, • t r,- HorN God brought good out of the evils',of rsc! m pability. The 4 Africans" who st rted the A .E. Church were very poor and mo of them could not re d or write. Yet, under the leadership 0 f Richard Allen, they managed to buy an 0 d blacksmith shop, and to mo it "to a lot t the comer of Sixth and Lombard Streets in Phil - delphia, here they organized Bethel A .E. Church which ands tod y one of the hi toric shrine of Phil delphia. In time, other 'frican' Churches w·ere arted in Balti- more, yland; Salem, e Jer y; Attlesboro, Penn ylvani ; ilmington, Delaware and oth r pi ces in the United State. In the ye 1816 the churche came together and formed the A .E. Church. Richard Allen e cted to rve t firs cti bishop. Today, t A .E .' Church has clive bi op and more than a million members scattered throughout the SO te in the U.s. in Can da, South Americ , Africa, South Africa and t Indi . In The Citiz n B Purcha At Th active bishop Richard Allen, felt that no religiou ct or denomination ould uit the capacity of his peop well did ethodism with it emp is upon the plain and simple gospel which the un­ learned could understand, and its orderly sy tern of rule nd . regulations hich the under- developed needed. He felt that ethodism h d h t the Afri­ cans needed to encourage them to make progre ,to or hip God freely, and to fill every office for w . h he h d the hwnan bein , and the me through hich a group of people started in program hich gave them a growing n of dignity and telf-respect. To foster program Rich- ard Allen cO' dered it important to conduct night hool cl in hich hi people could learn ho to help themtelves. Out of the night hool cl com th church's philo hy of educa- tion ith it tong emp on If-help. The general em- . p not been ·gnifi- cantly changed until thi day. In ddition to the educational program of the local church, which folio s closely the gui­ dance of the ational Council of Churc ,Division of Chris­ ti n Education, the A.M.E. C urch oper tea eleven Institut­ i