St. James AME Church, Asheville
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This week's edition continues the promotion of the
Daily Kos Asheville Connects conference by giving you some understanding and background of the great Asheville church where
Rev. Barber, President of NC NAACP, will be speaking on Friday, September 25th. Rev. Barber will be here to welcome Daily Kos to Asheville. We are looking to have a sizable group of Daily Kos members from Asheville and beyond attend Rev. Barber's presentation in support of his generous visit to Asheville to be an essential part of this exciting weekend of fellowship, inspiration and education.
His speech will begin at 12:30 pm with an introduction by our own Denise Oliver Velez. The church seats 300 people. And it's FREE! So if you are a local or regional Kossack, coming to Saturday's event or not, let's pack the house!
St. James AME Church, Asheville
St. James A. M E. Church
44 Hildebrand Street
Asheville, NC 28801
Phone: 828 253-5191
Website
Donate directly to the Church here.
St. James AME Church Facebook page
History of St. James A.M.E. Church
In 1887, St. James was at first Levy's Chapel or Long's Chapel, located in an abandoned street car barn on Biltmore Ave. (then called South Main St.) in Asheville, NC. Two years later, in 1889, the little band was able to move to a building already standing on Hildebrand Street near the intersection with Pine Street (now Martin Luther King Jr. Drive). At this time, the name was changed to St. James African Methodist Episcopal Church. The Rev. P.M. Jordan was the first pastor whose name was part of the church's history. It was probably during his ministry that the church purchased its first bell and installed it in the bell tower.
Several years later, under the pastorate of the Rev. C. H. King, the vacant lot at the corner of the street was purchased by the church. On this property, a parsonage was built. When the Rev. J. E. Holt came to serve the church in 1917, the members decided to brave a big step: the parsonage was moved back on the lot and the basement of a new church was begun; and the old church was remodeled into an apartment building, the St. James Apartments.
The new St. James Church was completed in 1930 during the pastorate of the Rev. W. F. Rice. Early records indicate that the builder was James Vester Miller, a former slave who also constructed many of the churches and commercial buildings in Asheville. During those years of struggle, there was much “joining of hands” and cooperative “putting shoulders to the wheel” to get the job done.
The St. James Church's "About" page.
OUR NAME
AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH
The word African means that the church was organized by people of African descent
and heritage. It does not mean that the church was founded in Africa, or that it
was for persons of African descent only.
The church’s roots are of the family of Methodist churches. Methodism
provides an orderly system of rules and regulations and places emphasis on a
plain and simple gospel.
Episcopal refers to the form of government under which the church operates.
It means that the church is governed by bishops. The chief executive and
administrative officers of the African Methodist Episcopal denomination are the
Bishops of the church.
History of the Greater Church
The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the A.M.E. Church, is a predominantly African-American Methodist denomination based in the United States. It is the oldest independent Protestant denomination founded by blacks in the world. It was founded by the
Rt. Rev. Richard Allen in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1816 from several black Methodist congregations in the mid-Atlantic area that wanted independence from white Methodists. Allen was consecrated its first bishop in 1816. It began with 8 clergy and 5 churches, and by 1846 had grown to 176 clergy, 296 churches, and 17,375 members The 20,000 members in 1856 were located primarily in the North. AME national membership (including probationers and preachers) jumped from 70,000 in 1866 to 207,000 in 1876.
The AME Church grew out of the Free African Society (FAS), which Richard Allen, Absalom Jones, and other free blacks established in Philadelphia in 1787. They left St. George's Methodist Episcopal Church because of discrimination. Although Allen and Jones were both accepted as preachers, they were limited to black congregations. In addition, the blacks were made to sit in a separate gallery built in the church when their portion of the congregation increased. These former members of St. George's made plans to transform their mutual aid society into an African congregation. Although the group was originally non-denominational, eventually members wanted to affiliate with existing denominations.
Allen led a small group who resolved to remain Methodist. They formed the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1793. In general, they adopted the doctrines and form of government of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1794 Bethel AME was dedicated with Allen as pastor. To establish Bethel's independence, Allen successfully sued in the Pennsylvania courts in 1807 and 1815 for the right of his congregation to exist as an institution independent of white Methodist congregations. Because black Methodists in other middle Atlantic communities also encountered racism and desired religious autonomy, Allen called them to meet in Philadelphia in 1816 to form a new Wesleyan denomination, the "African Methodist Episcopal Church" (AME Church).
The African Methodist Episcopal Church has a unique history as it is the first major religious denomination in the western world that developed because of sociological rather than theological differences. It was the first African-American denomination organized and incorporated in the United States. The church was born in protest against racial discrimination and slavery. This was in keeping with the Methodist Church's philosophy, whose founder John Wesley had once called the slave-trade "that execrable sum of all villainies." In the 19th century, the AME Church of Ohio collaborated with the Methodist Episcopal Church, a predominantly white denomination, in sponsoring the second independent historically black college (HBCU), Wilberforce University in Ohio. Among Wilberforce University's early founders was Salmon P. Chase, then-governor of Ohio and the future Secretary of Treasury under President Abraham Lincoln.
This link takes you to the
AME Western District page where you can get information on all 44 churches in Western North Carolina.
This link takes you to the AME Eastern District page showing information on all of the 30 churches in Eastern North Carolina.
Thanks for reading, see you in church!