Our Motto
The Motto "God Our Father, Christ Our Redeemer, the Holy Spirit Our
Comforter, Humankind Our Family," is a great summary of what the African
Methodist Episcopal Church believes.
Also known as the A.M.E. Church for short, the basic doctrine and order is
Methodist. It was born, through adversity, of the Methodist church and to this
day does not differ in any major way from what all Methodists believe. The
split from the main branch of the Methodist Church was not a result of doctrinal
differences but rather the result of man's intolerance of his fellow man, based
on the color of his skin. It was a time of slavery, oppression and the
dehumanization of people of African descent and many of these un-Christian
practices were brought into the church, forcing Richard Allen and a group of
fellow worshippers of color to form a splinter denomination of the Methodist
Church. To find the basic foundations of the beliefs of the African
Methodist Episcopal Church, .you need look no further than The Apostles' Creed
and the Twenty-Five Articles of Religion.
Our Name
The word African means that the church was organized by
people of African descent and heritage. It does not mean that the church was
founded in Africa, or that it was for persons of African descent only.
The church's roots is of the family of Methodist churches.
Methodism provides an orderly system of rules and regulations and places
emphasis on a plain and simple gospel.
Episcopal refers to the form of government under which the
church operates. The chief executive and administrative officers of the African
Methodist Episcopal denomination are the Bishops of the church.
Our Mission
The Mission of the African Methodist Episcopal Church is to minister to the
spiritual, intellectual, physical and emotional needs of all people by spreading
Christ's liberating gospel through word and deed. Each local church of the
African Methodist Episcopal Church shall engage in carrying out the spirit of
the original Free African Society out of which the A.M.E. Church evolved.