A.U.M.P. Church

The African Union First Colored Methodist Protestant Church and Connection, usually called "the A.U.M.P. Church," is a Methodist Christian denomination It was chartered by Peter Spencer (1782–1843) in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1813 as the "Union Church of Africans." It was usually called the "African Union Church" until a Maryland offshoot of the A.M.E. Church (the "First Colored Methodist Protestant Church") merged into it in 1866, when the denomination added that church's name to its own. A schism in the 1860s caused some of the congregations to form the "Union American Methodist Episcopal Church" in 1865. The two denominations are now referred to collectively as the "Spencer Churches" (or, less often, the "Union Churches").

Although it was a Methodist Protestant church in its earlier years, by the 1880s the A.U.M.P. Church was considering adopting an episcopal structure, and in 1922 it consecrated its first bishop, Daniel Russell, Jr. But it was not until 1967 that the Church actually made the switch to the episcopal structure and consecrated its two leaders as bishops.

The A.U.M.P. Church currently has a total of about 40 congregations in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and the District of Columbia.

Notable churches

• St. John's Church (Ruxton, Maryland), listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982
• St. John's African Union Methodist Protestant Church, Goshen, New York, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010
• Saint Paul African Union Methodist Church, Washington, D.C., listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2011
• Mt. Zion A. U. M. P. Marshalltown, NJ, mother church of the New Jersey and Pennsylvania Districts and home of bishop and historian Daniel James Russell. Contributing resource in the Marshalltown Historic District, listed on the National Register July, 2013

External links

• Official site
• 1920 book of A.U.M.P. Church history
• A.U.M.P. Book of Discipline 1871
• Mount Calvary African Union Methodist Protestant Church
• Mount Pleasant African Union Methodist Protestant Church