The Motto “God Our Father, Christ Our Redeemer, the Holy Spirit Our Comforter, Humankind Our Family” 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. To find the basic foundations of the beliefs of the A.M.E. Church, you need look no further than The Apostles’ Creed and The Twenty Five Articles of Religion:

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.

OUR HISTORY: THE BEGINNING

Richard Allen, Founder of the A.M.E. Church

In 1787, Rev. Richard Allen and Rev. Absalom Jones withdrew from the St. George Methodist Episcopal Church because of “unkind treatment” and restrictions placed on worshipers of African decent.  They founded the Free African Society, which laid the foundation for the African Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1816, Richard Allen called together sixteen representatives from Bethel African Church in Philadelphia, and the African Churches in Baltimore, Maryland; Wilmington, Delaware; Attleboro, Pennsylvania; and Salem, New Jersey to meet in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A church organization or “connection” was created and became known as the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Richard Allen was the founder and first Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

For further information on the A.M.E. Church, please visit the website: https://www.ame-church.com/.