Welcome to the Sixth District Lay Organization - AMEC - - - - KNOW THAT THE LORD IS GOD, INDEED!

The Sixth Episcopal District Lay Organization The African Methodist Episcopal Church in the State of Georgia

Our Leadership

President Gloria T. Byrd

About the District

The Sixth Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church geographically encompasses the entire state of Georgia. It consists of more than 500 churches, which are located in six Annual Conferences and seventeen Presiding Elder Districts.

The Sixth District also serves as the home of two institutions of higher learning. These institutions are Morris Brown College   and Henry McNeal Turner Theological Seminary , both in Atlanta, Georgia.

Although there are individual congregations in the  Sixth District which date back to the 1840's, the A.M.E. Church officially established the original Georgia Conference in 1867 and the Mother Church of the district  is Saint Philip Monumental in Savannah, Georgia.

About the Organization

The Sixth Episcopal District Lay Organization of the African Methodist Episcopal Church is an organized body of lay persons seeking to provide leadership and training for the entire Sixth Episcopal District. This is done in accordance with the rules and bylaws set forth by the Connectional Lay Organization  of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

The body further seeks to motivate and inspire each member of the Sixth District to become an active participant in the ongoing ministry of the A.M.E. Church as well as to hold, in sacred trust, the memory of Richard Allen and the Founding Fathers.

The organization was begun in 1952 following the General Conference  which gave support to the newly restructured Connectional Lay Movement.  Its first president,  Mrs. Dollie Alexander attended this Conference and was inspired to make the Lay Organization a reality in the Sixth District. She  worked untiringly and gave liberally of her time, talents, and treasure to the development and support of this initiative. She was assisted in her work by Bishop William Reid Wilkes, Sr., a son of the Sixth District. Because of their vision and the work of all who have followed in their train, we are proud to be the Sixth District Lay, AMEC.
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   Our Episcopal Leaders

Bishop William Phillips DeVeaux
   Presiding Bishop
Sixth Episcopal District

Dr. Patricia Morris (Pam) DeVeaux
Episcopal Supervisor
Sixth Episcopal District

Watch this marquee for regular updates - - - - - - - - - - - -Did you know that the first Non-Jewish (gentile) Christian was a black man who was an African from Ethiopia? ---(Acts 8:26-40)---Technically making the Ethiopian Church older than the Church in Greece or Rome. - - - - - - - - - - - -Bulletin: The next meetig of the Sixth Episcopal District Lay Organization will be held at 10:00 a.m on Saturday, June 21, 2008 - - - Location TBA - - - - - - - - - - - - The Augusta Georgia Annual Conference will be convened on April 22-25, 2008 at Bethel AMEC - - - 623 Crawford, AVE, Augusta, GA 30903 - - - - The Rev. Mark S. Pierson, Host Pastor - - - The Rev. Ella Mae Samuels, Host Presiding Elder - - - Phone: 706-736-4060 - - - FAX: 706-736-0083 - - - - - - - - - - - -Related Black History Note: - - - - -ABOUT OUR FOUNDER - - -RICHARD ALLEN - - -(Born February 14, 1760 in Philadelphia, PA.- - -Died, March 26, 1831, Philadelphia, PA),- - -African American religious leader, founder and first bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church.- - - - - - - - - - -Born a slave in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Richard Allen grew up during the American Revolution, an era characterized by the advocacy of individual rights, the growth of denominational Christianity, and the inception of the anti-slavery movement. - - - - - - Around 1768, Allen's owner, a Philadelphia lawyer named Benjamin Chew, sold him, his three siblings, and his parents to Stokely Sturgis, a plantation owner in Delaware. - - - - - - With the permission of Sturgis, Allen began to attend Methodist meetings, and around 1777 he was converted to Methodism.- - - - - - In the second half of the eighteenth century, Methodism proliferated in Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. This - - - - - -Christian denomination emphasized a simple set of virtues that included honesty, modesty, sobriety and a life of personal holiness. - - - - - - Allen also converted his master to Christianity. - - - - - - Following Sturgis' conversion, in 1780 he agreed to let Allen hire himself out in order to earn money to purchase his freedom and that of his brother for 60 Pounds Sterling or $2000 Continental money. - - - - - -In addition to doing manual labor, Allen began to preach at Methodist churches in Delaware and neighboring states. - - - - - -In 1786, Allen paid his last installment to Sturgis and became free. - - - - - -That same year, Allen accepted an invitation to preach at St. George's Church in Philadelphia, a mixed-race congregation of Methodists. - - - - - - Within a short time, Allen dramatically increased St. George's black membership, and the building could no longer accommodate the growing congregation. - - - - - - White elders at Saint George rejected Allen's request for a separate place of worship for African American members and chose instead to construct separated seating within the church by installing a balcony. - - - - - - On April 12, 1787, discouraged by the fact that the black worshippers who had helped construct the balcony would be relegated to sitting there, Allen joined the Rev. Absalom Jones to found the Free African Society, a non-denominational religious association and mutual aid organization. - - - - - -In November of that same year-- 1787, while kneeling in prayer at the altar of Saint George's Methodist Episcopal Church, Allen, Jones and other black worshipers were pulled from their knees by Saint George's church officials. - - - - - -They, along with other African members who had been seated in the balcony then walked out of Saint George's to "worship under their own fig tree and vine." and never to return- - - - - - Until this incident, few black Methodists had been receptive to Allen's call for the establishment of an independent black church. - - - - - -Later Allen and Jones were offered the opportunity to establish the first African Episcopal Church in America. - - - - - - Being a loyal Methodist, Allen declined the offer. Jones, however, accepted and on August 12, 1794, some members of the Free African Society and Bethel AME Church, founded Saint Thomas Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. - - - - - -Because of the Methodists' discriminatory treatment of blacks, the church was consecrated as part of the Protestant Episcopal Church and Jones became the denomination's first black priest. - - - - - -Allen and Jones also organized and became charter members of the Second ever Price Hall Masonic Lodge (African Lodge # 459.) - - - - -- - To this day the members of Saint Thomas and the Prince Hall Masons come to Mother Bethel to honor the memory of Rchard Allen on the Second Sunday of February each year. - - - - - -Allen, however, remained faithful to Methodism and used his own savings to buy a former blacksmith's shop and transplant it onto a plot of land he had previously purchased in Philadelphia. - - - - - -After renovations Bethel Church (now known as Mother Bethel) opened on April 9, 1794, and Allen was ordained as Deacon. The church was dedicated by Bishop Asbury and was named Bethel through the inspiration of a prayer offered that this Bethel (House of God - Gen. 28:19) might be blessed. - - - - - - After Bethel was officially initiated, at the 1796 Methodist Conference, white Methodist officials attempted to gain control over Allen's church, but a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling in 1807 declared that the black Methodist congregation owned the property on which they worshipped and that they could determine who would preach there. - - - - - -Other attempts to seize and control this property continued and kept the church in litigation for almost 30 years. - - - - - - Following Allen's example, many black Methodists formed African Methodist Churches in other US cities. - - - - - - Because all experienced similar challenges from white Methodists, Allen organized a convention of black Methodists on April 9-11, 1816 to address their shared problems. - - - - - - -The leaders decided to unite their churches under the name of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. - - - - - -Accordingly, they gained control over the governance of their churches and placed themselves beyond white ecclesiastical jurisdiction. - - - - - - - Persons who attended this conventio elected Allen bishop of the new denomination, a position he held until his death in 1831. - - - - -- -The AME Church immediately became a center of black institutional life. - - - - - - - - -As its leader, Allen created the Bethel Benevolent Society and the African Society for the Education of Youth. - - - - - -He also published articles in Freedom's Journal attacking slavery and organizations such as the American Colonization Society. - - - - - -Additionally he wrote his autobiography, "The Life Experience and Gospel Labors of the right Reverend Richard Allen." - - - - -- -Bethel also organized the first black Ushers and Sunday School. - - - - - - - Allen believed enslaved and free black Americans could be best served through education and religious instruction, he opposed organizations that advocated the migration of black Americans to Africa. - - - - - - He also recognized it as an attempt of southerners under the new President, James Monroe, to rid the country of its strongest force for the Abolition of Slavery, the Free Black man. - - - - - -Although the AME Church initiated missionary efforts in such countries as Haiti and Canada during the late 1820s, Allen kept the church focused on elevating black Americans, especially those in the South. - - - - - -As he said, "We will never separate ourselves voluntarily from the slave population in this country; they are our brethren and we feel there is more virtue in suffering privations with them than fancied advantage for a season." - - - - - - -The AME Church proliferated in the South after the Civil War and today has a membership of more than 2.5 million members in 108 Annual Conferences and 20 Episcopal Districts worldwide. - - - - - -Elected at the same time as Richard All was Daniel Coker, however he later declined in favor of Allen, and was never consecrated to the bishopric. - - - - - -Allen's assistant and immediate successor was Bishop Morris Brown (2nd Bishop) for whom several churches have been named as well as the A.M.E. College founded by member of our own Sixth Episcopal District and located in Atlanta. - - - - - - Our District also serves as home of a Theological Seminary, which honors the name of Bishop Henry McNeal Turner (12th Bishop). - - - - -- -These schools follow a long-standing tradition of AME schools founded to educate and advance the cause of black people, the oldest being Wilberforce founded in 1856 in Ohio, the first institution of higher learning owned and operated by African Americans, which also boasted the fist Black College President, Bishop Daniel Alexander Payne (6th Bishop). - - - - - -To date the church has elected and consecrated 127 bishops. In July 2000, history was made when Bishop Vashti McKenzie (117th Bishop) was elected and consecrated as the first woman bishop of the A.M.E. Church. - - - - - -Two native Georgian also became bishops in 2000 as well. - - - - - -These were namely--Bishop Richard Franklin Norris (117th Bishop) and Bishop Preston Warren Williams II (119th Bishop). - - - - - -In 2004 two additional women, two native Africans and two Atlanta pastors, Bishop James L. Davis (122 Bishop) and Bishop E. Earl McCloud, Jr. (127th Bishop were also elected and also consecrated to the bishopric. <

* During Eastertide a reading from Acts is often substituted for the lesson from the Hebrew Bible.

Necrology

It is with sadness that we acknowledge the passion of Dr. Alfred Lee Henderson, Retired Secretary/Treasurer of the Sunday School Union on March 30, 2008. Dr. Henderson's funeral was held at Grant AMEC in Los Angeles, CA on April 7, 2008. The Reverend Leslie White, Pastor, Bishop John Hurst Admas was the Eulogist. Espression may be sent to Mrs. Bobbye Henderson and Family, 10117 Los Padres Place, Las Vagas, NV 89134; (702) 243-0965 or bobbyej50@hotmail.com.

District Theme:

"LEADING BY FOLLOWING CHRIST"

Scripture
Commit everything you do to the Lord,
Trust Him and He will help you.
Psalm 37:5 NLT

District Song  
"When Peace Like A River"

This web site is maintained by Robert T. Matthews III, Director of Public Relations (1997-2005), and was created on December 24, 1999.  
  E-mail address : Richalson@aol.com
     (Music: AME Lay Hymn  # 582 AMEC.  Hymn Tune : Zion - midi)
  

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