Methodist Connexion

In 1793, Allen had spotted a lot that had only an old frame of a house in it, he then purchased the lot, and hired carpenters to fix the frame of the old house. He made it fit for a place of worship, and then solicited Francis Asbury to open the Bethel Church. Allen endured more from the elders of the Methodist Connexion, and was not able to completely own the building without accommodating and paying St. George’s Church. After discussion of the rates of pay, they settled on 200 dollars per year, for the services of St. George’s Church. Time had passed and the trustees of Bethel Church had decided that they were not being treated right, when they considered that St. George’s elder only spoke five times per year. Actions were then taken on both …show more content…
They then proceeded to remove all denominational support, which ended up leaving Bethel Church alone and left out by the Methodist denomination for one year. This carried on only until white citizens noticed that the African American worshippers were being discriminated against thoroughly, and the white Methodist Connexion eased on them. However, Allen had begun to notice that the white preachers and trustees had also taken advantage of the colored congregation in other areas, which ended up driving them away to find new places of worship. This caused Allen to call a general meeting in Conference, during the month of April, 1816. After that meeting at Conference, the African Methodist Episcopal Church was founded. …show more content…
George’s walkout by the black congregation. Tensions grew along with the African American population at St. George’s, which caused a boiling point in the minds of the oppressed. Not only Allen, but the majority of the black congregation who regularly attended St. George’s made the conscious decision of leaving the church and forming their own society. Over the course of six years, colored people from many different areas came to join Allen in his society’s development. This built on the foundation of, and enhanced the unity of the black church movement, which improved communication and professionalism. These acts had shown that they were more than willing to campaign against unequal treatment of the colored congregation. From the Methodist Connexion’s point of view, the separation of the African American congregation from St. George’s church to form their own church would mean that the leaders of that church would have equal religious authority to the white leaders in all other Methodist churches. The equality of the ministers of all races would also provide strong evidence that all Christians, regardless of race, are created equal. This is why Allen and his society of independent blacks received great amounts of grief from the elders of the Methodist Connexion, and for a time were even publicly disowned by them. Allen lived during a time of arguing for independence and liberty from

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