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The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the A.M.E. Church or AME, is a predominantly African-American Methodist denomination. It adheres to Wesleyan-Arminian theology and has a connexional polity. The African Methodist Episcopal Church is the first independent Protestant denomination to be founded by black people, though it welcomes and has members of all ethnicities. It was founded by the Rt. Rev. Richard Allen (1760-1831) - later elected and ordained first Bishop in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1816 from calling together of five black congregations of the earlier established Methodist Episcopal Church on the East Coast / Middle-Atlantic states area in the first General Conference, who wanted to escape the discrimination that was commonplace in society. It was among the first denominations in the United States to be founded for this reason, rather than for theological distinctions, and has persistently advocated for the civil and human rights of African Americans through social improvement, religious autonomy, and political engagement, while always being open to people of all racial backgrounds. Allen, an previously ordained Deacon in the Methodist Episcopal Church, was elected by the gathered ministers and ordained / consecrated as its first Bishop in 1816 by the first General Conference of the five churches - extending from the three in the Philadelphia area in Pennsylvania to one in Delaware and one in Maryland of Baltimore. The denomination then expanded west and through the South, particularly after the American Civil War (1861-1865). By 1906, the AME had a membership of about 500,000, more than the combined total of the two other predominantly Black American denominations - the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in America and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, making it the largest major African-American denomination of the Methodist traditions.
The Church of the United Brethren in Christ is an evangelical Christian denomination with churches in 17 countries. It is Protestant, with an episcopal structure and Arminian theology, with roots in the Mennonite and German Reformed communities of 18th-century Pennsylvania, as well as close ties to Methodism. It was organized in 1800 by Martin Boehm and Philip William Otterbein and is the first American denomination that was not transplanted from Europe. It emerged from United Brethren churches that were at first unorganized, and not all of which joined this church when it was formally organized in 1800, following a 1789 conference at the Otterbein Church.
Prairie School is a late 19th- and early 20th-century architectural style, most common in the Midwestern United States. The style is usually marked by horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with broad overhanging eaves, windows grouped in horizontal bands, integration with the landscape, solid construction, craftsmanship, and discipline in the use of ornament. Horizontal lines were thought to evoke and relate to the wide, flat, treeless expanses of America's native prairie landscape.
Florida Southern College is a private college in Lakeland, Florida. In 2019, the student population at FSC consisted of 3,073 students along with 130 full-time faculty members. The college offers 50 undergraduate majors and pre-professional programs, graduate programs in nursing, business, and education as well as post-graduate programs in nursing, education, and physical therapy.
Richard Eugene Blanchard Sr. was a songwriter who was widely known for writing the popular "Fill My Cup, Lord".
Holland Nimmons McTyeire was an American bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, elected in 1866. He was a co-founder of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. He was a supporter of slavery in the United States.
Paul Hardin Jr. was a bishop in The Methodist Church in the U.S., elected in 1960.
Robert Kennon Hargrove (1829–1905) was an American bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, elected in 1882.
David Jerald Lawson was an American who gained notability as a pastor and university campus minister in the Methodist and United Methodist churches, as a district superintendent, annual conference official, and as a bishop of the United Methodist Church (UMC), elected in 1984. He also played a key role establishing and developing Africa University, which is the only UMC university on the continent.
Don Wendell Holter was an American bishop of the United Methodist Church, elected in 1972. He was born in Lincoln, Kansas, a son of Henry O. and Lenna Mater Holter.
Larry Martin Goodpaster is a bishop of the United Methodist Church, elected in 2000.
Edward Gonzalez Carroll was an American bishop of the United Methodist Church, elected in 1972.
An annual conference in Methodism is a regional body that governs much of the life of the "connectional church". Annual conferences are composed primarily of the clergy members and a lay member or members from each charge. Each conference is a geographical division. In general, the smaller states in the United States hold one conference each, while larger states often include two or more conferences. Several annual conferences are held in other nations as well.
Robert McGrady Blackburn was an American bishop of the United Methodist Church, elected in 1972.
Richard J. Wills Jr is a bishop of the United Methodist Church, elected in 2004.
Lloyd Christ Wicke (1901–1996) was an American bishop of The Methodist Church and the United Methodist Church, elected in 1948. When he died in 1996 he was the oldest of the 117 active and retired United Methodist Bishops at that time, as well as the last one elected during the decade of the 1940s.
John W. Gowdy was a Scottish American bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church and The Methodist Church, elected in 1930. He also distinguished himself as a missionary, an educator, and as a college and university president.
Carl Julian Sanders (1912–2007) was an American Bishop of the United Methodist Church who was elected to that office in 1972. At the time of his election, he was the only candidate for the Methodist episcopacy ever to have been elected on the first ballot in the history of the Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference.
B. Michael Watson is a bishop of The United Methodist Church, elected in 2000. He served as resident bishop of the North Georgia Annual Conference, which comprises 1,000 churches, more than 1,500 clergy members, and more than 320,000 lay members. He retired in 2016 and currently serves as ecumenical officer of the Council of Bishops.
Charles Spencer Smith (1852–1923) was a Methodist minister and afterwards bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church as well as an Alabama state legislator. He wrote numerous pamphlets during his lifetime, as well as a history of the AME Church and Glimpses of Africa (1895) chronicling his 1894 trip to the African continent.
References
- Short, Roy Hunter, Bp., History of the Council of Bishops of The United Methodist Church 1939-1979, Nashville, Abingdon, 1980.