Spencer Churches
The
Spencer Churches (less commonly called the "Union Churches") are the two religious denominations that resulted from a
schism in the first independent black denomination in the
United States, the "
Union Church of Africans" founded by
Peter Spencer in
Delaware in 1813 and usually called the "African Union Church":
- African Union Methodist Protestant Church
- Union American Methodist Episcopal Church
The reunion of the two denominations at some time in the future remains a possibility, and some people hope it will happen by the Churches' 200th anniversary in 2013.
The leading authority on the history of these churches is Lewis V. Baldwin, a professor at Vanderbilt University.