Bridge Street African Wesleyan Methodist Episcopal Church (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)

The Methodist Episcopal Church (later, the Methodist Church) was the one of the first organized expressions of Methodism in America. Based on the religious doctrine of English Anglican preacher and theologian, John Wesley (1703-1791), Wesley's form Methodism was introduced into the colonies through itinerant preachers who were sent to America by Wesley as early as 1766. The preachers travelled throughout the colonies in pre-revolutionary America, following a circuit, where they stopped to preach and teach Methodist doctrine. New York became base for many of the preachers, thus making New York a center of Methodist activity.

In Manhattan, the first congregational meeting took place in the home of Philip Embury in 1766. He and his cousin, Barbara Ruckle Heck, both Irish immigrants, established the congregation. By 1667, the first Methodist church was completed in what is today lower Manhattan. The Wesley Chapel, as it was named, was dedicated the following year, in 1668. Also in 1668, Methodism was introduced into what is today the borough of Brooklyn. One of the original itinerant preachers sent to the colonies, Thomas Webb, performed the first Methodist sermon in Brooklyn. It wasn't until the late 18th century that Methodist churches were established in what is today Queens (1785), Staten Island (1787), and Brooklyn (1794).

...