African Methodist Episcopal Church

The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the

African Methodist
AME Church or AME, is a Methodist Black church. It adheres
to Wesleyan-Arminian theology and has a connexional polity.[4]
Episcopal Church
The African Methodist Episcopal Church is the first independent
Protestant denomination to be founded by black people;[5] though
it welcomes and has members of all ethnicities.[6]

The AME Church was founded by Richard Allen (1760–1831) in

1816 when he called together five African American congregations
of the previously established Methodist Episcopal Church with the
hope of escaping the discrimination that was commonplace in
society, including churches.[6] It was among the first
denominations in the United States to be founded for this reason
(rather than for theological distinctions).
God Our Father, Christ Our
AME has persistently advocated for the civil and human rights of
Redeemer, Holy Spirit Our
African Americans through social improvement, religious
Comforter, Humankind Our Family
autonomy, and political engagement while always being open to
people of all racial backgrounds.[6] Allen, a previously ordained Classification Protestant
deacon in the Methodist Episcopal Church, was elected by the Orientation Mainline
gathered ministers and ordained as its first bishop in 1816 by the Methodist
first General Conference of the five churches—extending from the
three in the Philadelphia area in Pennsylvania to ones in Delaware Theology Wesleyan-
and Baltimore, Maryland. The denomination then expanded west Arminian
and through the South, particularly after the American Civil War Polity Connexionalism
(1861–1865). By 1906, the AME had a membership of about half
Associations National Council
a million, more than the combined predominantly black American
of Churches
denominations—the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in
America and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, (1950);
making it the largest major African-American denomination of the World Council of
Methodist traditions. Churches (1948);
Churches Uniting
The AME Church currently has 20 districts, each with its own in Christ
bishop: 13 are based in the United States, mostly in the South, (formerly
while seven are based in Africa. The global membership of the
Consultation on
AME is around 2.5 million members, and it remains one of the
Church Union of
largest Methodist denominations in the world.
1962);
World Methodist
Church name Council;
Conference of
African
National Black
The AME Church was created and organized by
people of African descent (most descended from Churches
enslaved Africans taken to the Americas) as a Headquarters Nashville,
response to being officially discriminated against by Tennessee
white congregants in the Methodist church. The
 church was not founded in Africa, nor is it exclusively Founder Richard Allen
for people of African descent. It is open and (1760–1831)
welcoming to people of all ethnic groups, origins,
nationalities, and colors, although its congregations Origin 1816 (grew out of
are predominantly made up of black Americans.[7] the Free African
Methodist Society which
The church's roots are in the Methodist church. was established
Members of St. George's Methodist Church left the in 1787) and
congregation when faced with racial discrimination,
Mother Bethel
but continued with the Methodist doctrine and the
A.M.E. Church,
order of worship.[8]
Episcopal (organized 1794)
The AME Church operates under an episcopal form of Philadelphia,
church government.[9] The denomination leaders are Pennsylvania
bishops of the church.
Separated from Methodist
Episcopal Church
Motto (organized 1784
in Baltimore to
"God Our Father, Christ Our Redeemer, the Holy Spirit Our 1939) - (currently
Comforter, Humankind Our Family" The United
Methodist
Derived from Bishop Daniel Alexander Payne's original motto
"God our Father, Christ our Redeemer, Man our Brother", which Church)
served as the AME Church motto until the 2008 General Congregations 7,000[1]
Conference, when the current motto was officially adopted. Members 2.5–3.5
million[1][2][3]
History Official website www.ame-church
.com (http://www.
ame-church.com)
Origins

The AME Church worked out of the Free African Society (FAS),
which Richard Allen, Absalom Jones, and other free blacks
established in Philadelphia in 1787. They left St. George's
Methodist Episcopal Church because of discrimination. Although
Allen and Jones were both accepted as preachers, they were limited
to black congregations. In addition, the blacks were made to sit in a
separate gallery built in the church when their portion of the
congregation increased. These former members of St. George's
made plans to transform their mutual aid society into an African
congregation. Although the group was originally non-
denominational, eventually members wanted to affiliate with
existing denominations.[11]

Allen led a small group who resolved to remain Methodist. They

formed the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1793. In
general, they adopted the doctrines and form of government of the
Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1794 Bethel AME was dedicated
with Allen as pastor. To establish Bethel's independence, Allen
Richard Allen
successfully sued in the Pennsylvania courts in 1807 and 1815 for
the right of his congregation to exist as an institution independent of
white Methodist congregations.

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. Sixteen representatives, from Bethel
African Church in Philadelphia and African churches in Baltimore,
President Barack Obama and First
MD, Wilmington, DE, Attleboro, PA, and Salem, NJ, met to form a
Lady Michelle Obama attend a
church organization or connection under the title of the "African
church service at Metropolitan
Methodist Episcopal Church" (AME Church).[12] African Methodist Episcopal Church
in Washington, D.C., on January 20,
2013.[10]
Growth

It began with eight clergy and five churches, and by 1846 had
grown to 176 clergy, 296 churches, and 17,375 members. Safe Villages like the Village of Lima,
Pennsylvania, were setup with nearby AME churches and in sometimes involved in the underground
railroad.[13] The 20,000 members in 1856 were located primarily in the North.[14][15] AME national
membership (including probationers and preachers) jumped from 70,000 in 1866 to 207,000 in 1876.[16]

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. Other Bermudians,
such as First Sergeant Robert John Simmons of the 54th
Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, fought to end slavery
in the United States.[17] Among the numerous residents of the
American South with ties to Bermuda was Denmark Vesey, who
had immigrated to South Carolina from Bermuda as a slave before
purchasing his freedom. Vesey was a founder of Mother Emanuel
African Methodist Episcopal Church before his execution after
conviction in a show trial resulting from white hysteria over an
Denmark Vesey memorial in alleged conspiracy for a slave revolt in 1822.[18][19]
Hampton Park in Charleston, South
Carolina The majority of the population of Bermuda during the first century
of settlement was European, with free and enslaved blacks
primarily from the Spanish West Indies and Native Americans,
primarily from New England (anyone not entirely of European ancestry was counted as coloured). As any
child of a coloured and a white parent was counted as coloured, the ratio of the white to coloured
population shifted during the course of the 18th Century (4,850 whites and 3,514 coloured in 1721; but
4,755 whites and 5,425 coloured in 1811). The Church of England is the established church, and was the
only church originally permitted to operate in Bermuda. Presbyterians were permitted to have a separate
church and to conduct their own services during the 18th Century.
The Wesleyan Methodists sought to include enslaved blacks and a
law was passed by the Parliament of Bermuda in 1800 barring any
but Church of England and Presbyterian ministers from preaching.
The Methodist Reverend John Stephenson was incarcerated in
December, 1800, for six months for preaching to slaves.[20] The
law and attitudes changed during the course of the following
century, but any church organised by blacks and organising blacks
would not be welcomed by the white dominated Government.
Stephenson was followed in 1808 by the Reverend Joshua St. John African Methodist Episcopal
Marsden. There were 136 members of the Society when Marsden Church Hamilton Parish, Bermuda
left Bermuda in 1812.

Susette Harriet Lloyd travelled to Bermuda in company with the

Church of England's Archdeacon of Bermuda Aubrey Spencer. Her
visit lasted two years, and her ‘’Sketches of Bermuda’’ (a collection
of letters she had written en route to, and during her stay in,
Bermuda, and dedicated to Archdeacon Spencer) was published in
1835, immediately following the 1834 abolition of slavery in
Bermuda and the remainder of the British Empire (Bermuda elected
to end slavery immediately, becoming the first colony to do so,
though all other British colonies except for Antigua availed
themselves of an allowance made by the Imperial government St. John AME Church 125th
enabling them to phase slavery out gradually). [21] Lloyd's book anniversary plaque
gives a rare contemporary account of Bermudian society
immediately prior to the abolition of slavery. Among her many
observations of the people of Bermuda, Lloyd noted of the coloured population:

The gleam of Christianity which penetrated the dreary dungeon of their African superstition,
was at first so faint that it served rather to discover the gloom than to dispel the darkness which
shrouded them; and having embraced the profession of the gospel, they adopted its name
without receiving its influence in their heart. It is only within the last five or six years that any
regular system has been adopted to give the coloured people instruction in schools connected
with the church of England. This blessing is now imparted to nearly 1000 persons, in which
number I do not include those who are educated in the schools under the dissenters, some of
which are very flourishing.

Lloyd's negative comments on the dissenters was in reference to the Wesleyan Methodists. The degree of
education of coloured Bermudians would be noted by later visitors, also. Christiana Rounds wrote in
Harper's Magazine (re-published in an advertising pamphlet by A.L Mellen, the Proprietor of the Hamilton
Hotel in 1876):[22]

the colored people deserve some notice, forming, as they do, a large majority of the
population. The importation of negroes from Africa ceased long before the abolition of slavery,
which may account for the improved type of physiognomy one encounters here. The faces of
some are fine, and many of the women are really pretty. They are polite, about as well dressed
as anybody, attend all the churches, and are members thereof, are more interested in schools
than the poor whites, and a very large proportion of them can both read and write.
The foundation stone of a Wesleyan Methodist Chapel was laid in St. George's Town on the 8 June 1840,
the local Society (by then numbering 37 class leaders, 489 Members, and 20 other communicants) having
previously occupied a small, increasingly decrepit building that had been damaged beyond use in a storm in
1839. The inscription on the foundation stone included:[23]

Mr. James Dawson is the gratuitous Architect; Mr. Robert Lavis Brown, the Overseer. The Lot
of Land on which the Chapel is built was purchased, April 24th, 1839, from Miss Caroline
Lewis, for Two hundred and fifty pounds currency. The names of the Trustees are, William
Arthur Outerbridge, William Gibbons, Thomas Stowe Tuzo, Alfred Tucker Deane, James
Richardson, Thomas Richardson, John Stephens, Samuel Rankin Higgs, Robert Lavis Brown,
James Andrew Durnford, Thomas Argent Smith, John P. Outerbridge, and Benjamin Burchall.

The AME First District website records that in the autumn of 1869, three farsighted Christian men—
Benjamin Burchall of St. George’s, William B. Jennings of Devonshire and Charles Roach Ratteray of
Somerset—set in motion the wheels that brought African Methodism to Bermuda.[24] By the latter
Nineteenth Century, the law in Bermuda specified that any denomination permitted to operate in the United
Kingdom should also be permitted in the colony (although only the Church of England, the Presbyterian
Church, and the Wesleyan Methodists were permitted to conduct baptisms, weddings and funerals until
after the First World War). 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 African Methodist Episcopal Church (the congregation had
begun previously as part of the British Methodist Episcopal Church of Canada).[25] Although the Church
of England (since 1978, titled the Anglican Church of Bermuda) remains the largest denomination in
Bermuda (15.8%), the AME quickly flourished (accounting for 8.6% of the population today), overtaking
the Wesleyan Methodists (2.7% today).

The rise of the Wesleyan-Holiness movement in Methodism influenced the African Methodist Episcopal
Church, with Jarena Lee and Amanda Smith preaching the doctrine of entire sanctification throughout
pulpits of the connexion.[26]

Education

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. By 1880, AME operated
over 2,000 schools, chiefly in the South, with 155,000 students. For school houses they used church
buildings; the ministers and their wives were the teachers; the congregations raised the money to keep
schools operating at a time the segregated public schools were starved of funds.[27]

Bishop Turner

After the 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 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. He planted many AME churches in Georgia after the war.[28]
In 1880 he was elected as the first southern bishop of the AME Church after a fierce battle within the
denomination. Angered by the Democrats' regaining power and instituting Jim Crow laws in the late
nineteenth century South, Turner was the leader of black nationalism and proposed emigration of blacks to
Africa.[28]

Race

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. It was the first
African-American denomination organized and incorporated in the United States. 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." 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, then-governor of Ohio and the future Secretary of Treasury under President Abraham
Lincoln.

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. In 1804, Jones was ordained as the first black
priest in the Episcopal Church.

While the AME is doctrinally Methodist, clergy, scholars, and lay persons have written works that
demonstrate the distinctive racial theology and praxis that have come to define this Wesleyan body. In an
address to the 1893 World's Parliament of Religions, Bishop Benjamin W. Arnett reminded the audience of
blacks' influence 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,[29] Cecil W. Cone, and Jacqueline Grant, who came from the
AME tradition, criticized Euro-centric Christianity and African-American churches for their shortcomings
in resolving the plight of those oppressed by racism, sexism, and economic disadvantage.[30][31]

Beliefs
The AME motto, "God Our Father, Christ Our Redeemer, Holy Spirit Our Comforter, Humankind Our
Family", reflects the basic beliefs of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

The basic foundations of the beliefs of the church can be summarized in the Apostles' Creed, and The
Twenty Five Articles of Religion, held in common with other Methodist Episcopal congregations. 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 General Conference and published every four years. The
AME church also follows the rule that a minister of the denomination must retire at age 75,[32] with
bishops, more specifically, being required to retire upon the General Conference nearest their 75th
birthday.[33]

Church mission
The Mission of the African Methodist Episcopal Church is to minister to the social, spiritual, physical
development of all people. 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 AME Church evolved: that is, to seek out and save the
lost, and serve the needy. It is also the duty of the Church to
continue to encourage all members to become involved in all
aspects of church training. The ultimate purposes are: (1) make
available God's biblical principles, (2) spread Christ's liberating
gospel, and (3) provide continuing programs which will enhance
the entire social development of all people. In order to meet the
needs at every level of the Connection and in every local church,
the AME Church shall implement strategies to train all members in:
1918 AME Church, Cairo, Illinois
(1) Christian discipleship, (2) Christian leadership, (3) current
teaching methods and materials, (4) the history and significance of
the AME Church, (5) God's biblical principles, and (6) social
development to which all should be applied to daily living.

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,
8. encouraging thrift and economic advancement.,[34] and
9. bringing people back into church.

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:

Western University (Kansas)

Campbell College, Jackson, Mississippi – now part of Jackson State University

Senior colleges within the United States:

Allen University (Columbia, SC) Website (http://www.allenuniversity.edu/)

Edward Waters College (Jacksonville, FL) Website (http://www.ewc.edu/)
Morris Brown College (Atlanta, GA) Website (http://www.morrisbrown.edu/)
Paul Quinn College (Dallas, TX) Website (http://www.pqc.edu/)
Wilberforce University (Wilberforce, OH) Website (http://www.wilberforce.edu/)

Junior colleges within the United States:

Shorter College (North Little Rock, AR) Website (http://www.shortercollege.edu/)

Theological seminaries within the United States:

 Dickerson-Green Theological Seminary Website (http://www.dickersongreenseminary.org/)
Jackson Theological Seminary Website (https://www.jtseminary.org/)
Payne Theological Seminary Website (http://www.payne.edu/)
Turner Theological Seminary Website (http://www.itc.edu/)

Foreign colleges and universities:

African Methodist Episcopal University, Liberia

RR Wright Theological Seminary, South Africa

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 every
four years, but may have extra sessions in certain emergencies.

At the General Conference of the AME Church, notable and renowned speakers have been invited to
address the clergy and laity of the congregation. Such as in 2008, the church invited then Senator (https://ne
ws.stlpublicradio.org/post/obama-preaches-african-methodist-episcopal-gathering-about-self-reliance#strea
m/0) Barack H. Obama, and in 2012, the church invited then First Lady of the United States (https://obama
whitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2012/06/30/first-lady-michelle-obama-african-methodist-episcopal-churchs-g
eneral-conference) Michelle Obama.

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 comprises various departmental
Commissions made up of the respective Treasurer/CFO, the Secretary/CIO of the AME Church, the
Treasurer/CFO 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.

AME Connectional Health Commission

The Connectional Health Commission serves, among other tasks, to help the denomination understand
health as an integral part of the faith of the Christian Church, to seek to make our denomination a healing
faith community, and to promote the health concerns of its members. One of the initiatives of the
commission is the establishment of an interactive website that will allow not only health directors, but the
AMEC membership at-large to access health information, complete reports, request assistance. This website
serves as a resource for members of the AMEC, and will be the same for anyone who accesses the website.
Additionally, as this will be an interactive site, it will allow health directors to enter a password protected
chat room to discuss immediate needs and coordinate efforts for relief regionally, nationally and globally.

It is through this website that efforts to distribute information about resources and public health updates, and
requests for services may be coordinated nationally. This will allow those who access the website to use
one central location for all resource information needs.[35]

Overview

The World Council of Churches estimates the membership of the AME Church at around 2,510,000; 3,817
pastors, 21 bishops and 7,000 congregations.[1][36]

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

The AME Church is not related to either the Union American Methodist Episcopal Church (which was
founded in Delaware by Peter Spencer in 1813), or the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (which
was founded in New York by James Varick). However, all three are within full communion with each other
since May 2012.

Districts

The AME Church is divided into 20 districts, spanning North America and Bermuda, the Caribbean, sub-
Saharan Africa and parts of South America:

First District – Bermuda, Delaware, New England, New Jersey, New York, Western New
York, and Philadelphia
Second District – Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Virginia, North Carolina and Western North
Carolina
Third District – Ohio, Pittsburgh, North Ohio, South Ohio and West Virginia
 Fourth District – Indiana, Chicago, Illinois, Michigan, Canada and a mission extension in
India
Fifth District – California, Southern California, Desert Mountain, Midwest, Missouri, and
Pacific Northwest
Sixth District – Georgia, Southwest Georgia, Atlanta-North, Macon, South Georgia and
Augusta
Seventh District – Palmetto, South Carolina, Columbia, Piedmont, Northeast South Carolina
and Central South Carolina
Eighth District – South Mississippi, North Mississippi, Central North Louisiana, and
Louisiana
Ninth District – Alabama River Region, Southeast Alabama, Northeast Alabama, Southwest
Alabama, Northwest Alabama
Tenth District – Texas, Southwest Texas, North Texas and Northwest Texas
Eleventh District – Florida, Central, South, West Coast, East, Bahamas
Twelfth District – Oklahoma, Arkansas, East Arkansas, and West Arkansas
Thirteenth District – Tennessee, East Tennessee, West Tennessee, Kentucky and West
Kentucky
Fourteenth District – Liberia, Central Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria, Côte d'Ivoire
and Togo-Benin
Fifteenth District – Angola, Cape, Boland, Eastern Cape, Kalahari, Namibia, and
Queenstown
Sixteenth District – Guyana/Suriname, Virgin Islands, European, Dominican Republic, Haiti,
Jamaica, Windward Islands and Brazil
Seventeenth District – Southeast Zambia, Southwest Zambia, Northeast Zambia, Northwest
Zambia, Zambezi, Congo Brazzaville, Katanga, Kananga, Kinshasa, Mbuji-mayi, Rwanda,
Burundi and Tshikapa
Eighteenth District – Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, and Eswatini
Nineteenth District – Orangia, Natal, M.M. Mokone Memorial Conference, East, West
Twentieth District – Malawi North, Malawi South, Malawi Central, Northeast Zimbabwe,
Southwest Zimbabwe, Central Zimbabwe, Uganda

Bishops (past and present)

The Four Horsemen: important bishops

Richard Allen, William Paul Quinn, Daniel Payne, sixth Henry McNeal
founder and first fourth bishop (1849– bishop (1811–1893) Turner, twelfth
bishop (1816–1841) 1873) bishop (1834–1915)
Current bishops and assignments
1st Episcopal District – Bishop Julius Harrison McAllister
2nd Episcopal District – Bishop James Levert Davis
3rd Episcopal District – Bishop Erreneous Earl McCloud, Jr.
4th Episcopal District – Bishop John Franklin White
5th Episcopal District – Bishop Clement W. Fugh
6th Episcopal District – Bishop Reginald T. Jackson
7th Episcopal District – Bishop Samuel Lawrence Green Sr.
8th Episcopal District – Bishop Stafford J. N. Wicker
9th Episcopal District – Bishop Harry Lee Seawright
10th Episcopal District – Bishop Adam Jefferson Richardson, Jr., Senior Bishop
11th Episcopal District – Bishop Frank Madison Reid, III
12th Episcopal District – Bishop Michael Leon Mitchell
13th Episcopal District – Bishop E. Anne Henning Byfield
14th Episcopal District – Bishop Paul J. M. Kawimbe
15th Episcopal District – Bishop Silvester Scott Beaman
16th Episcopal District – Bishop Marvin C. Zanders, II
17th Episcopal District – Bishop David Rwhynica Daniels, Jr.
18th Episcopal District – Bishop Francine A. Brookins
19th Episcopal District – Bishop Ronnie Elijah Brailsford
20th Episcopal District – Bishop Frederick A. Wright
The Office of Ecumenical Affairs – Bishop Jeffery Nathaniel Leath

Retired bishops
John Hurst Adams*
Richard Allen Hildebrand*
Frederick Hilborn Talbot*
Hamil Hartford Brookins*
Vinton Randolph Anderson*
Frederick Calhoun James
Frank Curtis Cummings
Philip Robert Cousin, Sr
Harold Benjamin Senatle*
Robert Thomas, Jr.*
Henry Allen Belin, Jr.
Richard Allen Chappelle, Sr*
Vernon Randolph Byrd, Sr. *
Robert Vaughn Webster
Zedekiah Lazett Grady*
Carolyn Tyler Guidry
Cornal Garnett Henning, Sr.*
Sarah Frances Davis*
John Richard Bryant
 William P. Deveaux*
T. Larry Kirkland
Benjamin F. Lee
Richard Franklin Norris, Sr.*
Preston Warren Williams, II
McKinley Young*

* Deceased

General officers
Marcus T. Henderson Sr., Treasurer/Chief Financial Officer[37]
John Green, Secretary-Treasurer, Global Witness and Missions[37]
James F. Miller, Executive Director, Department of Retirement Services[37]
Marcellus Norris, Executive Director of Church Growth and Development[37]
Jeffery B. Cooper, General Secretary/CIO[37]
Teresa Fry Brown, Executive Director, Research and Scholarship and Editor of The A.M.E.
Church Review[37]
Roderick D. Belin, President/Publisher, AMEC Sunday School Union[37]
John Thomas III, Editor of The Christian Recorder, the official newspaper of the African
Methodist Episcopal Church[37]
Garland F. Pierce, Executive Director of Christian Education[37]

Clergy and educators

Sarah Allen (1764–1849), Richard Allen's wife, who founded the Daughters of the
Conference.
Bishop Vinton Randolph Anderson (1927–2014), first African American to be elected
President of the World Council of Churches, headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland (served
1991–98); author of My Soul Shouts and subject of an edited work (Gayraud Wilmore &
Louis Charles Harvey, editors), A Model of A Servant Bishop; first native Bermudian elected
a bishop in any church/denomination.
Daniel Blue (1796–1884), founder of the Saint Andrews African Methodist Episcopal Church
in Sacramento, California; the first AME church on the West Coast and the first black church
in California.[38]
John M. Brown (1817–1893) bishop, leader in the underground railroad. He helped open a
number of churches and schools, including the Payne Institute which became Allen
University in Columbia, South Carolina and Paul Quinn College in Waco, Texas. He was
also an early principal of Union Seminary which became Wilberforce University
Jamal Harrison Bryant (1971– ), founded Empowerment Temple (AME Church) in Baltimore
in 2000 with a congregation of 43 people. Today more than 7,500 members attend weekly
services at this large influential congregation.
Bishop Richard Harvey Cain, elected member of U.S. House of Representatives from South
Carolina during Reconstruction era.
Bishop William D. Chappelle (1857–1925), was president of Allen University in Columbia,
South Carolina from 1897 to 1899.
Daniel Coker (1780–1846), born "Issac Wright" in Baltimore, Maryland to mixed-race
parents. Famous preacher and abolitionist. Ordained deacon in the new Methodist
Episcopal Church by Bishop Francis Asbury in 1802 in Baltimore. Led Bethel AME Church
(http://bethel1.org/about-us/history/) in Baltimore. Participated in the organization of the
national AME Church in Philadelphia in 1816. By 1820, sent as missionary to Sierra Leone,
British colony in West Africa and considered founder of national Methodist Church there.
Dennis C. Dickerson, Director of the Research and Scholarship and Professor at Vanderbilt
University (retired).
Bishop William Heard (1850–1937), AME minister and educator. Appointed by the U.S.
government as "Minister Resident/Consul General" to Republic of Liberia, (1895–1898).[39]
King Solomon Dupont, AME clergy member who in the 1950s was the first African-American
to seek public office in northern Florida since the Reconstruction era; in 1955, as Vice
President of the Tallahassee Civic Association, he led a bus boycott, in which protesters
lives were threatened, simultaneous to the Montgomery bus boycott led by Martin Luther
King Jr. in Montgomery, Alabama.
Orishatukeh Faduma, (1855–1946), African American missionary and educator.
Floyd H. Flake (1945– ), former U.S. Congressman from New York State (1986–1998);
senior pastor of the Greater Allen AME Cathedral in Jamaica, New York; former President of
Wilberforce University
Sarah E. Gorham, first female missionary from AME church, dying in Liberia in 1894.
Bishop Carolyn Tyler Guidry (1937– ), second female AME bishop in church history.[40]
Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie, first female AME bishop in church history, best-selling
author.
Lyman S. Parks (1917–2009), Mayor of Grand Rapids, Michigan (1971–1976); Pastor of
First Community AME Church in Grand Rapids.[41]
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.[42]
Bishop Reverdy Cassius Ransom (1861–1959), one of the founders of NAACP via The
Niagara Movement.
T. W. Stringer (1815–1897), a freeman from Canada and first pastor of Bethel AME Church of
Vicksburg in Vicksburg, Mississippi founded in 1864 as Mississippi's first AME church. At
Bethel AME in Vickbsurg, he established the T.W. Stringer Grand Lodge of Freemasonry,
Mississippi's first Masonic Lodge.
Frank M. Reid III (1951– ), Pastor of the Bethel AME Church in Baltimore[43] from 1988 to
2016. Reid started The Bethel Outreach of Love Broadcast; Bethel was the first AME Church
to have an international TV broadcast. Was selected as the 26th most influential person in
Baltimore by local regional publication, Baltimore Magazine. His congregation's members
include the mayor and city comptroller of Baltimore. He consulted for the TV show Amen,
and guest starred several times on the popular HBO cable TV series The Wire. As of 2016,
he was elevated to episcopal service as the 138th bishop (https://www.baltimoresun.com/ne
ws/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-reid-farewell-20160828-story.html) Archived (https://we
b.archive.org/web/20190511201753/https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimor
e-city/bs-md-ci-reid-farewell-20160828-story.html) 2019-05-11 at the Wayback Machine of
the AME Church.
Hiram Rhodes Revels, first African American to serve in the United States Senate,
representing Mississippi from 1870 to 1871.
Calvin H. Sydnor III, the 20th Editor of The Christian Recorder, the official newspaper of the
African Methodist Episcopal Church (www.the-Christian-recorder.org)
Bishop Benjamin Tucker Tanner (1835–1923), author of An Apology for African Methodism
(1867), editor of the Christian Recorder, AME publication, and founder of the AME Church
Review. As a bishop, presided over AME parishes, first, in Canada, Bermuda, and the West
Indies, later, in New England, New York, New Jersey, and eastern Pennsylvania.
 D. Ormonde Walker, 66th bishop of the AME Church and 10th president of Wilberforce
University
Thomas Marcus Decatur Ward (1823–1894), AME missionary, preacher, church leader, and
abolitionist
Bishop Alexander Walker Wayman (1821–1895), born free in Caroline County, Maryland,
joined AME Church in 1840, ordained minister three years later. Served as minister of Bethel
AME Church in Baltimore (founded 1785), then located on East Saratoga near North
Charles, St. Paul Street/Place (currently Preston Gardens), and North Calvert Streets, led
"Negro/Colored" delegation in President Abraham Lincoln's funeral procession through
Baltimore during stop during train trip back to Springfield, Illinois, April 1865. Lived on
Hamilton Street alley behind First Unitarian Church off North Charles and West Franklin
Streets.[44]
Jamye Coleman Williams (1918–2022), educator, community leader. Former editor of the
AME Church Review; recipient of the NAACP Presidential Award (1999).[45]
Rev Clive Pillay (1953– ): community leader. Field Reporter The Christian Recorder, Former
Founder ICY: UDF – Inter Church Youth
Jarena Lee (1783–1864): First woman preacher in the AME church given the blessing to do
so by founder, Richard Allen. Prominent AME leader in the Wesleyan-Holiness movement.
The First African American woman in the United States to have an autobiography
published.[26]
Juliann Jane Tillman, woman preacher in the AME Church, was well known for her widely
reproduced 1844 lithograph portrait.[46]

Ecumenism
In May 2012, The African Methodist Episcopal Church entered into full communion with the racially
integrated United Methodist Church, and the predominantly black/African American members of the
African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, African Union Methodist Protestant Church, Christian
Methodist Episcopal Church, and Union American Methodist Episcopal Church, in which these Churches
agreed to "recognize each other's churches, share sacraments, and affirm their clergy and ministries",
bringing a semblance of unity and reconciliation to those church bodies which follow in the footsteps of
John and Charles Wesley.[47]

Social issues
The AME Church is active regarding issues of social justice and has invested time in reforming the criminal
justice system.[48] The AME Church also opposes "elective abortion".[49] On women's issues, the AME
has supported gender equality and, in 2000, first elected a woman to become bishop.[50] In 2004, the
denomination voted to prohibit same-sex marriages in its churches, but did not establish a position on
ordination. There are openly gay clergy ordained in the AME and "the AME Church’s Doctrine and
Discipline has no explicit policy regarding gay clergy".[51][52] In 2019, the Council of Bishops decided to
allow a proposal to allow same-sex marriages in church to be considered at the General Conference in
2020.[53] While debating marriage in 2021, the AME confirmed that, while the church does not allow
same-sex marriages, "it does not bar LGBTQ individuals from serving as pastors or otherwise leading the
denomination."[54] The AME General Conference voted against a bill to allow same-sex marriages in
church while also voting to approve a committee to explore and provide recommendations for changes to
church doctrine and discipline and for pastoral care for LGBTQ people.[55]
During the 2016 General Conference, the AME Church invited Hillary Clinton to offer an address to the
delegates and clergy.[56] Additionally, the AME Church voted to take "a stand against climate change".[57]
AME Church works with non-partisan VoteRiders to spread state-specific information on voter ID
requirements.[58]

See also
Christianity portal

Methodism portal
United States
portal

A.M.E. Church Review, quarterly journal of the African Methodist Episcopal Church
Religion of Black Americans
African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church
Black church
British Methodist Episcopal Church in Canada
Christian Methodist Episcopal Church
Churches Uniting in Christ (formerly the Consultation on Church Union [COCU] – founded
1960).
List of African Methodist Episcopal churches
Christianity in the United States
Category:African Methodist Episcopal bishops
Category:Universities and colleges affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church
14th District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church

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Further reading
Bailey, Julius H. Race Patriotism Protest and Print Culture in the AME Church. Knoxville,
TN: University of Tennessee Press, 2012.
Campbell, James T. Songs of Zion: The African Methodist Episcopal Church in the United
States and South Africa. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
Cone, James. God Our Father, Christ Our Redeemer, Man Our Brother: A Theological
Interpretation of the AME Church, AME Church Review, vol. 106, no. 341 (1991).
Dickerson, Dennis C. The African Methodist Episcopal Church (Cambridge University Press
2020) excerpt (https://www.amazon.com/African-Methodist-Episcopal-Church-History/dp/052
1153964/), a major scholarly history.
Gregg, Howard D. History of the African Methodist Episcopal Church: The Black Church in
Action. Nashville, TN: Henry A. Belin, Jr., 1980.
Owens, A. Nevell. Formation of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in the Nineteenth
Century: Rhetoric of Identification (Palgrave Macmillan US, 2014) ISBN 1349466212
Wayman, Alexander W. Cyclopaedia of African Methodism. (https://archive.org/stream/cyclop
aediaofafr00waym#page/n5/mode/2up) Baltimore: Methodist Episcopal Book Depository,
1882.

External links
Official website (https://www.ame-church.com/)
Official website of "The Christian Recorder" (http://www.thechristianrecorder.com/)
Women's Missionary Society of the AME church (https://web.archive.org/web/200409292221
44/http://www.wms-amec.org/)
AMEC Office of Employment Security (http://www.amecdes.com/)
AME Church Storehouse (https://web.archive.org/web/20060210012942/http://www.amestor
ehouse.com/)
AME Church Department of Global Witness & Ministry (https://web.archive.org/web/2009102
0132541/http://www.ameglobalmissions.org/)
AME Digital Archives at Payne College (http://commons.ptsem.edu/payne)
AMEC Department of Christian Education (http://www.ameced.com/)
The AMEC Lay Organization (https://web.archive.org/web/20050408083123/http://www.ame
c-connectionallay.org/)
Richard Allen Young Adult Council (https://web.archive.org/web/20060819042915/http://ww
w.rayac.org/rayac.htm)
AMECHealth.org The Official AME Health Commission (http://www.amechealth.org)
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=African_Methodist_Episcopal_Church&oldid=1184976625"