Christian Methodist Episcopal Church
Methodist · 1870 · United States
Organized in 1870 by Black members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, as an independent denomination after emancipation; the third of the historic Black Methodist bodies in the Pan-Methodist Commission.
Christian Methodist Episcopal Church was formed in 1870. Christian Methodist Episcopal Church continues today. Christian Methodist Episcopal Church's institutional line runs back through Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Methodist Episcopal Church, Methodism, Church of England, Roman Catholicism to the post-apostolic church. No body on this tree is the assembly of Acts 2; where a body claims that, the claim appears in the claimed-lineage layer.
Between the post-apostolic church and Christian Methodist Episcopal Church stand 5 divisions along the institutional line, counting separations and disputed forks, not mergers, renewals or national organizations.
At a glance
- Formed
- In 1870
- Family
- Methodist
- Region
- United States
- Cause tags
- Governance
- Also known as
- CME; Colored Methodist Episcopal Church (historic name)
What it separated from
- Separated from Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Organized by Black Methodists of the MEC,South after emancipation.
On the tree
Solid lines are separations and unions; dashed lines are renewals that began inside a body; dotted gray lines are national organizations of one communion; a diamond marks a fork event where neither side is drawn as the one that left. Every line runs back to the post-apostolic church; no body descends from the assembly of Acts 2. Dashed gray boxes mark the institutional line after the apostles, shown as departure; no line of descent is drawn from Pentecost. A verdict appears on a box once its section is published.
Sources
Research compiled July 2026. Page data built 2026-10-31.