History of the AME Church
Our Beginning
In 1787, Rev. Richard Allen, Rev. Absalom Jones, and a band of followers withdrew from the St. George Methodist Church in Philadelphia because of the “unkind treatment” and discrimination with which these worshippers of African descent faced. They felt they no longer could worship in a congregation that could not affirm them fully as children of God with equal potential and worth. Allen and the followers began worshipping in a blacksmith shop. They founded the Free African Society, which was the beginning of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
In 1816, Richard Allen and representatives from several African churches met and a church organization or “connection” was organized as the African Methodist Episcopal Church. They began the first African American denomination; allowed and still allows people of African descent self-respect, dignity, and the freedom to worship God wholly, participating to the fullest measure in the building of God’s kingdom.
Our History
St. Luke African Methodist Episcopal Church in Waco, Tx, began as an evening Sunday School gathering in a small building in what is now Greenwood Cemetery in 1886. Rev Charlie Gipson served as the first pastor of St. Luke. In 1906 the first church was constructed on Elm Street until 1921.
St. Luke moved from the 1200 block of Elm Street, and the first parsonage built on Church Street under the pastoral charge of Rev. L.M. Holmes. Another structure was built in 1936 and remained until a modern church built in 1969, which is the current worship assembly. Ten years later, in 1979, the Mortgage Burning occurred. The current parsonage purchased in 1995 and the Mortgage Burning was in June of 2002. Four lots were purchased on Elm St in 2007, and the Pamela Rivera Mission house was purchased in December 2008 and sold in 2017. Over the years, St. Luke A.M.E. church has provided a significant source of service and leadership to Waco’s black community.
