Truth-telling is core to the work of the Church. As followers of Jesus, we must be willing to honestly and courageously speak truth regarding areas of brokenness and injustice. This often means lovingly bringing to light and engaging that which is uncomfortable, saddening, and painful. Like diagnosing our ailments, truth-telling helps identify the sin and sickness at work around and in us, providing a starting point for treatment and care. Truth-telling ultimately begins the path of healing. As the Apostle Paul said in his second letter to the Corinthians, “Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we received mercy, we do not lose heart, but we have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in trickery nor distorting the word of God, but by the open proclamation of the truth commending ourselves to every person’s conscience in the sight of God.” Truth-telling is especially important in our history. Honestly examining our story and laying bare the good, the bad, and the ugly is both necessary and healthy for a community that seeks to exemplify unity in diversity. As we continue our blog series for Black History Month, this will become especially apparent in the life of Bishop Richard Allen.
Richard Allen was born into slavery on February 14th, 1760. Shortly after his birth, Allen’s family was sold to Stokeley Sturgis, a farmer in Delaware. Sturgis was the owner that Allen, having been converted at age 17 and who in those early years engaged in preaching on his owner’s plantation and in nearby Methodist churches, would convert to the Lord. Allen later described that he often would wake from his sleep preaching and praying. In time, Allen purchased his freedom and in 1781, began traveling the Methodist circuits in Delaware and other surrounding states preaching to the black community.
In 1784, the Christmas Conference, which established Methodism for the first time as its own denomination, was held at the Lovely Lane Chapel in Baltimore, Maryland. The new denomination became known as the Methodist Episcopal Church. There were about 86 clergy, one of which being Richard Allen, who gathered on Christmas Eve for the historic event. Although, Methodists had a long history of denouncing slavery and allowing Richard Allen and other black clergy to preach, both black attendees (Richard Allen and Harry Hosier) of the Christmas Conference were not provided voting rights and, therefore, only attended as observers. This limited inclusion in the Methodist Episical Church would continue to become evident in other ways.
Allen joined the St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia in 1786. In that community, the limited inclusion within the church would reach a breaking point for Allen. He was occasionally asked to preach and often conducted prayer meetings for blacks in the community. Allen’s leadership attracted numerous more blacks into the church which brought with them a rise in racial tensions. The local church vestry placed restrictions on Allen and the black congregation. Segregated pews were established and they were asked to worship and pray in a separate area. It is important to note that up until this growth in diversity in 1786, St. George had no history of segregated seating.
At one point, a white trustee confronted a group of black congregants who were kneeling for prayer in an area that, unbeknownst to them, was reserved for white congregants. The trustee insisted that they move to their designated location despite requests from Allen’s associate, Absalom Jones, that they be permitted to finish prayer before moving. This moment was the ‘tipping point’ for Allen. Although, in his words, he “was confident that there was no religious sect or denomination [that] would suit the capacity of the colored people as well as the Methodist; for the plain and simple gospel suits best for any people,” Allen sought to establish a new denomination in which the black community could worship in freedom. The white Methodist leadership in Philadelphia resisted Allen’s move to establish a new denomination which included a 15-year property battle. Ultimately, the property battle had to be settled in the supreme court which went in favor of the newly emerging denomination.
In 1793, during that time of resistance, Allen and the black community were asked by Philadelphia leadership to help with an outbreak of Yellow Fever. The Philadelphia leadership believed that black persons were less susceptible to the fever than white persons. It was the worst plague the city had ever encountered and caused over half the population, the rich, and national leaders (including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and more) to flee the city. Those that remained were often poor whites or the black community. Despite recognizing the inherent racism in the request with white leadership fleeing while asking Allen and the black community to remain to help, they accepted. They hoped to model what it meant to be the church and cared for the sick working as everything from nurses, cart drivers, to grave diggers. Allen described the time as one in which “the dread that prevailed over people’s minds was so general, that it was a rare instance to see one neighbor visit another, and even friends when they met in the streets were afraid of each other, much less would they admit into their houses.”
Sadly, despite the sacrificial love displayed by Allen and the black community, there was little commendation or gratitude expressed. In fact, the exact opposite took place. Matthew Carey, a white publisher who fled the city during the plague, published a pamphlet which would distort the Yellow Fever narrative. In his writing, he referred to the black community as ‘the vilest’ and accused them of plundering homes and extorting the white community. This narrative would dominate for some time until both Allen and Jones produced a rebuttal. Allen stated in his own pamphlet, “…we are solicited, by a number of those who feel themselves injured thereby, and by the advice of several respectable citizens, to step forward and declare facts as they really were…” Truth-telling indeed.
In April of 1816, delegates from several black churches gathered together and created an ‘Ecclesiastical Compact’ which formed the independent African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME). Richard Allen was ordained as an elder and consecrated as Bishop. Bishop Richard Allen was the first black to hold that office in America. In addition, Allen would create the ‘Free Produce Society’ which sought to support and purchase products from non-enslaved labour. Shortly thereafter, Allen died at his home in Philadelphia on March 26, 1831. He was laid to rest under Bethel Church, his original founding church.
The new African Methodist Episcopal Church, the first national black church in the United States, quickly grew and by 1880 had reached a size of over 400,000 members. Today, the African Methodist Episcopal Church has membership in twenty Episcopal Districts in thirty-nine countries on five continents. The work of the Church is administered by twenty-one active bishops, and nine General Officers who manage the departments of the Church.