St. Paul AME heads into its third century
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Gideon Bradshaw/Observer-Reporter
The Rev. Samuel Ware delivers a guest sermon Sunday from the pulpit of St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church during a service marking its 200-year anniversary.
Photo showing the members of St. Paul AME’s Sunday school in 1956
Gideon Bradshaw/Observer-Reporter
Charleszine Ponton, 93, sits at a table in a hall of St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church Sunday following a service marking its anniversary.
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Gideon Bradshaw/Observer-Reporter
The Rev. Samuel Ware delivers a guest sermon last week during a service marking St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church’s 200-year anniversary.
Lorraine Walls-Perry still remembers Eva Brooks, the “very sweet,” “little tiny lady” who was Sunday school teacher while she and several other generations of children attended St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church.
“She just loved children,” she said.
Walls-Perry, 70, who grew up in Washington and now lives in Pittsburgh, is no longer a member of St. Paul, but was in attendance Sunday for a service marking the Ridge Avenue church’s 200th anniversary.
“Because it’s the oldest black church in the community, I’m sure it has influenced a lot of people’s lives,” said Charleszine Ponton, 93, of Washington, the oldest member of the church in which her grandparents were married in 1891.
Founded in 1818, the church is among the oldest black Methodist churches west of the Allegheny Mountains.
Many of the founders of St. Paul came from First Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington, whose “colored classes” were removed from the church rolls in 1820. There were about a dozen black families in Washington at the time, according to history compiled by members of St. Paul.
In 1787, a group of African-American congregants left St. George’s ME Church in Philadelphia to protest discriminatory practices and formed the Free African Society, a mutual-aid group from which the AME Church grew.
“As a matter of fact, most of the AME churches in Pennsylvania are older than the AME churches elsewhere, because this is the founding state,” said Rev. Oliver Tyler, who’s been pastor of St. Paul for about two years.
Richard Allen, one of the co-founders of the Free African Society, was elected AME’s first bishop in 1816. He and his coreligionists continued to adhere to the teachings of John Wesley, the English theologian who founded Methodism with his brother Charles.
“I think most church denominations were created because of a difference of theology, but this was definitely founded because of discrimination,” Walls-Perry said.
Members recalled attendance in the 200s in the 1950s, with enrollment in Sunday school of more than 100, mostly children. Now, the congregation is about 70. Regular attendance is in the low 20s.
The congregation has met at the Ridge Avenue building, one of several the church has used throughout its history, since 1994. Back when Ponton was christened at the church in the early 1930s, it was located on West Wheeling Street where the county jail now sits.
That building – which belonged to the First church before it was bought by St. Paul in 1876 – was rebuilt following its destruction by fire in 1985. Before that, members worshiped in a building on North Lincoln Street.
As congregants reminisced during an interview following the service, Brooks’ name came up as a favorite among those assembled – along with the late Raymond Archie Thomas, a church stalwart who served as choir director and treasurer and had a barber shop in town, and John Griffin, the longest-serving superintendent of the Sunday school.
“What it means for a church to be in existence for this long – it means the church has served its community well,” Tyler said.
On Sunday, his predecessor, The Rev. Samuel Ware, delivered a rousing guest sermon in which he contrasted the mutability of the material world with the constancy of the divine.
“We change, our country changes, the world changes, but God doesn’t change,” he told his audience.
He also sprinkled his oration with personal anecdotes, stories from Hebrew scripture, friendly humor and references to current events.
“I’ve never heard Rev. Ware preach like that,” Ponton remarked to friends after the service. “He was really fired up today.”
The weekend of anniversary celebrations also included a “fire revival” Friday and banquet Saturday.
Tyler said the church’s role in serving the community is important to him as he leads it into its third century.
“We thank God for the years we’ve been around,” he said. “We have a rich past, a joyful present and a hopeful future.”