History
St. Stephens AME Zion Church
The Saint Stephens Church has a distinguished history in the city of Branford. It is the first African-American church established in the town over 99 years ago by the late Bishop Steven Gills Spottswood and a handful of African-Americans seeking to establish a religious community.
The church still has within its fellowship founding family members who are ardent, dedicated. faithful and loyal members. The church has distinguished itself by establishing the M.L. King Breakfast which has become an ecumenical breakfast shared by community members who make up the governing board. During the COVID-19 pandemic, St Stephens members were some of the first residents in Connecticut to participate in the Pfizer Vaccine Study, and with the help of Yale’s YCCI Ambassador program, senior members were blessed to participate in a learning program, that included learning Zoom, Facebook, email, telemedicine and lessons on how to take charge of one’s health. This pilot program was essential for seniors who found themselves estranged, isolated, and not internet savvy during this COVID Pandemic. We are proud to announce that the St. Stephens Congregation is 99 percent vaccinated.
We would want those of you looking for a great church to consider this little church in Branford that sits by the side of the road. We would have you know that this AME Zion church was the church of Fredrick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Madame CJ Walker, and has a history of struggling for the rights of the disenfranchised.
The AME Zion Church
Zion methodism grew out of the merciless enslavement of our African forefathers. They were kidnapped from their native land, chained, shackled, and shipped as beasts in deplorable conditions to a strange and distant land, having no family, no culture and no language.
Yet, our fathers and mothers were comforted by the Lord God, through Jesus Christ, in the cotton fields and every place of their humiliation and degradation revealing to them that He would always be with them as he had been with them in the past.
When Jesus, upon whom the Spirit of the Lord had descended, was preached at John Street Methodist Church, they united with that fellowship. However, bigotry and oppressively cruel barriers confronted them. The Spirit of the Lord led them in the establishment of Zion Chapel (which later became the Mother Church of Zion Methodism) where the gospel of His redeeming grace could be experienced. Taking with them the doctrines, discipline, and polity of the Methodist Church, they proceeded in the establishment of Zion Methodism. They believe that God had called them out of their bondage and had chosen them to be His people and a channel of His redeeming love for all people.
From its earliest beginnings
From its earliest beginnings, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (AME Zion) has been known for its spirit of reform and activism. In the 19th century, the church was at the forefront of the antislavery movement and became known as the Freedom Church because it was associated with the period after emancipation of the slaves. Several of the best-known black abolitionists, including Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and Sojourner Truth, were members of the AME Zion Church. Black churches were integral in helping build communities and develop leadership among the freedmen in the South. Later they played an increasingly powerful role in the civil rights movement of the mid-20th century.
Today, the AME Zion church has more than 1.4 million members, with churches on all continents except Australia. In West Africa, in particular, the denomination has set up numerous schools and clinics throughout Ghana and Nigeria. Overseas missions are a crucial component of the AME Zion church’s outreach, but the denomination believes in charity starting at home. That is why, over the years, several individual churches have implemented programs to help families to find low-income housing, jobs, financial planning assistance, healthcare, and daycare services.
We believe and understand today that, in the Divine Economy, Zion Methodism is to make disciples of all persons throughout the earth, to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captive, recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free and to proclaim the Year of the Lord‘s favor. We are to continue this mission until Christ, God’s Son, shall come again.
History adapted from the AME Zion Website