The Bethel AME Church, formally established in 1816. Diversity Saturday

More about The Bethel AME Church, formally established in 1816. Diversity Saturday

Joy and celebration in the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME Church) which is a Black Methodist denomination originating in the United States, formally organized in 1816. It was the first African American denomination organized in the United States and, unlike most other American denominations, was formed because of racial issues rather than theological differences.
The AME Church developed from a congregation formed by a group of Black people who withdrew in 1787 from St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia because of restrictions in seating; Blacks had been confined to the gallery of the church. Those who withdrew formed the Free African Society, the forerunner of the AME Church, and built Bethel African Methodist Church in Philadelphia. In 1799 Richard Allen, who was formerly enslaved in Delaware, was ordained its minister by Bishop Francis Asbury of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1807 and again in 1815, Allen successfully sued in the Pennsylvania courts to establish Bethel’s independence from white Methodists. In 1816 Asbury consecrated Allen bishop of the newly organized AME Church, which accepted Methodist doctrine and discipline. The church speaks of Richard Allen, William Paul Quinn, Daniel A. Payne, and Henry M. Turner as the “Four Horsemen” instrumental in the establishment of the church.
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