St. Paul A. M. E. Church, Stuart, FL.

The AMEC grew out of the Free African Society (FAS) which Richard Allen, Absalom Jones, and others established in Philadelphia in 1787. When officials at St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church pulled black members off their knees while praying so white members could have their places at the altar. Allen and the other black members left and began what grew into the African Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1794 Bethel AME Church

Today, the African Methodist Episcopal Church has membership in twenty Episcopal Districts in thirty-nine countries on five continents. The work of the Church is administered by twenty-one active bishops, and nine General Officers who manage the departments of the Church.