Religion: African Methodist Union

Out from the windows of Avery Mission Methodist Episcopal church in the north side of Pittsburgh last week clattered sounds of shouting, crying, handclapping. A joint commission of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church had recommended that the two churches fuse their organizations and their properties and call the combination the United Methodist Episcopal Church. They would be united “under a name that will be universal in meaning and not confine us to any race or country.” Members of both denominations were glad. Efforts of 30 years were coming to fruition.

The fusion of the two African Methodist churches, which will take about five years to consummate, will bring under one organization approximately 1,500,000 members, 10,000 individual churches and property worth $36,000,000 in the U. S., Canada, Africa, South America, Mexico and West Indies.