Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church

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The sanctuary interior of Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Photo Courtesy of Mother Bethel AME Church.

Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church

419 South 6th Street

Philadelphia, PA

Website:  Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church

The Treasure:  The church building of Mother Bethel was dedicated in 1890 and it’s a jewel of a church. But handsome as the church is, it’s the stories of over two centuries of vision and service that make this historic structure resonate as a true American treasure.

Accessibility:  Mother Bethel operates its own Richard Allen Museum, open to the public Tuesday through Saturday from 10 to 3. Reserve a tour on their web page to learn more about the sanctuary and the museum. Or… attend a service, Sunday mornings at 8 and 11.

Notes:  This is the fourth church building to serve as home to the Mother Bethel congregation. When it was dedicated in 1890, Mother Bethel was already nearly a century old, having been founded by Richard Allen in 1794.

Richard Allen, founder of
Mother Bethel AME Church.

Born into slavery in 1760, Richard Allen succeeded in raising sufficient money to buy himself his freedom while still a young man. An enthusiastic Methodist, Allen started preaching the gospel on the road in Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. In his hometown of Philadelphia, Allen and other Black Christian believers found a home church at St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church.

Relations between the races started well at St. George’s, but as Allen’s preaching became popular, tensions increased. After a particularly ugly incident, Allen, his friend Absalom Jones, and their fellow Black congregants walked out of St. George’s in the middle of a service, resolved to start a church of their own. Allen supported the founding of this new church, the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas, but it wasn’t the Methodist church that Allen yearned to establish. Absalom Jones led St. Thomas and Allen embarked on the founding of Mother Bethel.

The first Mother Bethel church building was dedicated by Methodist Bishop Francis Asbury in 1794. With Allen preaching, the congregation rapidly increased from 121 in 1795 to 457 in 1805. Responding to ongoing tension with St. George’s, Allen helped to organize a General Conference in 1816 that resulted in the establishment and organization of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Allen was consecrated as the first bishop of the new denomination. He died peacefully in his Philadelphia home in 1831.

Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Photo courtesy Mother Bethel AME Church.

Over the years, Mother Bethel has always retained Richard Allen’s commitment to serving people in need. The congregation supported the Underground Railroad in the years leading up to the Civil War. They welcomed notable figures such as Lucretia Mott, Fredrick Douglass, and William Still. They helped former slaves establish free lives for themselves in Philadelphia. And their commitment to community service continues to flourish today.

Notes from the Editor:  I learned about Richard Allen and Absalom Jones when doing some work for the church that Jones founded, the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas. Allen and Jones have been heroes of mine ever since and this is why. When the Yellow Fever epidemic struck in the summer of 1793 and most Philadelphians were fleeing the city, Richard Allen and Absalom Jones called upon their church community to stay and nurse the sick and the dying.  Together with their friends, they put their lives on the line to serve and comfort their fellow Philadelphians, regardless of race.

Richard Allen lived the gospel he preached—committed to the cause of freedom, always ready to serve, and tireless at building community. The horrors of slavery got worse—not better—during his lifetime.  Opposed though he was to the culture that accepted slavery, he never relinquished his vision that Blacks had a full and equal role to play in the United States. As Richard Allen memorably stated, “This land which we have watered with our tears and our blood is now our mother country and we are well satisfied to stay. Here wisdom abounds and the gospel lives free.” His achievements—founding Mother Bethel, founding the African Methodist Episcopal Church, selflessly serving the sick and the destitute—attest to his unshakeable and heroic convictions.

Other Recommended Sites:  Remember there were two churches? Absalom Jones was ordained a Deacon for his leadership of the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas and nine years later he became the first African American to be ordained as an Episcopal Priest. In those early days, St. Thomas was located near Mother Bethel but a series of moves to new church buildings took the church westward. Located at 6361 Lancaster Avenue in the Overbrook Farms neighborhood of Philadelphia, St. Thomas has been a conscientious steward of their own extremely impressive archive of historic material.

The choir at Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Photograph courtesy Mother Bethel AME Church.

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© 2012 Lee Price