first African Methodist Episcopal Church to have an international TV broadcast. He is w well noted author. Was selected as the 26th most influential person in Baltimore by Baltimore Magazine. His membership includes the mayor and city comptroller of Baltimore. He was also a consultant for the T.V. show Amen, and guest starred several times on the popular HBO series The Wire.
  • Rev. Dr. Jamal-Harrison Bryant is the founder and Pastor of the fastest growing AME Church in the nation Empowerment Temple AME [5] in Baltimore, and a popular author and speaker throught the nation. Speaking on such programs as TBN.
  • Rev. Dr. Cornelius Hudson is the founder and Senior Pastor of the one of the fastest growing AME Church in Texas, Bethel Temple AME [6] in Fort Worth, and a highly-sought after teacher, preacher, author and speaker throught the Texas and the southwest. Rev. Hudson is noted for the soulful directing of the largest youth choir in the southwest, the 10th District Youth Choir.

Notable AME Members

See also

External links

Select district websites

Other districts and their jurisdictions

References

  • Encyclopedia of Religion in the South, Samuel S. Hill, editor
  • The Doctrine and Discipline of the African Methodist Episcopal Church 2000
  • The AMEC Book of Worship
  • History of the AME Church: The Black Church in Action, Howard D. Gregg, Ph.D.
  • See "God Our Father, Christ Our Redeemer, Man Our Brother: A Theological Interpretation of the AME Church." By Dr. James H. Cone, Ph.D. AME Church Review, Volume CVI, No. 341 (1991), page 25.

Notes

  1. ^ The Doctrine and Discipline of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. (2000). p. 13.
Denominations and Leaders of the Black church
Denominations AME • AME Zion • COGIC • National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. • PAW • National Baptist Convention of America, Inc. • PNBC • NMBCA • CME • AUMP • Apostolic Faith Mission • African Orthodox Church
Church Leaders Richard Allen • Martin Luther King, Jr • Joseph Lowery • T.D. Jakes
Category:Predominantly African American Christian denominations • Category:Clergy of predominantly African American Christian denominations

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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
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