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Our Name
The
word
African
means
that the
church
was
organized
by
people
of
African
descent
and
heritage.
It does
not mean
that the
church
was
founded
in
Africa,
or that
it was
for
persons
of
African
descent
only.
The
church's
roots is
of the
family
of
Methodist
churches.
Methodism
provides
an
orderly
system
of rules
and
regulations
and
places
emphasis
on a
plain
and
simple
gospel.
Episcopal
refers
to the
form of
government
under
which
the
church
operates.
The
chief
executive
and
administrative
officers
of the
African
Methodist
Episcopal
denomination
are the
Bishops
of the
church.
Our
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.
The
Doctrine
and
Discipline
of the
African
Methodist
Episcopal
Church
2000 pg.
13
Our
Motto
"God Our
Father,
Christ
Our
Redeemer,
Man Our
Brother"
Derived
from
Bishop
Daniel
Payne
(1811-1893).
More:
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.
Dr.
Jamye
Coleman
Williams,
Editor.
Our
Beliefs
The
Motto
"God Our
Father,
Christ
Our
Redeemer,
Man Our
Brother"
is a
great
summary
of what
the
African
Methodist
Episcopal
Church
believes.
Also
known as
the
A.M.E.
Church
for
short,
the
denomination
is
Methodist
in terms
of its
basic
doctrine
and
order of
worship.
It was
born,
through
adversity,
of the
Methodist
church
and to
this day
does not
differ
in any
major
way from
what all
Methodists
believe.
The
split
from the
main
branch
of the
Methodist
Church
was not
a result
of
doctrinal
differences
but
rather
the
result
of a
time
period
that was
marked
by man's
intolerance
of his
fellow
man,
based on
the
color of
his
skin. It
was a
time of
slavery,
oppression
and the
dehumanization
of
people
of
African
descent
and many
of these
un-Christian
practices
were
brought
into the
church,
forcing
Richard
Allen
and a
group of
fellow
worshippers
of color
to form
a
splinter
denomination
of the
Methodist
Church.
To find
the
basic
foundations
of the
beliefs
of the
African
Methodist
Episcopal
Church,
you need
look no
further
than
The
Apostles'
Creed
and
The
Twenty
Five
Articles
of
Religion.
Our
Apostle's
Creed
I
believe
in God
the
Father
Almighty,
Maker of
heaven
and
earth,
and in
Jesus
Christ
his only
son our
Lord who
was
conceived
by the
Holy
Spirit,
born of
the
Virgin
Mary,
suffered
under
Pontius
Pilate,
was
crucified,
dead;
and
buried.
The
third
day he
arose
from the
dead' he
ascended
into
heaven
and
sitteth
at the
right
hand of
God the
Father
Almighty;
from
thence
he shall
come to
judge
the
quick
and the
dead. I
believe
in the
Holy
Spirit,
the
Church
Universal,
the
communion
of
saints,
the
forgiveness
of sins,
the
resurrection
of the
body and
the life
everlasting.
Amen. |
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