Black Methodism

1
Black Methodism

• Beginnings
• Challenges
• Changes

2
African Methodist Episcopal Church

• The African Methodist Episcopal Church was
  started in 1787 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by
  a group of disinherited Americans whose
  forefathers came from Africa. The leader of this
  group was a 27 year old "African," Richard Allen.
  At that time the word "African" was used to
  designate those persons whom we now call African
  American.

3
Five Characteristics of Black Church Experience

• Black controlled
• Involved in the everyday life of the people
• Provide members with a sense of worthiness and
  identity
• Emphasize evangelism with direct witness to
  saving love of Jesus Christ
• Adaptive to changing conditions of society while
  challenging oppressive forces

4
Early Methodism Response to Black Americans

• Offered emotionalism and religious enthusiasm
  (Revivalism)
• Lagged behind Baptists in obtaining black
  congregations
• Revivalism offered escape from intolerable
  economic and social conditions

5
Remember Betty?

• Black girl in Philip Emburys Class at the John
  Street Methodist Society in New York, 1766.
• Several Northern societies integrated early
• Southern societies begin practicing segregation
  and racial selection early
• Asbury concerned about racial segregation but
  knew no way to affect change

6
Early Black Methodism

• Whatcoats journals record increased incidences
  of segregation, especially concerning the
  sacrament of Holy Supper.
• Asbury and Whatcoat adjust to the growing white
  desire for segregated worship
• General Conference 1800 allows for the ordination
  of black preachers as deacons
• Elder ordination not until 1812

7
Early Black Methodism

• Harry Hosier (1750-1806) was born a slave in
  North Carolina.  Following the Revolutionary War
  he gained his freedom from his Maryland master,
  and was converted to Methodism.  His sermon, "The
  Barren Fig Tree," preached at Adam's Chapel,
  Fairfax County, Virginia, in May of 1781, was the
  first recorded Methodist sermon by an
  African-American.

8
Early Black Methodism

• Hosier became famous as a traveling evangelist up
  and down the Atlantic seaboard.  He was a
  companion on evangelistic trips with Asbury,
  Coke, Jesse Lee, and Freeborn Garrettson,  and
  was heralded as one of the greatest preachers of
  his time.   His influence was one of the most
  important factors in the early spread of the
  Methodist Episcopal Church in America.

9
Early Black Methodism

• Mother African Zoar Church began in 1792, when a
  group of African Americans withdrew from Old St.
  George's Church to protest discrimination there.
  The dissident group, calling itself "African
  Zoar" (HE good will) was recognized by St.
  George's in 1794 and grew to become the mother
  church of several local Methodist congregations,
  including Tindley Temple, Raven Memorial, Mount
  Zion, and St. Thomas.

10
Pattern of Black Denomination Formation

• Integration with White congregation
• Experience of Segregation
• Separate Meeting Times established
• Separate Meeting Places established
• Blacks found independent church
• Independent churches fashion a denomination

11
Early Black Methodism

• Richard Allen (1760-1831), the founder of the
  African Methodist Episcopal Church was born a
  slave in Philadelphia.  After purchasing his own
  freedom as a young man, he joined St. George's
  Methodist Church, from which in 1787 he led a
  dramatic withdrawal of black members.  Allen soon
  became pastor of the group and was ordained as a
  deacon by Bishop Asbury.  When the African
  Methodist Episcopal Church was organized
  nationally in 1816, Allen was consecrated its
  first Bishop.

12
Richard Allen

• Licensed to preach - 1784
• Ordained Deacon by Asbury 1784
• Stages Walkout of St. George Church -1787
• Organizes Free African Society 1784
• Mother Bethel Church started - 1784

13
FREE AFRICAN SOCIETY

• Allen, along with Absalom Jones, came together to
  form the Free African Society (FAS) on April 12,
  1787. The Society, though not religiously
  affiliated, proved much like a church in serving
  the black community. NAACP founder, W.E.B.
  DuBois, writing a century later, called the FAS,
  "the first wavering step of a people toward
  organized social life." Organized as an
  altruistic society for extending mutual aid to
  the widowed, sick, and jobless, it was funded by
  dues-paying members.

14
Mother Bethel Church

• Allen received permission from St. George Church
  to build a church on the site where he purchased
  the land for St. Thomas's years earlier. Allen
  bought a blacksmith shop and had it hauled by a
  team of his own horses to 6th and Lombard. Bishop
  Asbury presided over the church's dedication on
  July 29, 1794.

15
Mother Bethel Church

• But tensions develop over who owns the deed to
  the church.
• Discipline claimed the church at large owned
  the building
• Members of Mother Bethel wanted to own the
  property
• 1796 Articles of Association of Bethel AME
  Church formed.
• 1830- Convention of Colored Men of U.S. held
  there. Bishop Allen presided.

16
Mother Bethel Church

• Mother Bethel Church was a stop on the
  Underground Railroad.
• The ground on which Mother Bethel stands is the
  oldest parcel of real estate continuously owned
  by African-Americans in the United States.
• The first black boy scout troop was founded at
  Mother Bethel Church.

17
Convention of 1816

• African Methodist Church formed
• Polity identical to Methodist Episcopal
• Exception no presiding elders
• Allen elected first Bishop
• Slave owners could not become members

18
Two Important AME Aspects

• Took a strong stance against discrimination and
  segregation has always counted whites among its
  membership
• Work of Richard Allen seen as expression of
  Nationalism, the challenging of economic and
  political policies detrimental to Black Americans.

19
Allens Nationalism Movement

• A leader of the free black community in
  Philadelphia, Allen also served as one of  the
  spokesmen for the forces opposed to the American
  Colonization Society, an organization that
  proposed sending freedmen back to Africa.  His
  campaign against the colonizationists resulted in
  the first meeting of the National Negro
  Convention Movement in 1830 -- a loosely
  organized group that functioned as a public
  platform for black abolitionists and community
  leaders.

20
Freedoms Journal

• Freedom's Journal, the first African-American
  owned and operated newspaper published in the
  United States, was published weekly in New York
  City from 1827 to 1829. John B. Russworm edited
  the journal alone between March 16, 1827 and
  March 28, 1829. Later,  Samuel Cornish served as
  co-editor (March 16, 1827 to September 14, 1827).
  Richard Allen was a regular contributor (see web
  site)

21
African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church

• 1796  Peter Williams, James Varick, Christopher
  Rush and other African Americans of the John
  Street Methodist Church, a white church in New
  York City, hold separate meetings in October.
• 1801, William and others incorporate the Zion
  Chapel into the Methodist Episcopal Church
• Schism causes division of an Asbury
  Congregation from the Zion congregation

22
Peter Williams

• Peter Williams, Sr., was for a number of years
  the sexton of the John Street Methodist Church,
  in which position he became distinguished among
  the white communicants for his fidelity and
  piety. He joined with other Negroes desirous of
  independent church action and established the
  Zion Church, out of which emerged the African
  Methodist Episcopal Zion Church
• From The History of the Negro Church by Woodson,
  Carter Godwin, (1875-1950), pg. 95

23
African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church

• 1820 Rev. William Stillwell leads a
  congregationalist schism from New York Methodism.
  Zion Chapel goes with Stillwell for a while.
• Asbury congregation and Zion Chapel reunite in
  1821 to form the African Methodist Episcopal Zion
  Church in American.
• Several elders ordained following year.

24
African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church

• 1820  Zion and Asbury hold organizational meeting
  to form own denomination, October
• 1821  Zion, Asbury and four other congregations
  hold conference in New York City to establish a
  new organization separate from Richard Allen's
  Methodists, June 21
• 1822  Zion pastor, James Varick elected first
  bishop of denomination
• 1824  New group officially breaks ties with the
  white Methodist denomination 
• 1828  First General Conference of the A.M.E Zion
  Church held

25
Peter Spencer (1782-1843)

• Peter Spencer was born a slave in Kent County,
  Maryland. When freed, he moved to Wilmington. He
  was soon an active in community and in his
  church, Asbury Methodist Episcopal Church.  In
  protest against the church's  racial
  discrimination Spencer led almost forty members
  out of Asbury to form Ezion M.E. Church.  

26
African Union Church

• Eight years later, in 1813, still frustrated by
  the Methodist Episcopal church's discrimination,
  the Spencer and William Anderson led another
  group away from the church.  They founded an
  independent church, the Union Church of African
  Members, the first African American controlled
  church in America.  Spencer served as pastor and
  elder minister until his death.  The Union Church
  spread quickly to include congregations in
  Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and New York. 

27
African Union Church

• Methodist Episcopol in polity with one exception
  congregations appointed own pastors.
• Bishops called Presidents
• Forms the African Union First Colored Methodist
  Protestant Church of the United States of America
  and Elsewhere (1865)