ICF: Service overcomes two centuries of division - Oct. 2009

On Oct. 25, hundreds of congregants from neighboring Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church poured into St. George’s for a combined worship service, the first since the breakup.

That history began in the 1780s. Richard Allen and Absalom Jones became the first African-American lay preachers at St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church, licensed by Francis Asbury, Methodism’s first bishop in America. The growing number of African members led to the building of a balcony in 1792. With that came segregated seating.

One Sunday, a church trustee forcibly moved Jones from where he was praying. Allen and Jones led a walkout of the African-American members. Allen began Mother Bethel Church and struggled with the overseeing church, St. George’s, over rights to self-determination. In 1816, the Supreme Court decided in favor of Mother Bethel, and Allen founded the African Methodist Episcopal denomination.

The Rev. Alfred Day, St. George’s, welcomed the brimming sanctuary to the special Sunday worship. “We’re here today because God’s Spirit is full of surprises,” he said. The combined worship resulted from an invitation to the Rev. Mark Kelly Tyler, Mother Bethel AME Church, to preach as part of St. George’s 240th anniversary. Tyler’s response was, “Sure, but how about if I bring Mother Bethel with me?” Day presented a gift to Tyler, a cross made of the original nails taken from the balcony that had led racial segregation and division.

Asked why the churches were coming together, Day said, “The God of our mothers and fathers is busy pointing to the Promised Land more than back to Egypt.”

Through the Interdenominational Cooperation Fund, we support efforts like these that embrace the oneness of Christ's church.

--Suzy Keenan, conference communicator,
Philadelphia Area, The United Methodist Church