Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church:
Page V
More Confrontations
In 1815, the elders at St. George's managed to get Bethel put up for auction. Allen was forced to buy back his own church for the obscenely high price of $10,125. Shortly thereafter, a preacher from St. George's went to court claiming he had a right to preach at Bethel. The court disagreed saying, "what right do you have to preach to a congregation that won't listen to you." This was the de facto independence ruling for Bethel.
A Church Is Born
The next year the Bethelites won a court case recognizing their right to exist as an independent denomination. On April 9, 1816, at Bethel Church, Allen called together Black Methodist Episcopal churches to a conference in Philadelphia. Allen decided the time had come for these churches to band together. "Resolved, that the people of Philadelphia, Baltimore and other places who may unite with them shall become one body under the name and style of the African Methodist Church of the United States of American and that the book of Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church be adopted as our discipline..." Thus, Bethel Church became Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Allen commented, "We deemed it expedient to have a form of discipline, whereby we may guide our people in the fear of God, in the unity of the Spirit, and in the bonds of peace." They adopted the episcopal form of church government — meaning they would be under the authority of bishops who were ordained by officials within. At that meeting Allen was elected the first Bishop of the AME church.
The Church Today
Of special interest are the church's stained glass windows. Installed when the church was erected in 1890, they were produced by the Century Art Company at a cost of $1,190. They are brimming with symbolism. In the words of church historian Ruby Boyd, the windows are "sermons in art." The five windows on the church's Pine Street side depict Biblical references. The windows on the Richard Allen Avenue side are devoted to Jesus Christ. On the Lombard Street side, one of the windows makes significant use of Masonic symbols and was indeed donated by a Masonic order. The second Prince Hall Masonic Lodge in the United States was founded at Mother Bethel. Prince Hall was a noted black Boston abolitionist.
The Richard Allen Museum
On the lower level of Mother Bethel is an inspirational three-room museum.
The first room of the museum contains sketches and photographs of all the AME bishops. Also in the first room are platters and pieces from a tea set that belonged to Allen.
It is in the museum's middle room that the power and grace of Richard Allen is most keenly felt. There one finds an unpolished wooden pulpit which was used in the original blacksmith's-shop-turned-church and several pews used in that structure as well. The unadorned pews seem more like benches in a one-room schoolhouse; the pulpit rises above the pews like a teacher's rostrum. The effect is one of intimacy, immediacy, and family.
Allen used his carpentry skills to fashion the pulpit (which was once the centerpiece of a Smithsonian exhibition) himself. Next to the pulpit are Allen's own pulpit chair (originally held together with wooden pegs) and his prayer stools. On the opposite side of the room are the pews which were in the second church as well. Along one wall is a "moaner's bench," used by those in the congregation who sat on it until they felt the spirit enter them. Penitents praying for salvation also used the moaner's bench.
Displayed on a wall is Richard Allen's own Bible which is believed to have been printed in the 1600s. This Bible is so worn from use and time that the age and beauty of its binding is equaled by its conspicuous use. Above the Bible are tickets from an 1818 "love feast" — a prayer and praise service — which was held at Mother Bethel every Tuesday night. Only those who went to the Tuesday love feast and received tickets were allowed to receive communion on the following Sunday. Above the tickets is a "License to Exhorte." Signed by Richard Allen in 1819, it permitted Noah Cannon the right to preach in the African Methodist Church for one year.
Also in the middle room is a "Proclamation to all the Good People of Massachusetts!" dated April 4, 1851. In effect, the proclamation was a wanted poster used to warn Bay State residents that slave hunters were among them, attempting to steal free blacks and sell them into slavery. Vividly described are three slave hunters, among them one John Bacon, who had a "red, intemperate looking face and a retreating forehead. His hair is dark and a little gray. He wears a black coat, mixed pants, and a purplish vest. He looks sleepy and yet malicious at the same time." Another, a man just called Davis, was "an unusually ill-looking fellow...He has a Roman nose, one of his eyes has been knocked out. He looks like a Pirate, and knows how to be a Stealer of Men."
On another wall of the second room are three muskets believed to have been used by a militia raised by Richard Allen and Absalom Jones for the defense of Philadelphia during the War of 1812. Asked by the mayor to form a black regiment, the preaching pair mustered 2,500 troops whose barracks were in Southwest Philadelphia. They saw no action in the war, however.
Of great interest in the museum's third room is a ballot box in which marbles were used to cast votes. In the church's early years many members were unable to read or write. To elect church trustees, a box with pictures of the candidates was used. Underneath each picture was a hole drilled into the box. Marbles were dropped into these holes under the picture of the office-seeker being voted for.
Drawings and pictures of the four Bethel churches located at this site are seen on the wall. The first, as you recall, was the blacksmith shop hauled to this site by horses. The second church, the first built on the site, was called Roughcast because it was built from crude cinder blocks. The Roughcast church saw the organization of the AME denomination. It was used between 1805 and 1841. The third church, built in 1841, bears more than a passing similarity to St. George's. The fourth and present church was dedicated on October 2, 1889; the chief architect was Edward Hazlehurst.
Also in the third room of the museum is a poster bearing suggested rules of behavior. One of the rules urged gentleman not to spit on the floor but to use spittoons instead. Another rule asked gentleman to leave church by the north door and not to crowd the ladies' passageway.
Great leaders in AME's history are also celebrated in the third room. A lithograph of Morris Brown, the fourth pastor of Mother Bethel, tells of his remarkable exploits. Brown developed a significant congregation of free blacks in the early 1800s and ushered them into the AME flock. He took part in the failed Denmark Vesey uprising of 1822 and escaped to Philadelphia. He ultimately became the second Bishop of the AME church.
Also honored is Fannie Coppin (1835-1912) who was the first president of the Institute for Colored Youth, a Normal School supported by the Quakers. Cheyney State College is today an outgrowth of that organization. In addition to recommending that blacks be trained in trades and industrial arts, she also considered the classics an integral part of a curriculum.
Allens' Tomb
Richard and Sarah Allen are interred on the church's lower level. A lengthy inscription on the tomb includes the following: "He was instrumental in the hands of the lord in enlightening many thousands of his brethren, the descendants of Africa, and was the founder of the first African Church in America."
Read Richard Allen's inspirational To Those Who Keep Slaves and Approve the Practice
- Mother Bethel Church was a stop on the Underground Railroad.
- AME is the second-oldest black congregation (after St. Thomas's in Philadelphia) in the country.
- The ground on which Mother Bethel stands is the oldest parcel of real estate continuously owned by African-Americans in the United States.
- The second Prince Hall Masonic Lodge was founded here.
- Lucretia Mott, abolitionist and women's rights advocate, abolitionist and journalist Frederick Douglass, and William Still, a moving force behind the Underground Railroad, were among those who spoke from the rostrum at Mother Bethel.
- Ben Franklin contributed money to the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
- A Mother Bethel preacher, Jarena Lee, was one of first black women to speak out publicly against slavery.
- Richard Allen was a frequent contributor to the Freedom's Journal, the first newspaper in American to be owned and published by blacks.
- On the lower level, a James Dupree mural depicts the history of the church.
- The first black boy scout troop was founded at Mother Bethel Church.
- Today the AME Church comprises 2.5 million members, 8,000 ministers, and 6,200 congregations in 19 Episcopal districts and hosts 115 annual conferences.
- Location: 419 Richard Allen Avenue at the northeast corner of Sixth and Richard Allen Avenue (Lombard Street between Fifth and Sixth Streets).
- First Church on site: 1794
- Present Church Built: 1889-90
- Architect: Hazelhurst
- Architectural Style: Romanesque Revival
- Tourism information: Call in advance for a most generous and worthwhile tour of the church and the Richard Allen Museum. The museum is open after Sunday services for one hour, and Tu-Sa 10am-3pm by appointment only. 215-925-0616.
- Official website (Note: this is for the AME Church institution, not specifically the Mother Bethel historical site): https://www.ame-church.com
