The African Methodist Episcopal Church, commonly known as the AME Church, is a Methodist denomination with its roots deeply embedded in the history of the United States. Founded in 1816 by Richard Allen (1760-1831), the AME Church emerged from a pressing need to escape the pervasive discrimination faced by African Americans within society, including within some churches.
Richard Allen, founder of the AME Church
Origins and Formation
Members of St. George's Methodist Episcopal Church, including Richard Allen and Absalom Jones, established the Free African Society (FAS) in Philadelphia in 1787. They departed St. George's Methodist Episcopal Church because of discrimination. Allen led a small group who resolved to remain Methodist. They formed the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1793. In 1794 Bethel AME was dedicated with Allen as pastor. Allen, a previously ordained deacon in the Methodist Episcopal Church, was elected by the gathered ministers and ordained as its first bishop in 1816 by the first General Conference of the five churches-extending from the three in the Philadelphia area in Pennsylvania to ones in Delaware and Baltimore, Maryland.
Because black Methodists in other middle Atlantic communities also encountered racism and desired religious autonomy, Allen called them to meet in Philadelphia in 1816 to form a new Wesleyan denomination. In general, they adopted the doctrines and form of government of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Other members of the FAS wanted to affiliate with the Episcopal Church and followed Absalom Jones in doing that. In 1792, they founded the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas, the first Episcopal church in the United States with a founding black congregation.
The AME Church was created and organized by people of African descent (most descended from enslaved Africans taken to the Americas) as a response to being officially discriminated against by white congregants in the Methodist Episcopal Church. It was among the first denominations in the United States to be founded for this reason (rather than for theological distinctions). It was the first African-American denomination organized and incorporated in the United States.
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It began with eight clergy and five churches, and by 1846 had grown to 176 clergy, 296 churches, and 17,375 members. The church also expanded internationally during this period.
Expansion and Growth
The denomination then expanded west and through the South, particularly after the American Civil War (1861-1865). By 1880, AME operated over 2,000 schools, chiefly in the South, with 155,000 students.
International Expansion: Bermuda
The church also expanded internationally during this period. The British Overseas Territory of Bermuda, 640 miles from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, was settled in 1609 by the Virginia Company and retained close links with Virginia and the Carolinas (with Charleston settled from Bermuda in 1670 under William Sayle) for the next two centuries, with Bermudians playing both sides during the American War of Independence, being the point from which the blockade of southern Atlantic ports was maintained and the Chesapeake Campaign was launched during the American War of 1812, and being the primary port through which European-manufactured weapons and supplies were smuggled into the Confederacy during the American Civil War.
Map of Bermuda
As the Imperial Government had ruled that the AME Church could operate in the United Kingdom, the first AME church in Bermuda was erected in 1885 in Hamilton Parish, on the shore of Harrington Sound, and titled St. John AME.
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Beliefs and Doctrines
The basic foundations of the beliefs of the church can be summarized in the Apostles' Creed, and the 25 Articles of Religion, held in common with other Methodist denominations. The church also observes the official bylaws of the AME Church. The "Doctrine and Discipline of the African Methodist Episcopal Church" is revised at every AME General Conference and published every four years. The official position of the African Methodist Episcopal Church is not in favor of the ordination of openly gay persons to the ranks of clergy in our church.
Educational Initiatives
AME put a high premium on education. In the 19th century, the AME Church of Ohio collaborated with the Methodist Episcopal Church, a predominantly white denomination, in sponsoring the second independent historically black college (HBCU), Wilberforce University in Ohio. Among Wilberforce University's early founders was Salmon P. Chase.
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Key Figures and Leadership
After the America Civil War, Bishop Henry McNeal Turner (1834-1915) was a major leader of the AME and played a role in Republican Party politics. In 1863 during the American Civil War, Turner was appointed as the first black chaplain in the United States Colored Troops. Afterward, he was appointed to the Freedmen's Bureau in Georgia. He settled in Macon, Georgia, and was elected to the state legislature in 1868 during Reconstruction. In 1880 he was elected as the first southern bishop of the AME Church after a fierce battle within the denomination.
Council of Bishops
The Council of Bishops is the executive branch of the church. It has the general oversight of the church during the interim between general conferences. The AME 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. This council 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.
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List of Current Bishops by Episcopal District:
| Episcopal District | Bishop |
|---|---|
| 1st Episcopal District | Bishop Samuel L. Green, Sr. |
| 2nd Episcopal District | Bishop Reginald T. Jackson |
| 3rd Episcopal District | Bishop Stafford J. N. Wicker |
| 4th Episcopal District | Bishop Frederick A. Wright, Sr. |
| 5th Episcopal District | Bishop Francine A. Brookins |
| 6th Episcopal District | Bishop Michael L. Mitchell |
| 7th Episcopal District | Bishop James L. Davis |
| 8th Episcopal District | Bishop Erika D. Crawford |
| 9th Episcopal District | Bishop Julius H. McAllister |
| 10th Episcopal District | Bishop Ronnie E. Brailsford, Sr. |
| 11th Episcopal District | Bishop Marvin C. Zanders, II |
| 12th Episcopal District | Bishop Silvester S. Beaman |
| 13th Episcopal District | Bishop Harry L. Seawright |
| 14th Episcopal District | Bishop Paul J. M. Kawimbe |
| 15th Episcopal District | Bishop Henry A. Belin, III |
| 16th Episcopal District | Bishop Jeffrey N. Leath |
| 17th Episcopal District | Bishop Vernon R. Byrd, Jr. |
| 18th Episcopal District | Bishop Jeffery B. Cooper |
| 19th Episcopal District | Senior Bishop Wilfred J. Messiah |
| 20th Episcopal District | Bishop Gregory V. Ealy |
Legacy
The African Methodist Episcopal Church has a unique history as it is the first major religious denomination in the western world that developed because of race rather than theological differences. The church was born in protest against racial discrimination and slavery. This was in keeping with the Methodist Church's philosophy, whose founder John Wesley had once called the slave-trade "that execrable sum of all villainies."
