The church’s charter and the African Supplement…What was it? The Supplement.

What was it supplementing? And why did they need to supplement or add to anything?

So, let’s go back in time…Back to the beginning. Bishop Asbury led the didication for the church in July of 1794. After a time, Rev. Allen was advised to legally incorporate Bethel church by some of his Quaker mentors.

So, on September 12, 1796-two years after the dedication – The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania officially incorporated the “Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church of the City of Philadelphia.” But think back to the times…The fits and starts of trying to set up a new Black institution.

Just like today there were supporters and detractors; with the detractors, then, being even stronger and more entrenched than they are today. There were people pushing for and people pushing against. And sometimes you have to make some compromises to wiggle your way through.

To get the incorporation, that initial charter included a provision that St. George’s would be in charge of the “discretion and management of spiritual concerns” at Bethel.

That meant Bethel couldn’t

• independently appoint its own ministers,
• conduct sacrements like baptisms, communions or marriages unless overseen or approved by white Methodist Elders,
• govern its worship and control its own pulpit, or
• make completely independent doctrinal or liturgical decisions…basically worship style and preaching content.

As you can imagine, that sparked friction and controversy. St. George’s repeatedly tried to assert control over Bethel’s pulpit, even trying to send white ministers to replace Rev. Allen. And even when they weren’t trying to replace him or other Black preachers, they’d try to block him from preaching. And at times this was done without even consulting or notifying Bethel’s trustees.

After a decade of this, Rev. Allen led the corporation to add additional articles to the charter. These additional articles were called “The African Supplement” and in 1807 they repealed the white Methodists authority over the church and said that the Bethelites controlled the church.

The Supplement reversed the white clerics’ control of the membership rolls and said that if the Methodist Elders wanted to approach the pulpit, they had to approach Bethel’s Trustees…NOT the other way around. In other words…it said Bethel owns Bethel!

We’ve often said that Rev. Allen and his team, his cohort, his crew were some of the more sophisticated, determined and strategic people in Black history.

And how they pulled this off…legalizing this African Supplement…was one of the most brilliant and bold legal maneuvers in early African-American history.

Allen and the trustees intentionally scheduled a meeting at a time when the white Methodist overseers were not present. During that meeting, the congregation voted to amend the charter, removing the clause that gave St. George control over spiritual matters.

This was a legally valid vote under the rules of incorporation, since Bethel was a recognized religious society with its own trustees.

Of course, the Methodist Church challenged this. And, ultimately, Bethel church had to go to the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court twice before we were officially granted our complete and full independence and autonomy. That second and final verdict was in 1816.

And if that year sounds familiar it’s because that final breath of freedom is what enabled Rev. Allen to formally pull together ministers from the Mid-Atlantic region to establish our denomination.

My momma always told me that supplements were good for me…I always thought she was just talking about vitamins.