Revolutionary Love in the AME Church

For Black History Month - we are reflecting on our AME History with roots in  - The Methodist Movement & The Abolition Movement. We are holding three key ideas within those movements that come from Jesus’ life and teaching (1) God loves all of us with particular concern for those most outcast; (2)  God’s love is about liberation on Earth - on Earth as it is in Heaven. (3)  If my neighbor is not free then God’s full plan has not yet come to pass 

Methodism Recap

- The Wesley brothers found you don’t need a church building or service to feel connection to God and each other - in fact stronger in small groups

- Wesley and early founders were deeply committed to abolition because how could you enslave your fellow Christian - how could you be committed to freedom and bondage

- After Wesley dies, particularly Southern Methodists say freedom in Christ doesn't have to = freedom from slavery → 1816, 1820 - Black folks split off → 1844 Methodism splits

Abolition Movement

- Black Methodists are some of the foundational folks in the the Abolition movement including = Frederick Douglas (AME), Harriet Tubman (AMEZ), Denmark Vesey (AME)

- They explicitly link the liberation of Black people to the Exodus Story, but they also link it to their leaving of a White Methodist tradition that backtracks on abolition

- Richard Allen - Leaving St. Georges in 1787 (acknowledge the different stories) because he cannot kneel to pray in the “white section.” (w/ Absalom Jones)

- Forms the Free African Society (with $$ from Blacks and some whites incl. George Washington) which is the progenitor of AME and Black Episcopalians

- Morris Brown - Leaving Bethel Methodist Church in Charleston in 1818 over the construction of a hearse house over the Black burial ground - They form what will become Mother Emmanuel in Charleston (Vesey is founding member)

- In 1822 - Vesey accused and executed for planning slave revolt - Mother Emmanuel burned - the church worships in secret and can only rebuild the church building after the Civil War

Telling the Whole Story

- Challenge to balance spiritual liberation and social justice. Many times they have dovetailed well and sometimes they have not (complicity with apartheid regime)

- Firm in belief of worthiness Black people while also white supremacist ideas about what is acceptable (Payne against “slave religion”, Americo-Liberians “civilizing” Africans)

- More work to be done on gender, inter-generational leadership, LGBTQ inclusion, etc

For Such A Time As This

- Both for the past greatness and for the struggles - the denomination has a special place in such a time as this - And New Roots can have a special place as the first affirming AME church which proudly draws from the AME legacy while extending beyond the traditional demographics of the AME Church

Reflections Questions

1.     As we discuss the AME legacy - where do you see yourself in that story. Do you feel the blessing and/or weight of that inheritance? Why or why not?

2. Our fore parents were clear that they couldn’t do this work without the saving power of Jesus? As we move into a season of testing - get real about the relationship between your spiritual life and your living into the call of this moment. What is the relationship? What do you think it should be?

3. We are called not only to resist injustice but to embrace Jubilee (building on Earth as it is in Heaven) where are you helping to envision and live into God’s plan for humanity?