The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the A.M.E. Church or AME, is a predominantly African-American Methodist denomination. It is the first independent Protestant denomination to be founded by black people. It was founded by the Rt. Rev. Richard Allen in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1816 from several black Methodist congregations in the mid-Atlantic area that wanted independence from white Methodists. It was among the first denominations in the United States to be founded on racial rather than theological distinctions and has persistently advocated for the civil and human rights of African Americans through social improvement, religious autonomy, and political engagement. Allen, a deacon in Methodist Episcopal Church, was consecrated its first bishop in 1816 by a conference of five churches from Philadelphia to Baltimore. The denomination then expanded west and south, particularly after the Civil War. By 1906, the AME had a membership of about 500,000, more than the combined total of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in America and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, making it the largest major African-American Methodist denomination. The AME currently has 20 districts, each with its own bishop: 13 are based in the United States, mostly in the South, while seven are based in Africa. The global membership of the AME is around 2.5 million and it remains one of the largest Methodist denominations in the world.
Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York (UTS) is a non-denominational Christian seminary in New York City. It is affiliated with neighboring Columbia University. Since 1928, the seminary has served as Columbia's constituent faculty of theology. In 1964, UTS also established an affiliation with the neighboring Jewish Theological Seminary of America.
Episcopal Divinity School at Union (EDS) is a theological school in New York City that trains students for service with the Episcopal Church. It is affiliated with the Union Theological Seminary. Students who enroll in the EDS at Union Anglican Studies program earn a Master of Divinity degree from Union and also fulfill requirements for ordination in the Episcopal Church. It is led by Dean Kelly Brown Douglas. Known throughout the Anglican Communion for progressive teaching and action on issues of civil rights and social justice, its faculty and students were directly involved in many of the social controversies surrounding the Episcopal Church in the latter half of the 20th century and at the start of the 21st.
The General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church (GTS) is a seminary of the Episcopal Church in New York. Founded in 1817, GTS is the oldest seminary of the Episcopal Church and a leading center of theological education in the Anglican Communion. The seminary was chartered by an act of the Episcopal Church's General Convention and its name was chosen to reflect its founders vision that it be a seminary to serve the whole Church. Throughout its history, GTS has occupied a mediating position between the broad church tradition and Anglo-Catholicism and its faculty generally reflect the moderate-to-liberal consensus on moral and theological issues espoused by the Episcopal Church.
Candler School of Theology is one of seven graduate schools at Emory University, located in metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia. A university-based school of theology, Candler educates ministers, scholars of religion and other leaders. It is also one of 13 seminaries affiliated with the United Methodist Church.
Nathan Dwight Baxter, AHC, is the 10th bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Pennsylvania and the 1,010 in succession in the Episcopal Church. He was elected as bishop coadjutor on July 22, 2006, and consecrated on October 22, 2006. Baxter's friend Archbishop Desmond Tutu preached the sermon.
Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS), formally called the Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary in Virginia, is the largest and second oldest accredited Episcopal seminary in the United States, and is under the denomination Episcopal Church (TEC).
Church Divinity School of the Pacific (CDSP) is one of the nine seminaries of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. It is located in Berkeley, California, and is a member of the Graduate Theological Union. The only Episcopal seminary located in the Far West, CDSP has, since 1911, been designated the official seminary of the Episcopal Church's Eighth Province, the Province west of the Rocky Mountains.
Trinity School for Ministry (TSM), formerly known as Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry, is an Anglican seminary in Ambridge, Pennsylvania. It is generally associated with low church, evangelical Anglicanism.
John Neil Alexander is an Anglican liturgist and bishop in the Episcopal Church, currently serving as dean of the School of Theology at the University of the South. From 2001 to 2012, he was the 9th bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta.
Frank Tracy Griswold III is a retired American bishop. He was the 25th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church.
Vashti Murphy McKenzie is a bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and author of six books. In 2000, McKenzie became the first female to be elected as bishop in the denomination's history. She later served as President of the Council of Bishops, becoming the first woman to serve as Titular head of the AME Church. She currently serves the 10th Episcopal District.
Seminary of the Southwest is an Episcopal seminary in Austin, Texas. It is one of nine accredited seminaries of the Episcopal Church in the United States. Seminary of the Southwest forms Christian leaders pursuing ordination within the church, as well as those interested in lay forms of ministry, including chaplaincy and counseling.
Anne Holmes Redding is a former Episcopal priest, who was defrocked in April 2009 for having become a Muslim in March 2006. She grew up in Cheyney, PA. Her father was a noted civil rights lawyer in Delaware.
Henry Joseph Richter was a German-born prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He was the first Bishop of Grand Rapids, Michigan (1883–1916).
Mariann Edgar Budde is the diocesan bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington. She was consecrated as the ninth Bishop of Washington in the Washington National Cathedral on November 12, 2011. Prior to her election as Washington’s first female diocesan bishop, she served for 18 years as the rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
James Michael Mark Dyer was bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem from 1982 to 1995.
The Philadelphia Eleven are eleven women who were the first women ordained as priests in the Episcopal Church on July 29, 1974, two years before General Convention affirmed and explicitly authorized the ordination of women to the priesthood.
Carol Joy Walkingstick Theobald Gallagher is an American author and a bishop in The Episcopal Church.
Anne Catherine Dyer is a British Anglican bishop and academic administrator. She has served as Bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney in the Scottish Episcopal Church since 2018. Previously, from 2005 to 2011, she was the Warden of Cranmer Hall, Durham, a theological college of the Church of England. Then, she was Rector of Holy Trinity Church, Haddington, East Lothian in the Diocese of Edinburgh between 2011 and 2018.
