MOTTO

The Motto “God Our Father, Christ Our Redeemer, the Holy Spirit Our Comforter, Humankind Our Family” is a great summary of what the African Methodist Episcopal Church believes.

Also known as the A.M.E. Church for short, the denomination is Methodist in terms of its basic doctrine and order of worship. It was born, through adversity, of the Methodist church and to this day does not differ in any major way from what all Methodists believe. The split from the main branch of the Methodist Church was not a result of doctrinal differences but rather the result of a time period that was marked by man’s intolerance of his fellow man, based on the color of his skin. It was a time of slavery, oppression and the dehumanization of people of African descent and many of these un-Christian practices were brought into the church, forcing Richard Allen and a group of fellow worshippers of color to form a splinter denomination of the Methodist Church. To find the basic foundations of the beliefs of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, you need look no further than The Apostles’ Creed and The Twenty-Five Articles of Religion.

APOSTLE’S CREED

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ his only son our Lord who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead; and buried. The third day he arose from the dead; he ascended into heaven and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Church Universal, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. Amen.

WE BELIEVE

We believe that God requires a total stewardship of our personal selves, our time, our gifts, and our treasure; our families and any friends we may influence to join us in His holy work; He expects that total stewardship to call us to personal piety and to social action. We believe that He wants to use us in the sanctuary and in the marketplace, to preach conversion and civic justice, as church members and as professionals or students or homemakers, as total servants bringing a total message to the total human condition. We believe that we are privileged to be partners with God in the redeeming of the damaged human race and the bruised universe.

We believe faith without works is dead. We believe in seeking God's wisdom above all else. For with God's wisdom, everything else will fall into place. It is God's wisdom that leads us in a path of obedience and sacrifice.