View source for African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church

{{short description|Predominantly African-American Christian denomination}}
{{For-multi|the Church of Zion in South Africa|Zion Christian Church|the first independent Protestant denomination to be founded by black people|African Methodist Episcopal Church}}
{{redirect|AMEZ|the village in Lebanon|Qahmez}}
{{Use American English|date=February 2019}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2019}}
{{Infobox Christian denomination
| name               = African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church
| image              = AMEZ emblem.png
| imagewidth         = 
| caption            = 
| main_classification = [[Protestant]]
| orientation        = [[Mainline Protestant|Mainline]] [[Methodist]]
| theology           = [[Wesleyan-Arminian theology|Wesleyan-Arminian]]
| polity             = [[Connexionalism]]
| founder            = 
| founded_date       = {{start date and age|1821}}
| founded_place      = New York, New York
| separated_from     = [[Methodist Episcopal Church]]
| parent             = 
| merger             = 
| separations        = 
| associations       = 
| area               = 
| congregations      = 
| members            = 1.4 million+
| footnotes          = 
| headquarters       = Charlotte, North Carolina
| website            = {{URL|https://amezion.org/}}
}}

The '''African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church''', or the '''AME Zion Church''' ('''AMEZ''') is a historically [[African American|African-American]] [[Christian denomination]] based in the [[United States]]. It was officially formed in 1821 in [[New York City]], but operated for a number of years before then. The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church adheres to [[Wesleyan-Arminian theology]].<ref name="AMEZ2012">{{cite book |title=The Doctrine and Discipline of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church |date=2012 |publisher=African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church |isbn=978-1-4969-5704-7 |language=English}}</ref>

The AME Zion Church is not to be confused with the similarly named [[African Methodist Episcopal Church]], which was officially formed in 1816 by [[Richard Allen (Reverend)|Richard Allen]] and [[Daniel Coker]] in [[Philadelphia]]. The denomination was made up of AME churches in the Philadelphia region, including [[Delaware]] and [[New Jersey]]. Though the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church was founded to grant equal rights to African Americans in Methodist Christianity, its [[church membership]] is composed of people of all racial backgrounds.<ref name="Williams2015">{{cite web |last1=Williams |first1=Paul |title=AME Church and AME Zion Church are not the same |url=https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20150718/ame-church-and-ame-zion-church-are-not-same |publisher=[[The Gleaner]] |access-date=17 June 2021 |language=English |date=18 July 2015}}</ref>

==History==
{{Methodism}}
The origins of this church can be traced to the [[John Street Methodist Church]] of New York City. Following acts of overt discrimination in [[New York City|New York]] (such as black parishioners being forced to leave worship), many black Christians left to form their own churches. The first church founded by the AME Zion Church was built in 1800 and was named ''[[Zion]];'' one of the founders was [[William Hamilton (abolitionist)|William Hamilton]], a prominent orator and [[abolitionism|abolitionist]]. These early [[black church]]es still belonged to the [[Methodist Episcopal Church]] denomination, although the congregations were independent. During the [[Great Awakening]], the Methodists and Baptists had welcomed free blacks and slaves to their congregations and as preachers.

The fledgling Zion church grew, and soon multiple churches developed from the original congregation. These churches were attended by black congregants, but ministered to by white ordained Methodist ministers. In 1820, six of these churches met to ordain [[James Varick]] as an elder, and in 1821 he was made the first General Superintendent of the AME Zion Church. A debate raged within the white-dominated Methodist church over accepting black ministers. This debate ended on July 30, 1822, when James Varick was ordained as the first bishop of the AME Zion church, a newly independent denomination. The total membership in 1866 was about 42,000.<ref>''The Annual Cyclopedia: 1866'', (1867), p. 492</ref> Two years later, it claimed 164,000 members, as it sent missionaries to the South after the American Civil War to plant new churches with the newly emancipated [[freedmen]].<ref>''The Annual Cyclopedia: 1868'', (1869), p. 481</ref>  The AME Zion Church had been part of the abolitionist movement and became known as the "Freedom Church", because it was associated with the period after emancipation of the slaves.

Black churches were integral in helping build communities and develop leadership among the freedmen in the South. Later they played an increasingly powerful role in the [[civil rights movement]] of the mid-20th century. The AME Zion Church remained smaller than the [[African Methodist Episcopal Church|African Methodist Episcopal]] (AME) Church, a denomination started in Philadelphia in the early 19th century, because some of its ministers lacked the authority to perform marriages, and many of its ministers avoided political roles. Its finances were weak, and in general its leadership was not as strong as that of the AME Church. However, it was the leader among all Protestant denominations in ordaining women and giving them powerful roles in the church.<ref>Canter Brown Jr. and Larry Eugene Rivers, ''For a Great and Grand Purpose: The Beginnings of the AMEZ Church in Florida, 1864–1905'' (2004).</ref>

An influential leader bishop was [[James Walker Hood]] (1831–1918) of [[North Carolina]]. He not only created and fostered his network of AME Zion churches in North Carolina, but he also was the grand master for the entire South of the [[Prince Hall Freemasonry]], a secular black fraternal organization that strengthened the political and economic forces inside the black community.<ref>David G. Hackett, "The Prince Hall Masons and the African American Church: The Labors of Grand Master and Bishop James Walker Hood, 1831–1918", ''Church History'' 69#4 (2000): 770–802. [https://web.archive.org/web/20060905135531/http://faculty.ncf.edu/hite/Secure_Documents/American/Prince%20Hall%20Masons.pdf online]</ref> [[Hood Theological Seminary]] in [[Salisbury, North Carolina]], is named in this bishop's honor.<ref>[https://www.hoodseminary.edu/about/about-hood/mission-purpose-and-history Mission, Purpose, and History], Hood Theological Seminary.</ref>

The Methodist [[Wesleyan-Holiness movement]] came to the AME Zion Church, with [[Julia A. J. Foote]] among others preaching the doctrine of [[entire sanctification]] throughout pulpits of the connexion.<ref name="Ingersol2021"/><ref name="Legacy2006">{{cite book |title=Legacy, Volume 23, Issue 1 |date=2006 |publisher=[[University of Massachusetts]] |page=90 |language=English}}</ref> Foote was the first woman ordained as a [[deacon]] within the connexion in 1894 and "in 1899, was ordained—the second female [[elder (Methodism)|elder]] in her denomination."<ref name="Ingersol2021">{{cite web |last1=Ingersol |first1=Stan |title=African Methodist Women in the Wesleyan-Holiness Movement |url=https://pbusa.org/202001-stan |publisher=[[Church of the Nazarene]] |access-date=17 June 2021 |language=English }}{{Dead link|date=August 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

In 1924 [[Cameron Chesterfield Alleyne]] became the church's first resident bishop in Africa.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Shavit|first1=David|title=The United States in Africa – A Historical Dictionary|date=1989|publisher=Greenwood press|location=Westport, Connecticut|isbn=0-313-25887-2|page=6}}</ref>

==Organization==
[[File:John Wesley AME Zion Church (1).JPG|thumb|200px|John Wesley AME Zion Church (est. 1847), located in the [[Logan Circle, Washington, D.C.|Logan Circle]] neighborhood of [[Washington, D.C.]]]]
A general conference is the supreme administrative body of the church. Between meetings of the conference, the church is administered by the AMEZ Board of Bishops. "The ''Book of Discipline'' is the instrument for setting forth the laws, plan, polity, and process by which the AME Zion Church governs itself."<ref>"Statement of Commission on Discipline Codification", in the ''Book of Discipline'' of the AME Zion Church, 2008: ii.</ref>

The denomination operates [[Livingstone College]] in Salisbury, North Carolina, and two junior colleges. In 1906 the religious studies department of Livingstone College was renamed Hood Theological Seminary, in honor of the influential bishop. Hood remained a department of the College until 2001.

On July 1, 2001, the seminary began operating independently of the college, and in March 2002, the [[Southern Association of Colleges and Schools]] (SACS), the college's accrediting agency acknowledged that the seminary was a separate institution, sponsored by the AME Zion Church independently of the college.{{cn|date=February 2023}}

The AME Zion missionaries are active in North and South America, Africa, and the Caribbean region. In 1998, the AME Zion Church commissioned the Reverend Dwight B. and BeLinda P. Cannon as the first family missionaries to [[South Africa]] in recent memory. These modern-day missionaries served from 1997 through 2004. Dr. Cannon was Administrative Assistant to the late Bishop Richard K. Thompson, who oversaw the work of South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Swaziland.{{cn|date=February 2023}}

The AME Zion Church has performed mission work in the countries of Nigeria, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Angola, Côte d'Ivoire, and Ghana in Africa; England, India, and Jamaica, St. Croix-Virgin Islands, Trinidad, and Tobago in the Caribbean; and others.{{cn|date=February 2023}}

==Ecumenism==
In May 2012, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church entered into [[full communion]] with the [[United Methodist Church]], [[African Methodist Episcopal Church]], [[African Union Methodist Protestant Church]], [[Christian Methodist Episcopal Church]], and [[Union American Methodist Episcopal Church]], in which these churches agreed to "recognize each other's churches, share sacraments, and affirm their clergy and ministries."<ref>{{cite web |last=Banks |first=Adelle M. |date=7 May 2012 |title=Methodists Reach Across Historic Racial Boundaries with Communion Pact |url=http://blog.christianitytoday.com/ctliveblog/archives/2012/05/methodists_reac.html |publisher=Christianity Today |access-date=11 November 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120626094704/http://blog.christianitytoday.com/ctliveblog/archives/2012/05/methodists_reac.html |archive-date=26 June 2012}}</ref>

The AME Zion Church has been in negotiations for many years to merge with the [[Christian Methodist Episcopal Church]] (CME) into a tentatively named Christian Methodist Episcopal Zion Church with more than 2 million members. The plan was originally for unification by 2004.<ref>{{cite web|url = http://wfn.org/2000/05/msg00170.html|title = Two black Methodist denominations moving toward union|publisher = Worldwide Faith News|access-date = 2006-03-19|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090304004736/http://wfn.org/2000/05/msg00170.html|archive-date = 2009-03-04|url-status = dead}}</ref> The AME Zion church is very similar in doctrine and practice to the CME Church and the AME Church.

==Notable clergy and members==
{{div col}}
* Bishop [[John Wesley Alstork]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hartshorn |first=William Newton |url=https://digital.ncdcr.gov/digital/collection/p249901coll37/id/4553/rec/1 |title=Era of Progress and Promise, 1863–1910: the religious, moral, and educational development of the American Negro since his emancipation |publisher=Priscilla Pub. Co. |year=1910 |pages=400 |chapter=Bishop J. W. Alstork, D.D., LLD., A.M.E. Zion Church}}</ref>
* Bishop [[George Lincoln Blackwell]]<ref name="Progress" />
* [[Marie L. Clinton]]<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Sara J. Duncan. Progressive Missions in the South and Addresses with Illustrations and Sketches of Missionary Workers and Ministers and Bishops' Wives.|url=https://docsouth.unc.edu/church/duncan/duncan.html|date=1906|website=Documenting the American South|pages=81–83|access-date=2020-05-26}}</ref>
* [[John C. Dancy]]<ref name="Progress">{{Cite news |date=1913-08-17 |title=Negro Progress Shown in African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church Activities. |pages=11 |work=The Birmingham News |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/75681887/negro-progress-shown-in-african/ |access-date=2021-04-13}}</ref>
* [[Eliza Ann Gardner]]<ref>{{Cite web|title=Eliza Ann Gardner (U.S. National Park Service)|url=https://www.nps.gov/people/eliza-ann-gardner.htm|access-date=2021-03-25|website=www.nps.gov|language=en}}</ref>
* Bishop [[Mildred "Bonnie" Hines]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Bishop Mildred Hines, first AME Zion female bishop, dead at age 67|date=May 24, 2022 |url=https://religionnews.com/2022/05/24/bishop-mildred-hines-first-ame-zion-female-bishop-dead-at-age-67/|publisher=Religion News Service|access-date=25 May 2022}}</ref>
* Bishop [[James Walker Hood]]<ref name="Progress" />
* Bishop [[Singleton T. Jones]]<ref name="Progress" />
* [[Henry Moxley]]<ref>{{cite web|title=The Abolitionist Period|url=https://www.michiganstreetbuffalo.org/history|publisher=Michigan Street African American Heritage Corridor Commission|access-date=15 July 2017|archive-date=April 13, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210413185502/https://www.michiganstreetbuffalo.org/history|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* Bishop [[Stephen Gill Spottswood]]<ref>{{cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fxsmAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA721|title=Encyclopedia of African American Religions|chapter=Spottswood, Stephen Gill|editor1=Murphy, Larry G.|editor2=Melton, J. Gordon|editor3=Ward, Gary L.|date=2013|publisher=Routledge|pages=721–722|isbn=9781135513382|access-date=12 October 2022|archive-date=2020-08-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200819074111/https://books.google.com/books?id=fxsmAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA721|url-status=live}}</ref>
* [[Harriet Tubman]]<ref name="Progress" />
* Bishop [[Alexander Walters]]<ref name="Progress" />
{{div col end}}

==See also==
{{Portal|Christianity|United States}}
* [[African Methodist Episcopal Church]]
* [[Black church]]
* [[Christian Methodist Episcopal Church]]
* [[Christianity in the United States]]
* [[Churches Uniting in Christ]]
* [[Methodist Episcopal Church, South]]
* [[Methodist Episcopal Church]]
* [[Religion of Black Americans]]
* [[United Methodist Church]]
* [[Wesleyan theology]]

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

==Further reading==
* Brown, Canter, Jr., and Larry Eugene Rivers. (2004) ''For a Great and Grand Purpose: The Beginnings of the AMEZ Church in Florida, 1864–1905''
* Heatwole, Charles (May 1986). "A geography of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church". ''Southeastern Geographer'' 26#1 pp.&nbsp;1–11. {{JSTOR|44370785}}.
* Hoggard, James Clinton (1998). ''African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, 1972–1996: A Bicentennial Commemorative History''. AME Zion Publishing House.
* Martin, Sandy Dwayne (1999). "''For God and Race: The Religious and Political Leadership of AMEZ Bishop James Walker Hood''. University of South Carolina Press.
* {{Cite book|first=John Jamison |last=Moore |year=1884 |title=History of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in America, Founded in 1796, in the City of New York |url=https://docsouth.unc.edu/church/moorej/moore.html |location=York, Pennsylvania |publisher=Teachers' Journal Office}} Reprinted in 2004 by the A.M.E. Zion Historical Society, Charlotte, North Carolina, {{ISBN|978-0-9759492-0-7}}.
* {{Cite book|first=William Jacob |last=Walls |year=1974 |title=The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church: Reality of the Black Church |location=Charlotte, North Carolina |publisher=A.M.E. Zion Publishing House |oclc=897864}}
* ''The Doctrines and Discipline of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, with an Appendix; Revised by the General Conference, Atlanta, Georgia July 16–22, 2008''. Charlotte, NC: A.M.E. Zion Publishing House, 2008.

==External links==
* [https://amezion.org/ Official website of the A.M.E. Zion Church]
* [https://amezpublishinghouse.org/ A.M.E. Zion Publishing House]
* [https://cedamezion.com/ Christian Education Department | A.M.E. Zion Church]
* [https://whoms.org/ Women's Home and Overseas Missionary Society]
* [https://connectionallaycouncil.org/ Connectional Lay Council | A.M.E. Zion Church]
* [https://docsouth.unc.edu/church/intro.html "The Church in the Southern Black Community"], ''Documenting the American South'', University of North Carolina, 2004
* [https://livingstone.edu/ Livingstone College]
* [https://www.hoodseminary.edu/ Hood Theological Seminary]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070708094814/http://www.clintonjuniorcollege.edu/ Clinton Junior College]
* [https://www.thearda.com/Denoms/D_1322.asp Profile of A.M.E. Zion Church], Association of Religion Data Archives

{{Methodist Episcopal Church}}
{{National Council of Churches members}}
{{Black church}}
{{Methodism footer}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:African Methodist Episcopal Zion churches]]
[[Category:African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church| ]]
[[Category:1821 establishments in New York (state)]]
[[Category:Historically African-American Christian denominations]]
[[Category:History of Methodism in the United States]]
[[Category:Members of the National Council of Churches]]
[[Category:Members of the World Council of Churches]]
[[Category:Methodism in the United States]]
[[Category:Methodist denominations established in the 19th century]]
[[Category:Methodist denominations in North America|African]]
[[Category:Religious organizations established in 1821]]

[[da:African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church]]