About Our Church
The History of Campbell and the AME Church
Events:
CurrentNews
Pastor Shepherd preaching @ First A.M.E. Church - Sharon Hill, PA
Sunday, February 21, 3:30 PM
Pastor Shepherd preaching @ Allen A.M.E. Church - Steward's Day, 59th & Larchwood Avenue
Sunday, February 28, 3:30 PM
Pastor Shepherd preaching @ Metropolitan A.M.E. Church, Trustee's Day - 20th and Fitzwater Sts.
Sunday, March 21, 3:30 PM
RecentEvents
Philadelphia Tribune Article about Campbell and Pastor Shepherd
www.phillytrib.com - Shira Yudkoff/TRIBUNE Photographer
About Our Church
The History of Campbell African Methodist Episcopal Church:
Campbell African Methodist Episcopal Church is located in the Frankford section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Our congregation is 202 years old and Campbell AME Church is the second oldest church in the Philadelphia Conference.
Campbell - In the Beginning:
In the year of 1807 a group of 28 Christians were invited by Sister Sara Gongo to her home, 1757 Plum Street (formerly Bowsers Lane) for prayer and to organize a church in the Frankford community. This prayer band formed the nucleus for what is now Campbell A.M.E. Church. An old marble tablet in our present building reads, "Bishop Campbell Chapel - 2nd A.M.E. Church." Two cornerstones have these inscriptions: "Rebuilt in 1818 and Rebuilt in 1870." Campbell is named in memory of Rev. Jabez Pitt Campbell, a former Bishop of the A.M.E. Connection. It is believed that 28 members continued to hold worship service at Sis. Gongo's home until they moved to the present site on Kinsey Street. Sometime between 1807 and 1813, the group erected a small frame church to hold their services. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Records at City Hall indicate that the present site was purchased by "The African Methodist Episcopal Church" of the Borough of Frankford in the County of Philadelphia, from minister of the Gospel, Thomas A. Cuff of Frankford, in the twenty-third Ward of the City of Philadelphia, and Caroline C., his wife, for the sum of four hundred and seventy-five dollars on the ninth day of May, in the year 1885.
Campbell was the only black church in the area until 1869. During this period up to 1880, Campbell was the major black religious institution in Frankford. The church building served as a Way Station of the Underground Railroad. Also, it served as a social and general meeting house for the total community. Between 1838 and 1840 it held the first classes of the African Colored School. The parsonage, next to the church, has housed many of our Pastors and their families.
History of the African Methodist Episcopal Church:
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 MEC pulled blacks off their knees while praying, FAS members discovered just how far American Methodists would go to enforce racial discrimination against African Americans. Hence, these members of St. George’s made plans to transform their mutual aid society into an African congregation.
Although most wanted to affiliate with the Protestant Episcopal Church, Allen led a small group who resolved to remain Methodists. In 1794 Bethel AME was dedicated with Allen as pastor.
To establish Bethel’s independence from interfering white Methodists, Allen, a former Delaware slave, successfully sued in the Pennsylvania courts in 1807 and 1815 for the right of his congregation to exist as an independent institution. Because black Methodists in other middle Atlantic communities encountered racism and desired religious autonomy, Allen called them to meet in Philadelphia to form a new Wesleyan denomination, the AME.
