Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Historic Methodist church in Charleston, United States.
Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church is a church building in the Gothic Revival style with tall spires and pointed arched windows in downtown Charleston, South Carolina. The white facade stands out among the surrounding buildings and creates a quiet contrast to the busy street in front of it.
The congregation was founded in 1818, when Morris Brown left Charleston's white Methodist church in protest and nearly 2,000 Black members followed him, first meeting as the Hampstead Church. After Denmark Vesey, a co-founder, was executed in 1822, the church was burned and the congregation met in secret until 1865. The present brick and stucco building on Calhoun Street, designed by John Henry Devereux, was begun in 1891 and completed in 1892.
The name Emanuel means "God with us". Since a declaration of independence dated 1 January 1863, the congregation has held an annual New Year's Day parade through the city that ends at the church. The Charleston Symphony Orchestra Gospel Choir has sung here.
The building is accessed through a set of steps at the main entrance facing the street. Services are usually held on Sunday mornings, and visitors are welcome to sit quietly toward the back during worship.
The church's name means "God with us", chosen when Bishop Daniel Payne installed Richard H. Cain as pastor after the Civil War. Each 1 January a city parade ends at the church, marking the 1863 declaration of independence celebrated as its 150th anniversary on 31 December 2012.
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