African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church

The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, or the AME

African Methodist
Zion Church (AMEZ) is a historically African-American
Christian denomination based in the United States. It was officially Episcopal Zion Church
formed in 1821 in New York City, but operated for a number of
years before then. The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church
adheres to Wesleyan-Arminian theology.[1]

History
The origins of this church can be traced to the John Street
Methodist Church of New York City. Following acts of overt
discrimination in New York (such as black parishioners being Classification Protestant
forced to leave worship), many black Christians left to form their Orientation Mainline
own churches. The first church founded by the AME Zion Church Methodist
was built in 1800 and was named Zion; one of the founders was
Theology Wesleyan-
William Hamilton, a prominent orator and abolitionist. These early
Arminian
black churches still belonged to the Methodist Episcopal Church
denomination, although the congregations were independent. Polity Connexionalism
During the Great Awakening, the Methodists and Baptists had Headquarters Charlotte, North
welcomed free blacks and slaves to their congregations and as Carolina
preachers.
Origin 1821
The fledgling Zion church grew, and soon multiple churches New York, New
developed from the original congregation. These churches were York
attended by black congregants, but ministered to by white ordained
Separated from Methodist
Methodist ministers. In 1820, six of these churches met to ordain
Episcopal Church
James Varick as an elder, and in 1821 he was made the first
General Superintendent of the AME Zion Church. A debate raged Members 1.4 million+
within the white-dominated Methodist church over accepting black
ministers. This debate ended on July 30, 1822, when James Varick was ordained as the first bishop of the
AME Zion church, a newly independent denomination. The total membership in 1866 was about
42,000.[2] Two years later, it claimed 164,000 members, as it sent missionaries to the South after the
American Civil War to plant new churches with the newly emancipated freedmen.[3] The AME Zion
Church had been part of the Abolitionist movement and became known as the 'Freedom Church', because it
was associated with the period after emancipation of the slaves.

Black churches were integral in helping build communities and develop leadership among the freedmen in
the South. Later they played an increasingly powerful role in the civil rights movement of the mid-20th
century. The AME Zion Church remained smaller than the AME (African Methodist Episcopal) Church, a
denomination started in Philadelphia in the early 19th century) because some of its ministers lacked the
authority to perform marriages, and many of its ministers avoided political roles. Its finances were weak,
and in general its leadership was not as strong as that of the AME Church. However, it was the leader
among all Protestant denominations in ordaining women and giving them powerful roles in the church.[4]
An influential leader bishop was James Walker Hood (1831–1918) of North Carolina. He not only created
and fostered his network of AME Zion churches in North Carolina, but he also was the grand master for
the entire South of the Prince Hall Freemasonry, a secular black fraternal organization that strengthened the
political and economic forces inside the black community.[5] Hood Theological Seminary in Salisbury,
North Carolina is named in this bishop's honor.[6]

The Wesleyan-Holiness movement in Methodism came to the AME Zion Church, with Julia A. J. Foote
among others preaching the doctrine of entire sanctification throughout pulpits of the connexion.[7][8] Foote
was the first woman ordained as a deacon within the connexion in 1894 and "in 1899, was ordained—the
second female elder in her denomination."[7]

In 1924 Cameron Chesterfield Alleyne became the church's first resident bishop in Africa.[9]

Notes
The AME Zion Church is not to be confused with the similarly named African Methodist Episcopal
Church, which was officially formed in 1816 by Richard Allen and Daniel Coker in Philadelphia. The
denomination was made up of AME churches in the Philadelphia region, including Delaware and New
Jersey. Though the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church was founded to grant equal rights to African
Americans in Methodist Christianity, its church membership is composed of people of all racial
backgrounds.[10]

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 Church. 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."[11] John Wesley AME Zion Church
(est. 1847), located in the Logan
Today the denomination operates Livingstone College in Salisbury, Circle neighborhood of
North Carolina, and two junior colleges. In 1906 the religious studies Washington, D.C.
department of Livingstone College was renamed Hood Theological
Seminary, in honor of the influential bishop. 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 AME Zion Church independently of the
College.

The AME Zion 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 was Administrative Assistant to the late Bishop Richard K. Thompson,
who oversaw the work of South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Swaziland.
The AME Zion Church has performed mission work in the countries of Nigeria, Liberia, Malawi,
Mozambique, Angola, Côte d'Ivoire, and Ghana in Africa; England, India, and Jamaica, St. Croix-Virgin
Islands, Trinidad, and Tobago in the Caribbean; and others.

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 War. In the first decade after the war, together with
the AME Church, it sent missionaries to the South to aid freedmen. The two African-American
denominations gained hundreds of thousands of new members in the South, who responded to their
missionaries and organizing efforts.[12] Today, the AME Zion Church has more than 1.4 million
members,[13] with outreach activities in many areas around the world. Greater Centennial AME Zion
Church in Mount Vernon, New York, and Simon Temple AME Zion Church in Fayetteville, North
Carolina, are two of the largest churches in the AME Zion denomination, both with over 3,000 members
each. Staying true to their name, "The Freedom Church", for the first time in the history of the
denomination, in 2016 national Christian television network, The Word Network, featured the AME Zion
Church for a two-hour special in response to the massive killings of African Americans, which was led by
Rev. Daren Jaime, Rev. Edwrin Sutton, Rev. Brian R. Thompson, and Rev. Dr. Stephen W. Pogue. The
AME Zion Church continues to preach truth to power. In this generation an individual member is
sometimes referred to as being a "Zion Methodist".[14]

The AME Zion Church has been in negotiations for many years to merge with the Christian Methodist
Episcopal Church (CME) into a tentatively named Christian Methodist Episcopal Zion Church with more
than 2 million members. The plan was originally for unification by 2004.[15] The AME Zion church is very
similar in doctrine and practice to the CME Church and the AME Church.

Ecumenism
In May 2012, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church entered into full communion with the United
Methodist Church, African Methodist Episcopal Church, African Union Methodist Protestant Church,
Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, and Union American Methodist Episcopal Church, in which these
churches agreed to "recognize each other's churches, share sacraments, and affirm their clergy and
ministries."[16]

Notable clergy and members

Bishop John Wesley Alstork[17]
Bishop George Lincoln Blackwell[18]
Marie L. Clinton[19]
John C. Dancy[18]
Eliza Ann Gardner[20]
Bishop Mildred "Bonnie" Hines[21]
Bishop James Walker Hood[18]
Bishop Singleton T. Jones[18]
Henry Moxley[22]
Bishop Stephen Gill Spottswood[23]
Harriet Tubman[18]
 Bishop Alexander Walters[18]

See also
Christianity portal

Methodism portal
United States
portal

African Methodist Episcopal Church

Black church

Christian Methodist Episcopal Church

Christianity in the United States
Churches Uniting in Christ
Methodist Episcopal Church, South
Methodist Episcopal Church
Religion of Black Americans
United Methodist Church
Wesleyan theology

References
1. The Doctrine and Discipline of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. African
Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. 2012. ISBN 978-1-4969-5704-7.
2. The Annual Cyclopedia: 1866, (1867), p. 492
3. The Annual Cyclopedia: 1868, (1869), p. 481
4. Canter Brown Jr. and Larry Eugene Rivers, For a Great and Grand Purpose: The Beginnings
of the AMEZ Church in Florida, 1864–1905 (2004).
5. David G. Hackett, "The Prince Hall Masons and the African American Church: The Labors of
Grand Master and Bishop James Walker Hood, 1831–1918", Church History 69#4 (2000):
770–802. online (https://web.archive.org/web/20060905135531/http://faculty.ncf.edu/hite/Se
cure_Documents/American/Prince%20Hall%20Masons.pdf)
6. Mission, Purpose, and History (https://www.hoodseminary.edu/about/about-hood/mission-pu
rpose-and-history), Hood Theological Seminary.
7. Ingersol, Stan. "African Methodist Women in the Wesleyan-Holiness Movement" (https://pbu
sa.org/202001-stan). Church of the Nazarene. Retrieved June 17, 2021.
8. Legacy, Volume 23, Issue 1. University of Massachusetts. 2006. p. 90.
9. Shavit, David (1989). The United States in Africa – A Historical Dictionary. Westport,
Connecticut: Greenwood press. p. 6. ISBN 0-313-25887-2.
10. Williams, Paul (July 18, 2015). "AME Church and AME Zion Church are not the same" (http
s://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20150718/ame-church-and-ame-zion-church-are-not-s
ame). The Gleaner. Retrieved June 17, 2021.
11. "Statement of Commission on Discipline Codification", in the Book of Discipline of the AME
Zion Church, 2008: ii.
12. "The Church in the Southern Black Community" (https://docsouth.unc.edu/church/intro.html),
Documenting the South, University of North Carolina, 2004. Retrieved January 15, 2009.
13. "2008 Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches" (http://www.ncccusa.org/news/08021
5yearbook1.html). The National Council of Churches. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/
20081128123024/http://www.ncccusa.org/news/080215yearbook1.html) from the original on
November 28, 2008. Retrieved November 28, 2008.
14. The Book of Discipline of the AME Zion Church, 2008:¶47.
15. "Two black Methodist denominations moving toward union" (https://web.archive.org/web/200
90304004736/http://wfn.org/2000/05/msg00170.html). Worldwide Faith News. Archived from
the original (http://wfn.org/2000/05/msg00170.html) on March 4, 2009. Retrieved March 19,
2006.
16. Banks, Adelle M. (May 7, 2012). "Methodists Reach Across Historic Racial Boundaries with
Communion Pact" (https://web.archive.org/web/20120626094704/http://blog.christianitytoda
y.com/ctliveblog/archives/2012/05/methodists_reac.html). Christianity Today. Archived from
the original (http://blog.christianitytoday.com/ctliveblog/archives/2012/05/methodists_reac.ht
ml) on June 26, 2012. Retrieved November 11, 2012.
17. Hartshorn, William Newton (1910). "Bishop J. W. Alstork, D.D., LLD., A.M.E. Zion Church".
Era of Progress and Promise, 1863–1910: the religious, moral, and educational
development of the American Negro since his emancipation (https://digital.ncdcr.gov/digital/c
ollection/p249901coll37/id/4553/rec/1). Priscilla Pub. Co. p. 400.
18. "Negro Progress Shown in African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church Activities" (https://www.
newspapers.com/clip/75681887/negro-progress-shown-in-african/). The Birmingham News.
August 17, 1913. p. 11. Retrieved April 13, 2021.
19. "Sara J. Duncan. Progressive Missions in the South and Addresses with Illustrations and
Sketches of Missionary Workers and Ministers and Bishops' Wives" (https://docsouth.unc.ed
u/church/duncan/duncan.html). Documenting the American South. 1906. pp. 81–83.
Retrieved May 26, 2020.
20. "Eliza Ann Gardner (U.S. National Park Service)" (https://www.nps.gov/people/eliza-ann-gar
dner.htm). www.nps.gov. Retrieved March 25, 2021.
21. "Bishop Mildred Hines, first AME Zion female bishop, dead at age 67" (https://religionnews.c
om/2022/05/24/bishop-mildred-hines-first-ame-zion-female-bishop-dead-at-age-67/).
Religion News Service. May 24, 2022. Retrieved May 25, 2022.
22. "The Abolitionist Period" (https://web.archive.org/web/20210413185502/https://www.michiga
nstreetbuffalo.org/history). Michigan Street African American Heritage Corridor Commission.
Archived from the original (https://www.michiganstreetbuffalo.org/history) on April 13, 2021.
Retrieved July 15, 2017.
23. Murphy, Larry G.; Melton, J. Gordon; Ward, Gary L., eds. (2013). "Spottswood, Stephen Gill".
Encyclopedia of African American Religions (https://books.google.com/books?id=fxsmAgAA
QBAJ&pg=PA721). Routledge. pp. 721–722. ISBN 9781135513382. Archived (https://web.a
rchive.org/web/20200819074111/https://books.google.com/books?id=fxsmAgAAQBAJ&pg=
PA721) from the original on August 19, 2020. Retrieved October 12, 2022.

Further reading
Brown, Canter, Jr., and Larry Eugene Rivers. (2004) For a Great and Grand Purpose: The
Beginnings of the AMEZ Church in Florida, 1864–1905
Heatwole, Charles (May 1986). "A geography of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion
Church". Southeastern Geographer 26#1 pp. 1–11. JSTOR 44370785 (https://www.jstor.org/
stable/44370785).
Hoggard, James Clinton (1998). African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, 1972–1996: A
Bicentennial Commemorative History. AME Zion Publishing House.
 Martin, Sandy Dwayne (1999). "For God and Race: The Religious and Political Leadership
of AMEZ Bishop James Walker Hood. University of South Carolina Press.
Moore, John Jamison (1884). History of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in
America, Founded in 1796, in the City of New York (https://docsouth.unc.edu/church/moorej/
moore.html). York, Pennsylvania: Teachers' Journal Office. Reprinted in 2004 by the A.M.E.
Zion Historical Society, Charlotte, North Carolina, ISBN 978-0-9759492-0-7.
Walls, William Jacob (1974). The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church: Reality of the
Black Church. Charlotte, North Carolina: A.M.E. Zion Publishing House. OCLC 897864 (http
s://www.worldcat.org/oclc/897864).
The Doctrines and Discipline of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, with an
Appendix; Revised by the General Conference, Atlanta, Georgia July 16–22, 2008.
Charlotte, NC: A.M.E. Zion Publishing House, 2008.

External links
Official website of the A.M.E. Zion Church (https://amez.org/)
A.M.E. Zion Publishing House (https://amezpublishinghouse.org/)
Christian Education Department | A.M.E. Zion Church (https://cedamezion.com/)
Women's Home and Overseas Missionary Society (https://whoms.org/)
Connectional Lay Council | A.M.E. Zion Church (https://connectionallaycouncil.org/)
"The Church in the Southern Black Community" (https://docsouth.unc.edu/church/intro.html),
Documenting the American South, University of North Carolina, 2004
Livingstone College (http://livingstone.edu/)
Hood Theological Seminary (https://www.hoodseminary.edu/)
Clinton Junior College (https://web.archive.org/web/20070708094814/http://www.clintonjuni
orcollege.edu/)
Profile of A.M.E. Zion Church (https://www.thearda.com/Denoms/D_1322.asp), Association
of Religion Data Archives

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