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ORIGIN
The
African
Methodist
Episcopal
is an
offspring
of the
Methodist
which
was
founded
by John
Wesley
in
England
and
America
in the
eighteenth
century.
The
Methodist
movement
itself
began in
1739
when
John
Wesley,
an
Anglican,
started
within
the
Church
of
England
a
movement
to
improve
the
spiritual
life of
his
Church.
The
movement
became
widespread.
Many of
the
followers
of the
movement
immigrated
to
America.
Wesley,
realizing
the
future
for the
spread
of
Methodism
in the
Colonies,
ordained
Dr.
Thomas
Coke, an
Anglican
priest,
and sent
him to
organize
the
Church
in
America.
Dr. Coke
arrived
and
called a
General
Conference
in
Baltimore,
Maryland
in
December
1784. At
this
"Christmas
Conference,
Richard
Allen
(founder
of the
American
Methodist
Episcopal
Church),
was
present
as an
observer
only,
and was
not a
delegate
or a
voter.
Methodism
grew as
the
Methodist
riders
went
from
point to
point,
from
settlement
to
settlement,
and from
plantation
to
plantation.
The
African
Methodist
Episcopal
Church
sprang
from the
American
counterpart
of the
Methodist
Church.
ORGANIZATION
OF THE
AFRICAN
METHODIST
EPISCOPAL
(A.M.E.)
CHURCH
The
African
Methodist
Episcopal
Church
has a
unique
and
glorious
history.
It is
unique
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.
The
immediate
cause of
the
organization
of the
A.M.E.
Church
was the
fact
that
members
of the
St.
George's
Methodist
Episcopal
Church
in
Philadelphia
Pa., in
1787
segrated
its
colored
members
from its
white
communicants.
The
Blacks
were
sent to
the
gallery
of the
Church,
to use
the
venerable
Richard
Allen's
own
words.
One
Sunday
as the
Africans,
as they
were
called,
knelt to
pray
outside
of their
segrated
area
they
were
actually
pulled
from
their
knees
and told
to go to
a place
which
had been
designated
for
them.
This
added
insult
to
injury
and upon
completing
their
prayer,
they
went out
and
formed
the Free
African
Society,
and from
this
Society
came two
groups:
The
Episcopalians
and the
Methodists.
The
leader
of the
Methodist
group
was
Richard
Allen.
Richard
Allen
desired
to
implement
his
conception
of
freedom
of
worship
and
desired
to be
rid of
the
humiliation
of
segregation,
especially
in
church.
Richard
Allen
learned
that
other
groups
were
suffering
under
the same
conditions.
After
study
and
consultation,
five
churches
came
together
in a
General
Convention
which
met in
Philadelphia,
Pa.,
April
9-11,
1816,
and
formed
the
African
Methodist
Episcopal
Church.
The name
African
Methodist
came
naturally,
as
Negroes
at that
time
were
called
Africans
and they
followed
the
teaching
of the
Methodist
Church
as
founded
by John
Wesley.
The
young
Church
accepted
the
Methodist
doctrine
and
Discipline
almost
in its
entirety.
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