Clarification regarding black church history:

In the February edition of Hoosier UM News on page 7, the "Black Methodist Church timeline" left out an important piece of black church history and may have left a misimpression as to the impetus behind the initial splitting of the church into black and white branches. The text as published reads, "As slavery became accepted, especially in the South, discrimination against black Methodists became common. Many black people wanted their own denomination, a church more responsive to their needs." It was pointed out by various black members of the Indiana connection that, in many cases, black members were, in reality, driven out. It was suggested that the notion that blacks wanted their own denomination was actually perpetuated by white members and is still interpreted as myth or misinformation motivated by racism.

Omitted from the timeline was the formation of the Colored Methodist Episcopal (CME) Church in 1870. Now called the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, the denomination was started by a group of black members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South who sought a legal and constitutional separation from the ME church, South, because they did, indeed, want their own church with its own black pastoral leadership.

In 1870 the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South (a predecessor denomination of the United Methodist Church) acknowledged the organization of a separate and independent body of Methodism (the CME). (source: Encyclopedia of World Methodism and the 1988 United Methodist Discipline) Lynne DeMichele

Last updated on 01/14/2004

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