Page:A short account of the rise and progress of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in America.djvu/61

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.

60

advised to have an address drawn up and sent to the Wesleyan Church at Philadelphia, for concurrence, in order to be presented to the white Methodist yearly Conference which was to meet at that place the following spring, and then transferred to the New-York Conference, on the subject of ordination. Our brethren, the official members, considered the advice; they approved the same; and immediately appointed George Collins, John Dungy, James Varick, Charles Anderson and William Miller, a committee, to draft an address for that purpose, and on the 22d February, 1820, the committee commenced the operation. The address was drawn up, which reads as follows:

To the Bishops and Preachers of the Philadelphia and New-York Conferences, assembled:

Respected Brethren,

We, the official members of the African Methodist Zion and Asbury Churches, in the city of New-York, and of the Wesleyan Church, in the city of Philadelphia, on behalf of our brethren, members of the aforesaid Churches; likewise of a small society at New-Haven, and some of our coloured brethren on Long Island, beg the favour of addressing you on a subject, to us of great importance, and we presume not a matter of indifference to you.

In the first place, suffer us to beg you will accept of our humble and sincere thanks for your kind services to us when in our infant state, trusting that the Great Head of the Church, the all-wise and gracious God, has, and