The
African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, or
AME Zion Church, is a historically African-American
ChristianA Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
denominationA Christian denomination is an identifiable religious body under a common name, structure, and doctrine within Christianity. In the Orthodox tradition, Churches are divided often along ethnic and linguistic lines, into separate churches and traditions. Technically, divisions between one group and...
. It was officially formed in 1821, but operated for a number of years before then.
The church can be traced back to the
John Street Methodist ChurchThe John Street United Methodist Church located at 44 John Street in Manhattan, New York, USA was built in 1841. It is the third church located at the site...
of
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Following acts of overt discrimination (such as black parishioners being forced to leave worship), many black
ChristianA Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
s left to form their own churches. The first church founded by the AME Zion Church was built in 1800 and was named
Zion. These early black churches were still part of the
Methodist Episcopal ChurchThe Methodist Episcopal Church, sometimes referred to as the M.E. Church, was a development of the first expression of Methodism in the United States. It officially began at the Baltimore Christmas Conference in 1784, with Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke as the first bishops. Through a series of...
denomination, although the congregations were independent.
The fledgling church grew and soon multiple churches developed from the original congregation. These churches were attended by black congregants, but ministered to by white ordained Methodist ministers. In 1820, six of the churches met to ordain
James VarickJames Varick was the first Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.James Varick was born near Newburgh, New York, on January 10, 1750 and became the first black Methodist Episcopal Zion Bishop.-Background:...
as an elder and in 1821 he was made the first General Superintendent of the AME Zion Church. A debate raged in the white-dominated Methodist church over the possibility of black ministers. This debate concluded on July 30, 1822 when James Varick was ordained the first
bishopA bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
of the AME Zion church.
Key features and early structure of AME Zion Church
The newly formed AME Zion Church had a separate meeting place and time apart from the
Methodist Episcopal ChurchThe Methodist Episcopal Church, sometimes referred to as the M.E. Church, was a development of the first expression of Methodism in the United States. It officially began at the Baltimore Christmas Conference in 1784, with Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke as the first bishops. Through a series of...
. Autonomy was key for the newly formed church.
A general conference is the supreme administrative body of the church (s. 1988). Between meetings of the conference, the church is administered by the Board of Bishops. "The
Book of Discipline is the instrument for setting forth the laws, plan, polity, and process by which the AME Zion Church governs itself."
Today the denomination operates
Livingstone CollegeLivingstone College is a private, historically black, four-year college in Salisbury, North Carolina. It is affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church...
in Salisbury, NC, and two junior colleges. In 1906 the religious studies department of Livingstone College came to be known as the
Hood Seminary. Hood remained a department of the College until 2001. On July 1, 2001 the Seminary began operating independently of the College, and in March, 2002 the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), the College’s accrediting agency, acknowledged that the Seminary was a separate institution, sponsored by the A.M.E. Zion Church independent of the College.
Its missionaries are active in North and South America, Africa, and the Caribbean region (s. 1988). In 1998, the AME Zion Church commissioned the Reverend Dwight B. and BeLinda P. Cannon as the first family missionaries to South Africa in recent memory. These modern-day missionaries served from 1997 through 2004. Dr. Cannon is now Administrative Assistant to Bishop Richard K. Thompson, who oversees the work of South Africa, Zimbabwe and Swaziland. The AME Zion Church has other mission work in the countries of Nigeria, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Angola, Ivory Coast, Ghana, England, India, Jamaica, St. Croix-Virgin Islands, Trinidad, Tobago, etc.
The Church today
The church grew rapidly with the ordination of black ministers, but was mostly confined to the northern United States until the conclusion of the
American Civil WarThe American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. In the first decade after the war, together with the AME Church, it gained hundreds of thousands of new members in the South, who responded to its missionaries and organizing effort. Today, the AME Zion church has more than 1.4 million members, with outreach activities in many areas around the world. An individual member is sometimes referred to as being a "Zion Methodist".
The AME Zion church has been in negotiations for many years to merge with the
Christian Methodist Episcopal ChurchThe Christian Methodist Episcopal Church is a historically black denomination within the broader context of Methodism. The group was organized in 1870 when several black ministers, with the full support of their white counterparts in the former Methodist Episcopal Church, South, met to form an...
into a tentatively named
Christian Methodist Episcopal Zion ChurchThe Christian Methodist Episcopal Zion Church is a tentative name for a merger between the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. This was proposed in 2000 during merger negotiations....
. The plan was originally for unification by 2004. The AME Zion church has insisted on continuing to have "African" in the name. AME Zion church is very similar in doctrine and practice to CME church and the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
See also
- Churches Uniting in Christ
Churches Uniting in Christ brings together ten mainline American denominations , and was inaugurated on January 20, 2002....
- African Methodist Episcopal Church
The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the A.M.E. Church, is a predominantly African American Methodist denomination based in the United States. It was founded by the Rev. Richard Allen in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1816 from several black Methodist congregations in the...
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