The African Union First Colored Methodist Protestant Church and Connection, usually called "the A.U.M.P. Church," is a Methodist Christian denomination and the oldest independent black denomination in the U.S. It was chartered by Peter Spencer (1782–1843) in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1813 as the "Union Church of Africans." It was usually called the "African Union Church" until a Maryland offshoot of the A.M.E. Church (the "First Colored Methodist Protestant Church") merged into it in 1866, when the denomination added that church's name to its own. A schism in the 1860s caused some of the congregations to form the "Union American Methodist Episcopal Church" in 1865. The two denominations are now referred to collectively as the "Spencer Churches" (or, less often, the "Union Churches").
Although it was a Methodist Protestant church in its earlier years, by the 1880s the A.U.M.P. Church was considering adopting an episcopal structure, and in 1922 it consecrated its first bishop, Daniel Russell, Jr. But it was not until 1967 that the Church actually made the switch to the episcopal structure and consecrated its two leaders as bishops.
The A.U.M.P. Church currently has a total of about 40 congregations in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and the District of Columbia.
Read more about A.U.M.P. Church: Notable Churches
Famous quotes containing the word church:
“If Jesus, or his likeness, should now visit the earth, what church of the many which now go by his name would he enter? Or, if tempted by curiosity, he should incline to look into all, which do you think would not shut the door in his face?... It seems to me ... that as one who loved peace, taught industry, equality, union, and love, one towards another, Jesus were he alive at this day, would recommend you to come out of your churches of faith, and to gather into schools of knowledge.”
—Frances Wright (1795–1852)