Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church

Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church was founded on this site in 1787 by Richard Allen, a former slave. Ground purchased by Richard Allen for a church became the oldest parcel of real estate owned continuously by Negroes in the United States, and this congregation became the world's oldest African Methodist Episcopal Church congregation. The first church, established in 1787, was an abandoned blacksmith shop hauled to this place. Richard Allen was elected a bishop in 1816. Recalling the break with Old St. George's Methodist Church, Allen said, "We all went out of the church in a body" and "they were no more plagued with us in their church." A blessing follows for Mother Bethel and its children scattered throughout the world, bringing faith and hope to millions of weary souls, along with a call to ring the bells of freedom throughout the world and to "Rise, shine, give God the glory for the year of jubilee."

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania · United States