07/30/2025
ON THIS DAY - "MOTHER" BETHEL AME CHURCH DEDICATED
Over a century later, W.E.B. Du Bois believed the church's founding was "By long odds the vastest and most remarkable product of American Negro civilization."
Dedicated on July 29, 1794, Bishop Francis Asbury preached the first sermon saying "The Lord has done great things for this people."
The name Bethel comes from Rev. John Dickins, Pastor of St. George's. During the dedication he prayed that the building would be a "Bethel"-a house of God-and a place for "the gathering in of thousands of souls."
Bethel was doubly symbolic, being drawn from Jacob's dream in Genesis 28 where he dreams of a ladder to heaven signifying not just a physical sanctuary but a spiritual home for a people forging their own path to dignity and divine connection.
