Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Relations home > Ecumenical Dialogue > African Methodist Episcopal

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church expressed informally an interest in establishing a bilateral dialogue in the 1980s. A preliminary meeting of representatives from each church met in Washington, D.C., in 1990. Formal meetings began, with the first held in Indianapolis in November 1991 addressing the question "How has the American experience affected and/or shaped the life of my church?" Additional meetings explored questions such as "Protest and Reform: A Study of Martin Luther and Richard Allen," "Marginality in the Biblical Witness," and "The Role of the AME Church in American Political Culture."

The first round of this dialogue was concluded with a fifth session meeting in Gettysburg in March of 1996. "Understanding One Another: A Congregational Resource" was written in the hope that many congregations of our respective communions will use it to accomplish the goal of manifesting the unity of our Christian community in a time when disunity, fragmentation, and outright conflict so often mark our society and churches. Limited quantities of this document are available from the ELCA Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Relations; visit the African Methodist Episcopal resource page for more information.

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