African Methodist Episcopal Church

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The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the AME Church or AME, is a Methodist denomination based in the United States. It adheres to Wesleyan–Arminian theology and has a connexional polity. It cooperates with other Methodist bodies through the World Methodist Council and Wesleyan Holiness Connection. Though historically a Black church and the first independent Protestant denomination to be founded by Black people, the African Methodist Episcopal Church welcomes and has members of all ethnicities. The AME Church was founded by Richard Allen (1760–1831) in 1787 when he called together five African American congregations of the previously established Methodist Episcopal Church with the hope of escaping the discrimination that was commonplace in society, including some churches. It was among the first denominations in the United States to be founded for this reason (rather than for theological distinctions). Allen, a previously ordained deacon in the Methodist Episcopal Church...

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