Black Ecumenicism: Efforts to Establish a United Methodist Episcopal Church, 1918–1932

Abstract

Between 1918 and 1932 representatives from three black denominations— African Methodist Episcopal, African Methodist Episcopal Zion, and Colored Methodist Episcopal—devised plans to merge into one religious body which they hoped to name the United Methodist Episcopal church. During this period the clergy and laity of these three black denominations debated the advantages and shortcomings of the Birmingham Plan of 1918 and the Pittsburgh proposals of 1927 which sought to create a single black Methodist organization. Opponents of the Birmingham and Pittsburgh agreements feared that organic union would work against their particular denominational interests and destroy their historical identity. Advocates of merger stressed the common religious and racial background of the three churches and argued that black Methodist unity would benefit the nation's black population. By 1932, however, the deep denominational divisions among black Methodists slowed the movement toward merger and undermined efforts to end the religious rivalry among these three important black institutions.