c. 2016 Religion News Service
PHILADELPHIA (RNS) Standing outside of the historic Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Yvonne Studevan was full of pride as she saw her great-great-great-great-grandfather being honored with a new, six-foot bronze statue.
“We’re a denomination that a man had a vision for that was so strong because he had the right vision of serving God: love God, serve God, love God’s people,” Studevan said of Richard Allen, who started the nation’s first independent black denomination.
