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).

The Sands Street Methodist Episcopal Church (originally incorporated as the First Methodist Episcopal Church in Brooklyn) was established in 1794 in the current day Brooklyn neighborhood/Historic District of DUMBO. The church, led by Pastor Joseph Totten, was the first Methodist church established in Brooklyn. By 1795, the church had 35 members--23 of whom where white and 12 black. As church membership grew during the early-to-mid 19th century, members left to form new Methodist churches including the African Wesleyan Methodist Episcopal Church (incorporated in 1818), the Yellow Hook Church (later the Bay Ridge Church), and the York Street Church (also in DUMBO). The African Wesleyan M.E.C. was the first black Methodist congregation established in Brooklyn.

There were several dates in the history of the Methodist Episcopal Church (M.E.C.) that are crucial to understanding the both the divisions and name changes within the church. In 1793, due to racial discrimination within the M.E.C., the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church was established in Philadelphia under Pastor Richard Allen. Allen then challenged in court the church's right to become an independent Wesleyan Methodist denomination and was legally granted the right by Pennsylvania courts in 1815. In 1816, under the guidance of Allen, the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME Church) was established in the U.S. In 1845, the M.E.C divided again over the issue of slavery. Slave holding states split from the M.E.C and formed the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. It wasn't until 1939 that the two denominations united again to form the Methodist Church. In 1968, the Methodist Church united with the Evangelical United Brethren Church (another of the original expressions of Methodism in America), forming the United Methodist Church, as it remains as of 2010.

From the guide to the Methodist Churches of Brooklyn collection, 1856-1978, (Brooklyn Historical Society)