The African Methodist Episcopal Church

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The African Methodist Episcopal Church also known as the AME Church, represents a long history of people going from struggles to success, from embarrassment to pride, from slaves to free. It is my intention to prove that the name African Methodist Episcopal represents equality and freedom to worship God, no matter what color skin a person was blessed to be born with. The thesis is this: While both Whites and Africans believed in the worship of God, whites believed in the oppression of the Africans’ freedom to serve God in their own way, blacks defended their own right to worship by the development of their own church. According to Andrew White, a well- known author for the AME denomination, “The word African means that our church was organized by people of African descent Heritage, The word “Methodist” means that our church is a member of the family of Methodist Churches, The word “Episcopal refers to the form of government under which our church operates.” THE CREATION OF THE AME CHURCH Many people who hear the name African Methodist Episcopal Church automatically make assumptions. These assumptions are based on the faulty premises that the name of the church denotes that the church is only meant for African-Americans or that it is filled with racist’s teachings. Neither of those assumptions is true. The Africans communities established their own churches and ordained their own preachers who could relate to the struggle of being a slave and the struggle of being a free African in a strange land that spoke freedom but their action said something different. Although, the Civil war brought about change for Africans, along with this change it brought heart ache, despair and restriction of worship to the African... ... middle of paper ... ...he African Methodist Episcopal Church has a long history of struggles, victories and achievements. The Africans gained privilege to worship God in their own special way by forming their own church that represents who they were and what they believed. To this present day the freedom to worship God is still evident inside the walls of the many AME Churches. The AME Church shines light throughout the world that God should be worshipped by all those wishing to worship him, and they continue to dispel the faulty premises that the church is for one race of people. African Methodist Episcopal Church represents equality and freedom to worship God, for both whites and Africans. The AME Motto is "God Our Father, Christ Our Redeemer, Holy Spirit Our Comforter, and Humankind Our Family". This motto reflects the basic beliefs of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

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