The year is 1784. The Methodist Church in America officially had its beginning. There are more than 4,000 free black men and women in the Maryland colony. In the Baltimore area, many of our free ancestors that are Christians attend the Methodist meeting houses of Strawbridge Alley and Lovely Lane. They probably chose the Methodist faith because of its anti-slavery stance. The Lovely Lane meeting house was built in 1774 and the black members were initially allowed to sit and worship as they pleased; however, as their number grew they were finding themselves restricted to certain areas for worship.

These and other racially discriminatory acts influenced our ancestors to begin leaving Strawbridge Alley and Lovely Lane so they could freely worship God freely. They organized themselves into a prayer group which met in homes near the Belair Market and later in a boot-black’s cellar. They gave themselves the name “Bethel,” which means House of God in Hebrew and is defined as a spot where God worshiped, a holy place. Thus, we have the beginning of our great church in 1785.

The year is 1797. The Bethel prayer group is now known as the Bethel Free African Society. Under leadership of prayer leaders Jacob Fortee and Caleb Hyland, Bethel moved to a permanent home in the former German Lutheran Church Building on Fish Street, now known as Saratoga Street.

In that same year, the Bethel leadership formally submitted a letter of separation from the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1801 a black preacher by the name of Daniel Coker joined the Bethel prayer group. He was a dynamic preacher, educator and philosopher. By 1810, he had opened a school to provide formal education for blacks, and became the first black Marylander to publish a book entitled, A Dialogue between a Virginia and An African Minister.

In 1811 he became the first official pastor as Bethel was named the African Methodist Bethel Church of Baltimore City. The congregation had grown to over 600 members. Daniel Coker later became the first missionary of the church and traveled to Liberia, West Africa, as part of a colonization party.

The year is 1816. Reverend Daniel Coker led a delegation of the Bethel congregation to a historic conference in Philadelphia. They met with a group of black congregations including the great conference from Philadelphia (also with the name Bethel and led by Reverend Richard Allen). These congregations had come into existence in a similar manner as Bethel because of acts of discrimination.

At this conference in 1816 the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church was born. The A.M.E. Church became the first denominational body composed mainly of African-Americans and also the first church in the Western Hemisphere, which broke away from its parent group for racial and sociological causes rather than for theological differences. The largest delegation at the conference was Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church from Baltimore.

Rev. Daniel Coker was elected the first bishop of the A.M.E. Church by the delegates of the conference, but he declined the post. Rev. Richard Allen was elected the following day and eventually consecrated by Bishop Asbury of the Methodist Church as the first Bishop of the A.M.E. Church.

After Rev. Coker’s pastorship at Bethel, pastors Daniel Harden, Moses Freeman, Samuel Todd, William Cornish, William Miller, and Jacob Richardson served Bethel from 1818 to 1837. In 1838 Rev. Edward Waters became the pastor. He pastored until 1839 and returned in 1842 to again pastor Bethel. He later became the first pastor from Bethel ordained as a Bishop in the A.M.E. Church.

The year is 1847. Rev. Daniel Payne is the pastor of Bethel. He has been an educator since 1829 and an ordained minister since 1839. At Bethel he conducted schools for Baltimore children and had always stressed the need for an educated ministry. He is responsible for purchasing the organ that was used during worship in 1847. Thus, Bethel Baltimore became the first A.M.E. Church to have instrumental music during church services. The same organ is on display in the Bethel Museum.

Because he was an advocate of unpopular practices such as instrumental music in worship service, an educated ministry, and church reforms, the church he was assigned to after Bethel in 1850 refused to accept him as their new pastor. His proposal for a systematic program of studies for ministerial education was accepted by the A.M.E. Church, and he was ordained a Bishop in 1852. He later became president of Wilberforce University, and an A.M.E. college in Birmingham, Alabama, is named for him. In the Bethel Museum, there is an historic photograph of him meeting Frederick Douglass.

Abolitionists spoke from the historic Bethel pulpit and Bethel A.M.E. Church became the center of the black struggle for equality. By the 1850's Bethel had grown to a membership of 1,500.

The year is 1867. Rev. Benjamin Tanner is the pastor of Bethel. He continues the tradition of Bethel’s pastors with strong interest in education. He is a distinguished teacher, author and editor. He frequently addresses religious and racial issues in his publications.

Rev. Tanner became the sixth pastor from Bethel to become a bishop and Rev. James A. Handy became the seventh. He was the pastor from 1875 to 1877 and headed the first convention of the “Free Negroes of the State in Baltimore City” in 1852. There were approximately 76,000 free blacks in Maryland around that time.

Rev. Levi Coppin was the pastor at Bethel from 1881 to 1883. He later became the Bishop of the Second Episcopal District and was holding that post in 1910 when Bethel moved to its present location on Druid Hill Avenue in West Baltimore. He encouraged the move to that location. Bishop Coppin’s wife Fannie Coppin was a well-respected educator, and Coppin State College was named after her.

In 1882, Bethel member and Sunday school teacher John M. Murphy, Sr. purchased the Afro-American Newspaper. He turned the newspaper into a well respected weekly, and it was the most read black newspaper in the middle Atlantic State region. His father was choir director at Bethel for many years and is wife Martha Murphy was one of the co-founders of the first black YWCA in Baltimore in 1896.

The year is 1910. The pastor of Bethel is Rev. Daniel Hill. In the fall of 1909 the Baltimore City Council passed an ordinate calling for the widening of Saratoga Street. The church was in the path of the new roadway, so the congregation had to move.

Bethel purchased the St. Peters Protestant Church on November 20, 1910 for $90,000 with $20,000 put down in cash. The dedication service was held January 8, 1911. By moving to Druid Hill Avenue and Lanvale Street, it joined two other historic black congregations in the neighborhood: Union Baptist and Sharp Street Memorial.

For more than 113 years Bethel had worshiped and served the Lord at the Saratoga Street location. Rev. Hill wrote upon leaving the old site, “How the mind is refreshed as it reviews the important part (Bethel) had played in the substantial development of the Christian life today which truly affords so much comfort and sustaining power to the fathers, mothers and children of this generation.”

Bethel Baltimore was often referred to as “Old Mother” Bethel. She truly was a mother at the Saratoga Street location, for she gave birth to many offspring: Ebenezer, St. John’s, Waters, Allen and Trinity.Payne Memorial and Oak Street A.M.E. Church are considered grandchildren.

In 1917, Rev. W. Sampson Brooks became the pastor of Bethel. He previously pastored in the mid-west but was a native of Maryland. He had a reputation for raising money and was greeted at Bethel with $55,000 debt upon his arrival. When he completed his pastorship at Bethel in 1920, the debt was paid and the congregation had grown to be the largest black congregation in the State of Maryland. Rev. Brooks was then elected Bishop. After Rev. Brooks, Rev. Frederick Douglass became a pastor of Bethel. At the time of Rev. Douglass’ pastorship, the A.M.E. Church allowed a pastor to remain at a church for only five years. After his five years, Rev. Douglass so loved his congregation and the congregation so loved him, that he left the A.M.E. church and formed Douglass Memorial Church in 1925. Numerous Bethel members followed him to the new church.

Following the split, the new pastor at Bethel became Rev. C. Harold Stepteau. He was an outstanding preacher and was very successful in getting many of those who had left Bethel to return. Rev. A. Chester Clarke was Bethel’s pastor from 1930 to 1933. Even though the depression had begun, he began the first Bethel radio broadcast and established a soup kitchen to feed thousands of the unemployed.

In a tradition that began at the Saratoga Street location, Bethel continued to be a center of the black struggle for equality. With the sanctuary available to seat 1,600 people, it was used for meetings to discuss the political issues affecting the entire black community. One such meeting took place in 1937. The black community mobilized to have black police officers in Baltimore. The meeting was held at Bethel and according to church historian, Raymond A.C. Young, the sanctuary was filled to capacity.

As a result of this meeting, Bethel member Violet Hill Whyte became the first black police officer in Baltimore. Her husband George S. Whyte was the Sunday school superintendent for a number of years. Their daughter, Mrs. Esther Bailey, was chairperson of Bethel’s 200th Birthday Celebration and today provides leadership for the Bethel Scholarship Committee affording financial assistance for young college bound Bethel members.

In 1948, Rev. Harrison J. Bryant began the longest pastorship in Bethel’s history - 16 years. He purchased the present parsonage of the church in the Ashburton community of Baltimore. As a civil rights activist, he involved his whole family in the civil rights movement. He was arrested for standing up against racism at the age of 85 for protesting apartheid in front of the South African Embassy in Washington, D.C.

He became the 13th pastor from Bethel to be ordained a Bishop. The pastor following him became the 14th. He was Rev. Frank M. Reid, II, who was also a civil rights activist. He marched with Martin Luther King in Alabama. He was noted for his punctuality and organizing ability.

Rev. Walter L. Hildebrand served as pastor from 1968 to 1975. He was considered a steadfast individual with a beautiful voice for singing or speaking. He was a Bible scholar and excelled in conducting Bible study.

The year is 1975. Bethel’s organization is down to 600 members. In May, Rev. John R. Bryant, at the age of 31, becomes the youngest pastor in Bethel’s history. His father, Bishop Harrison J. Bryant, had pastored there only 11 years before.

As a great gospel preacher and teacher, Rev. John R. Bryant is blessed with persuasive power in convincing people to give there lives to Christ. Under his leadership the congregation increased to 1,600 members in less than two years and over 3,000 members by the end of 1978. Rev. John R. Bryant became a bishop in 1988.

With so many members the church stays active seven days a week with self-help and spirit building programs. There is an Eating Together Program for senior citizens, food and energy co-ops and an Outreach Center that provides free clothing and food to the needy. There are ministries to married couples, singles, prisons, youth, men, women, new members, and new converts. In total there are 40 ministries at Bethel.

Continuing the Bethel tradition that stressed education, Bethel established a Christian day school for instruction from kindergarten to the 4th grade, a Bible Institute, and night school programs for adults. The adult Sunday school is just as important as the children Sunday School. The men of the church meet for 6:00 a.m. Wednesday Bible Study.

Community outreach is continued with the Word Ministry Bookstore, The Women’s Resource Center, a Sunday radio broadcast and a Sunday television broadcast on WNUV-TV54 and a Thursday television broadcast on black Entertainment Television (BET). There are tape recordings of Sunday services available. October 2, 1988 was Rev. Frank M. Reid, III’s first Sunday as Bethel’s pastor A great, spirit filled intellectual, he became Bethel’s 53rd pastor in its long history. His father, Bishop Frank M. Reid, II, had pastored Bethel 24 years before.

When Pastor Reid, another great gospel preacher and teacher, became Bethel’s pastor on the first Sunday in October 1988, he brought with him ministerial experience and heritage. In August 1998, he will celebrate his 27th year in the ministry. There has been a continuous line of ministers in his family from his great-great grandparents to the present. His father and grandfather became A.M.E. bishops.

During his tenure, Pastor Reid has made significant contributions to Bethel. Among other things, he has increased the membership and finances, placed special emphasis on establishment of administration and management systems to assure integrity, effectiveness and accountability in the operation of the church. In this regard, he has instituted a major review of church finances and instituted new budgetary and accounting systems. In addition, Pastor Reid has developed an effective ministry to men who now number forty percent of our early morning worshippers.

Currently, he is leading the church in a building campaign to acquire 256 acres of land for an expansion site in western Baltimore County where 50% of our members reside. The building process and strategic visioning are examples of his continuing excellence of ministry and preaching. Pastor Reid has allowed the Holy Spirit to use him mightily to reach out to substance abusers and to the unchurched. Praise God for a place called BETH-EL, The House of God, seen internationally in 123 countries of the world on the Armed Forces Television Station