African Methodist Episcopal Church 299Africa and African descent, was that he thought that the
building of the continent of Africa with strong black lead-
ership would serve as a model for blacks worldwide and
would ultimately provide enhancement to blacks’ stand-
ing in America. Th e spirit of this thinking was evidenced
in 2004, when the church acknowledged movement to-
ward strengthening the churches and people in Africa, by
making the crucial decision to install indigenous African
bishops by electing the Revs. Wilfred Jacobus Messiah, Paul
Jones Mulenga Kawimbe, and David Rwhynica Daniels Jr.
to the bishopric.
Bishop Turner also recognized that women in the
AMEC had been rebuff ed and inappropriately excluded
from formal ministry in the church ever since 1817, when
Bishop Allen refused to acknowledge Jarena Lee’s call to
ministry by ordaining her. She had previously approached
Rev. Allen in 1809 and was informed that the Methodist dis-
cipline did not provide for women in the ministry. Th us, in
1885, Bishop Turner made a bold and courageous move by
ordaining Sarah Hughes an itinerant deacon in the AMEC.
Although this bold move was overturned by ecclesial au-
thority, the church’s recognition of the viability of women
ministers had been established.
Th e movement toward ordination of women pressed
forward until, in 1960, the General Conference (the govern-
ing body of the AMEC) fi nally heeded the calls of Rev. Mar-
tha Jayne Keys, the vanguard proponent for the ordination
of women, and approved legislation to allow women to be
ordained into ministry. Although this step was monumen-
tal, it was merely the beginning of the movement of women
to emerge from the hidden sphere of service to male minis-
ters and ecclesial leadership. Th e AME Women in Ministry
group was formed through the valiant eff orts of Rev. Lil-
lian Friar Webb and Rev. Jacqueline Grant. And in 2000,
led by the stalwart eff orts of Dr. Jamye Coleman Williams,
the AMEC once again made a historic move and ordained
its fi rst woman bishop, the Rev. Vashti Murphy McKenzie.
Th is legacy continued, and in 2004, the General Conference
elected the Revs. Carolyn Tyler Guidry and Sarah Francis
Davis to the Bishopric.
With Bishop Allen laying the groundwork for AMEC
preacher-activists, the AMEC has consistently produced
ministers who have concerned themselves with both the
spiritual and the social standing of African Americans in the
United States, and several of them have played key roles in
the elevation of African Americans through their activism.Since its inception, the AMEC has been committed to
social uplift through education. Th e denomination’s sixth
bishop, Daniel A. Payne, himself a seminary-trained peda-
gogue, is credited with elevating the standards of black
church ministry by requiring AMEC ministers to be for-
mally educated. In 1863, Bishop Payne’s quest became re-
ality when the AMEC acquired Wilberforce University.
Bishop Payne became the fi rst African American president
of a university when the denomination named him the fi rst
president of Wilberforce University. He was also an avid
abolitionist and joined the venerable Frederick Douglass in
the anti-enslavement cause.
Th e AMEC has continued Payne’s legacy and currently
operates six colleges and fi ve seminaries in the United
States and two seminaries and four colleges in Africa. In ad-
dition to his push for educated clergy, Payne argued for an
expansive vision of Christian ministry, which led him and
several other AME ministers to attend the First Ecumenical
Conference on Methodism in Liverpool, England, in 1881.
Th e denomination’s motto, “God our Father, Christ our
Redeemer, Man our Brother,” was also inscribed by Bishop
Payne, and that infl uence has permeated the denomination
throughout the years. One of the more admirable examples
of this is the 1950 charter membership of the AMEC into
the National Council of Churches.
Bishop Henry McNeil Turner, the AMEC’s 12th bishop
is credited with being the impetus for the church’s expan-
sion into Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America. Bishop
Turner succeeded in penetrating the African continent
with the AME mission when, in 1891, he was able to orga-
nize churches in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Denominational
concern for black brothers and sisters in Latin American
countries such as Cuba following the Spanish American war
motivated AMEC ministers to organize churches in Santi-
ago, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. Further following the denomi-
nation’s commitment to evangelization, AMEC expansion
was targeted toward the Bahamas in 1900. Recently, over
the past 10 years, the AMEC has expanded its missionary
eff orts into Uganda, Angola, and India.
Not only has Bishop Turner’s infl uence been felt re-
garding missionary eff orts, but his staunch thinking regard-
ing the “race problem” in America and Black Nationalism
as its solution has allowed the denomination to continually
examine its mission in the United States and abroad. One
of Bishop Turner’s reasons for advocating Black Nation-
alism, or the creation of a strong Africa for the people of