The African Methodist Episcopal Church.
The AMEC grew out of the Free African Society (FAS) which Richard Allen, Absalom Jones, and others established in Philadelphia in 1787. When officials at St. George’s MEC pulled blacks off their knees while praying, FAS members discovered just how far American Methodists would go to enforce racial discrimination against African Americans. Hence, these members of St. George’s made plans to transform their mutual aid society into an African congregation. Although most wanted to affiliate with the Protestant Episcopal Church, Allen led a small group who resolved to remain Methodists. In 1794 Bethel AME was dedicated with Allen as pastor. To establish Bethel’s independence from interfering white Methodists, Allen, a former Delaware slave, successfully sued in the Pennsylvania courts in 1807 and 1815 for the right of his congregation to exist as an independent institution. Because black Methodists in other middle Atlantic communities encountered racism and desired religious autonomy, Allen called them to meet in Philadelphia to form a new Wesleyan denomination, the AME.

In the late fall of 1879, a number of Moorestown, NJ residents, who were members of Jacob’s Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Mt. Laurel, NJ, found it difficult to travel back and forth to church.  Instead of traveling the distance of five miles, they decided to organize their own church in Moorestown. 

Sunday after Sunday they went from house to house, holding prayer meetings and song services until they were able to secure Van Sciver’s Hall, which was located on West Main Street.  They called themselves Bethel and later became part of the New Jersey AME Conference.

In the 1990s, the AME church included over 2,000,000 members, 8000 ministers, and 7000 congregations in more than 30 nations in North and South America, Africa, and Europe.  Twenty bishops and 12 general officers comprised the leadership of the denomination.