About

The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the A.M.E. Church, is the oldest independent Protestant denomination founded by blacks in the world. The AME church was not founded in Africa, nor is it only for persons of African descent. The AME church is open and welcoming to people of all ethnicities, origins, nationalities and colors. The African Methodist Episcopal Church has a unique history as it is the first major religious denomination in the western world that developed because of sociological rather than theological differences. It was the first African-American denomination organized and incorporated in the United States. The church was born in protest against racial discrimination and slavery. The church's roots are in the Methodist church. Members of St. George's Methodist Church left the congregation when faced with racial discrimination, but continued with the Methodist doctrine and the order of worship.