2016 Marks 200 Years of the AME Church Wednesday, March 2, 2016 - by Eric A

2016 Marks 200 Years of the AME Church Wednesday, March 2, 2016 - by Eric A. Atkins, M. Ed. This article is reprinted from http://chattanoogan.com/ A pivotal day in African-American history occurred on one Sunday afternoon in November 1786, when a group of congregants led by Richard Allen and Absalom Jones would stage the first African-American mass demonstration in American history as they filed out of St. George's Methodist Church in Philadelphia, Pa. in direct opposition to discrimination in the church-place as black congregants had been forced to sit in the gallery section and were denied the right to openly pray and worship despite being full-fledged members of the church. This sparked a movement across the nation as African-Americans formally protested segregated houses of worship and laid the foundation for the Free African Society in April 1787, which was America's first civil rights organization. The work undertaken by this group would later evolve into what would become known as the African Methodist Episcopal Church. It's notable to think that as these momentous events occurred that the Constitutional Convention had just finished convening in Philadelphia. Nevertheless, Allen, Jones, and the early AME congregants would begin building Bethel AME Church in Philadelphia in 1793, pausing briefly to assist in the Great Yellow Fever epidemic that spread throughout the city that year, and completed this work in 1794. Women such as Allen's wife Sarah would also play a significant role in the founding of the AME Church by assisting the minister's in their official duties and church upkeep, including stitching the ministers often worn and ragged garments, promoted reading and literacy at a time when it was illegal to do so, and were active participants in the Underground Railroad. Today the church's Women's Missionary Society remains committed and dedicated too much of this work. Despite all of these progressive societal accomplishments, disputes between the early AME founders and St. George's Methodist Church were steadily persistent because technically the black congregants were still governed under the same ecclesiastical rules and regulations, and in fact at one point the AME founders would have to repurchase their property for over $10,000 after it was auctioned, which was a small fortune in the early 1800's. In the face of these seemingly insurmountable odds and obstructionism, the AME Church formally organized as a national body by 1816, with Richard Allen serving as its first Bishop. Recently, the nation and world became re-acclimated to the history of Emanuel AME church, located in Charleston, SC. One of the earliest persons who helped to place a church in Charleston was the Rev. Morris Brown, and coincidentally enough, another part of Brown's endearing legacy would be the AME church's long affiliation with institutions of higher learning such as Morris Brown in Atlanta and Wilberforce in Ohio. Emanuel AME is also notable for being home of the oldest black congregation in the South and once counted Denmark Vesey, an early civil rights activist and abolitionist who led slave uprising in 1822, as one of its earliest congregants. Mr. Vesey, along with three dozen others, would be tried and executed for their stand and the church would be burned before being rebuilt in 1834. Ironically, on June 17, 2015, an armed assailant would enter the church during Wednesday prayer service and shoot nine of the congregants, including the church's minister and South Carolina State Senator Clementa C. Pinckney. On June 26, 2015, the General Conference of the AME Church and several national dignitaries, including a eulogy by President Barack Obama, would mourn their loss. The aftermath of this horrific event would lead to a call to take down the confederate flag from the state capitol grounds. For their courage, steadfastness, and noble action which followed in the best of Christian traditions during this tragedy, in February of 2016, the congregation of Emanuel AME was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Throughout 2016, the AME Church will celebrate its 200th anniversary. This Bicentennial celebration will culminate with events in Philadelphia, Pa. from July 3-13, including the 50th Quadrennial Session of the General Conference from July 6-133, which will also include the unveiling of memorials for Richard and Sarah Allen, and a memorial torch run. Likewise, the United States Postal Service recently announced that it will issue an official stamp for Bishop Allen, which will be the 39th in the Postal Service's black heritage stamp series. Today the AME Church has nearly three-million members in five countries and across three continents. In the vicinity of Philadelphia, there are several memorials and a park dedicated to Allen and the AME founders, and fittingly enough, he and wife Sarah are entombed in the lower dwellings of Mother Bethel AME Church. .

Load more