Page:A short account of the rise and progress of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in America.djvu/80

 but if Zion Church returned under the government of the whites, they would not go with her, and therefore would no longer be in connexion with her. At this time the dissatisfaction which took place in consequence of the proceedings of the Trustees of the Asbury Church, in New-York, had gone to some length, insomuch that the members of that church were called together, in order to consult about their joining the Allenites, and an official letter was sent by them to the Conference at Philadelphia, informing that they had concluded to act in a kind of independent manner, and should allow whom they pleased to preach for them. However, James Varick was appointed to take the charge of them, provided they would receive him. On the arrival of the brethren from Philadelphia, a meeting of the official members of the connexion in New-York was called on the 30th of May, 1822, to consult about what was best to be done in order to be established some way or other. At this meeting an official letter from the Wesleyan Church was read, in which an immediate establishment by ordination was advised, and the mode suggested, viz., to let three of our Deacons ordain an Elder, or to call the assistance of an Elder from some other church, who, with two of our ordained Deacons might ordain an Elder, and so be established under the discipline we selected for the connexion. They further stated that they would have no more to do with petitioning the white Conferences, and that they wished not to receive ordination