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The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, or AME Zion Church, is a historically African-American Christian denomination. It was officially formed in 1821 in New York City, but operated for a number of years before then.

The church can be traced back to the John Street Methodist Church of New York City. Following acts of overt discrimination (such as black parishioners being forced to leave worship), many black Christians left to form their own churches. The first church founded by the AME Zion Church was built in 1800 and was named Zion. These early black churches were still part of the Methodist Episcopal Church denomination, although the congregations were independent.

The fledgling church grew and soon multiple churches developed from the original congregation. These churches were attended by black congregants, but ministered to by white ordained Methodist ministers. In 1820, six of the churches met to ordain James Varick as an elder, and in 1821 he was made the first General Superintendent of the AME Zion Church. A debate raged in the white-dominated Methodist church over the possibility of black ministers. This debate concluded on July 30, 1822 when James Varick was ordained the first bishop of the AME Zion church.

Notes[link]

The AME Zion Church is not to be confused with the similarly named African Methodist Episcopal Church, which was officially formed in 1816 by Richard Allen and Daniel Coker in Philadelphia. The denomination was made up of black AME churches in the Philadelphia region, including Delaware and New Jersey.

Key features and early structure of AME Zion Church[link]

John Wesley AME Zion Church (est. 1847), located in the Logan Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C.

The newly formed AME Zion Church had a separate meeting place and time apart from the Methodist Episcopal Church. Autonomy was key for the newly formed church.

A general conference is the supreme administrative body of the church (s. 1988). Between meetings of the conference, the church is administered by the Board of Bishops. "The Book of Discipline is the instrument for setting forth the laws, plan, polity, and process by which the AME Zion Church governs itself."^[1]

Today the denomination operates Livingstone College in Salisbury, NC, and two junior colleges. In 1906 the religious studies department of Livingstone College came to be known as the Hood Seminary. Hood remained a department of the College until 2001. On July 1, 2001 the Seminary began operating independently of the College, and in March 2002, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), the College’s accrediting agency, acknowledged that the Seminary was a separate institution, sponsored by the A.M.E. Zion Church independent of the College.

The AME Zion missionaries are active in North and South America, Africa, and the Caribbean region (s. 1988). In 1998, the AME Zion Church commissioned the Reverend Dwight B. and BeLinda P. Cannon as the first family missionaries to South Africa in recent memory. These modern-day missionaries served from 1997 through 2004. Dr. Cannon is now Administrative Assistant to Bishop Richard K. Thompson, who oversees the work of South Africa, Zimbabwe and Swaziland.

The AME Zion Church has other mission work in the countries of Nigeria, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Angola, Ivory Coast, Ghana, England, India, Jamaica, St. Croix-Virgin Islands, Trinidad, Tobago, etc.

The Church today[link]

The church grew rapidly with the ordination of black ministers, but was mostly confined to the northern United States until the conclusion of the American Civil War. In the first decade after the war, together with the AME Church, it sent missionaries to the South to aid freedmen. Together the two African-American denominations gained hundreds of thousands of new members in the South, who responded to their missionaries and organizing efforts.^[2] Today, the AME Zion church has more than 1.4 million members,^[3] with outreach activities in many areas around the world. An individual member is sometimes referred to as being a "Zion Methodist".^[4]

The AME Zion church has been in negotiations for many years to merge with the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church into a tentatively named Christian Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. The plan was originally for unification by 2004. The AME Zion church has insisted on continuing to have "African" in the name.^[5] AME Zion church is very similar in doctrine and practice to CME church and the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

See also[link]

	Christianity portal
	Methodism portal
	African American portal

• Churches Uniting in Christ
• African Methodist Episcopal Church

References[link]

• The Doctrines and Discipline of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, with an Appendix; Revised by the General Conference, Atlanta, Georgia July 16-22, 2008. Charlotte, NC: A.M.E. Zion Publishing House, 2008.
• World Book Encyclopedia, 1988.
• Richard Heitzenrater, Duke University.
• "The Church in the Southern Black Community", Documenting the American South, University of North Carolina, 2004

External links[link]

• Official website of the A.M.E. Zion Church
• Christian Education Department | A.M.E. Zion Church
• Women's Home and Overseas Missionary Society
• Connectional Lay Council | A.M.E. Zion Church
• Livingstone College
• Hood Theological Seminary
• Clinton Junior College
• Profile of A.M.E. Zion Church, Association of Religion Data Archives
• Community of Change | Community Resources Site
• A.M.E. Zion Publishing House

v t e Black church denominations and leaders Denominations AME AME Zion COGIC International Circle of Faith National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. PAW National Baptist Convention of America, Inc. PNBC NMBCA CME AUMP African Orthodox Church Fire Baptized Holiness Church of God of the Americas Leaders Richard Allen Charles Harrison Mason Charles E. Blake Martin Luther King, Jr Joseph Lowery T. D. Jakes O. T. Jones Sr. Jeremiah Wright George Alexander McGuire Gilbert E. Patterson J.O. Patterson, Sr. Hiram Revels Categories Predominantly African American Christian denominations (Clergy)

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Zion Church may refer to:

in the United States

(by state)

• Zion Church (Rome, New York), listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in New York
• Zion Church (Brownsville, Tennessee), listed on the NRHP in Tennessee

in Germany

(by state)

• Zion's Church (Worpswede, Lower Saxony)

in Greenland

(by city)

• Zion's Church (Ilulissat, Greenland)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Zion (Hebrew: ציון‎) (also transliterated Sion, Tzion or Tsion) is a place name often used as a synonym for Jerusalem.^[1][2] The word is first found in Samuel II, 5:7 dating to c.630-540 BCE according to modern scholarship. It commonly referred to a specific mountain near Jerusalem (Mount Zion), on which stood a Jebusite fortress of the same name that was conquered by David and was named the City of David. The term Tzion came to designate the area of Jerusalem where the fortress stood, and later became a metonym for Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem, the city of Jerusalem and generally, the World to Come.

In Kabbalah the more esoteric reference is made to Tzion^[3] being the spiritual point from which reality emerges, located in the Holy of Holies of the First, Second and Third Temple.

Etymology[link]

The etymology of the word Zion (ṣiyôn) is uncertain.^{[1][2] [4]} Mentioned in the Bible in the Book of Samuel (2 Samuel 5:7) as the name of the Jebusite fortress conquered by King David, its origin likely predates the Israelites.^[1][2] If Semitic, it may be derived from the Hebrew root ''ṣiyyôn ("castle") or the Hebrew ṣiyya ("dry land," Jeremiah 51:43) or the Arabic šanā ("protect" or "citadel").^[1][4] It might also be related to the Arabic root ṣahî ("ascend to the top") or ṣuhhay ("tower" or "the top of the mountain").^[4] A non-Semitic relationship to the Hurrian word šeya ("river" or "brook") has also been suggested.^[4]

Orthography[link]

The form Tzion (Hebrew: ציון‎; Tiberian vocalization: Ṣiyyôn) appears 108 times in the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), and once as HaTzion.^[5] It is spelled with a Tzadi and not Zayin.^[6] The commonly used form is an adopted mis-transliteration in English based on German orthography,^[7] where z is always pronounced [t͡s] (e.g. "zog" [t͡soːk]), hence "Tsion" in German literature. A tz would only be used if the preceding vowel is short, and hence use of Zion in 19th century German Biblical criticism. This orthography was adopted because in German the correct transliteration can only be rendered from the one instance of HaTzion in Kings II 23:17, where the a vowel is followed by a double consonant tz.

Biblical usage[link]

Some examples from the book of Psalms, which have been frequently recited and memorized by Jews for centuries, state:

• "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Tzion." (Psalms 137:1)
• "For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Tzion. How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy. Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Raze it, raze it, even to the foundation thereof; O daughter of Babylon, that art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that repayeth thee as thou hast served us." (Psalms 137:3-8, italics for words not in the original Hebrew)
• "The Lord doth build up Jerusalem: he gathereth together the outcast of Israel. Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem; praise thy God, O Tzion." (Psalms 147:2,12)

The Daughter of Tzion[link]

Mentioned 26 times in the Tanakh, the Biblical phrase "Daughter of Tzion" (Hebrew "bat Tzion") is considered by some^[who?] to be referencing a small hill in Jerusalem (whether Mount Moriah, the Temple Mount, or another hill), with the location of the actual tall mountain (as described in the Psalms) remaining mysterious. Another cryptic verse, Zechariah 4:7, seems to refer to this hill, but is also ambiguous, depending on the punctuation. In Hebrew it reads "Mi attah Har-haGadol lifnei Zerubbabel l'mishor..."; the plain text has no punctuation, but the Masoretic Text puts a pause following Har-haGadol, to mean "Who are you, great mountain? Before Zerubbabel, [you will become just] a plain..." However, if the pause is placed following Zerubbabel, it would mean instead "What are you, "great mountain" before Zerubbabel? [You are just] a plain..." Since this hill is where Zerubbabel built the Second Temple, it appears to be a reference to the "Daughter of Zion" (the hill), as distinct from Tzion (the mountain).

However, "Daughter of Zion", and a variety of other names like "Daughter of Jerusalem", might also be interpreted as referring to Jerusalem and the Jewish people personified, instead of a geographical feature.^[8]

In the New Testament the Daughter of Zion is the bride of Christ, also known as the Church, according to the writer of the book of Hebrews (see Heb 12:22). In this sense the lower hill with the temple mount is of course the Daughter of Zion as a geographical or 'earthly' manifestation of spiritual reality, as well as the lively and alive place of the human congregation.

Naming the holy city "daughter Zion" was a common practice in the Hebrew language. Not only Jerusalem was called this way, but also Babylon, Tyre and Tarshish were referred to as "daughter".^[9]

Arab and Islamic tradition[link]

Sahyun (Arabic: صهيون‎, Ṣahyūn or Ṣihyūn) is the word for Zion in Arabic and Syriac.^[10][11] Drawing on biblical tradition, it is one of the names accorded to Jerusalem in Arabic and Islamic tradition.^[11][12] A valley called Wâdi Sahyûn (wadi being the Arabic for "valley") seemingly preserves the name and is located approximately one and three-quarter miles from the Old City of Jerusalem's Jaffa Gate.^[10]

The Kaaba in Mecca was also called Sahyun or Zion by Muhammed, the prophet of Islam.^[12] Islamic scholarship sees many passages of the Bible that refer to the desert or eschatological Zion as references to the holy site of Mecca.^[13] For example, the reference to the "precious cornerstone" of the new Jerusalem in the Book of Isaiah 28:16 is identified in Islamic scholarship as the cornerstone of the Kaaba.^[13] This interpretation is said by Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyah (1292–1350) to have come from the People of the Book, though earlier Christian scholarship identifies the cornerstone with Jesus.^[13]

Zionism[link]

A World War I recruitment poster. The Daughter of Zion (representing the Hebrew people): "Your Old New Land must have you! Join the Jewish regiment".

The term "Zionism" coined by Austrian Nathan Birnbaum, was derived from the German rendering of Tzion in his journal Selbstemanzipation (Self Emancipation) in 1890.^[14] Zionism as a political movement started in 1897 and supported a 'national home', and later a state, for the Jewish people in Palestine. The Zionist movement declared the re-establishment of its State of Israel in 1948, following the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine. Since then and with varying ideologies, Zionists have focused on developing and protecting this state.

While Zionism is based in part upon Torah mitzvot linking the Jewish people to the Biblical land of Israel, the modern movement is largely secular. Indeed, until 1967 the Tzion of the Tanakh (the Old City of Jerusalem) was not even within the boundaries of Israel (although Mount Zion itself, was).

In 2005, Ralph Uwazuruike from Nigeria pushed for the creation of the already disputed state of Biafra for the Igbo people. He approached the Israeli government to support this movement on the basis that Israel is the long lost home of the Igbos.

Anti-slavery symbolism[link]

The Jewish longing for Zion, starting with the deportation and enslavement of Jews during the Babylonian captivity, was adopted as a metaphor by Christian Black slaves in the United States, and after the Civil War by blacks who were still oppressed. Thus, Zion symbolizes a longing by wandering peoples for a safe homeland. This could be an actual place such as Ethiopia for Rastafarians or Israel for some of the Igbos in Nigeria for example. For others, it has taken on a more spiritual meaning—a safe spiritual homeland, like in heaven, or a kind of peace of mind in one's present life.

Usage by the Rastafari movement[link]

In the Rastafari movement, "Zion" stands for a utopian place of unity, peace and freedom, as opposed to "Babylon", the oppressing and exploiting system of the western world and a place of evil.

For Rastafarians, Zion is to be found in Africa, and more specifically in Ethiopia, where the term is also in use. Some Rastas believe themselves to represent the real Children of Israel in modern times, and their goal is to repatriate to Africa, or to Zion. Rasta reggae is peppered with references to Zion; among the best-known examples are the Bob Marley songs "Zion Train", "Iron Lion Zion", the Bunny Wailer song "Rastaman" ("The Rasta come from Zion, Rastaman a Lion!"), The Melodians song "Rivers of Babylon" (based on Psalm 137:1,3,4), the Bad Brains song "Leaving Babylon", the Damian Marley song featuring Nas "Road to Zion," The Abyssinians' "Forward Unto Zion" and Kiddus I's "Graduation In Zion," which is featured in the 1977 cult roots rock reggae film Rockers. Reggae groups such as Steel Pulse and Cocoa Tea also have many references to Zion in their various songs. In recent years, such references have also crossed over into pop and rock music thanks to artists like MindZion, O.A.R. "To Zion Goes I", Sublime, Lauryn Hill, Boney M. ("Rivers of Babylon"), Black Uhuru "Leaving to Zion", Fluid Minds "Zion", Dreadzone with the reggae-tinged track "Zion Youth.", P.O.D. with song "Set Your Eyes to Zion" (but P.O.D. with a Christian viewpoint: Zion referring to the spiritual kingdom of God), Trevor Hall with song "To Zion", and Australian roots reggae outfit Vindan and The Zion Band, also Alcyon Massive (a reggae/psychedelic band in Southern Oregon) wrote a song titled "Zion" which is currently very popular. The rock band Rush also reference Zion/Babylon duality in the song "Digital Man" with the following lyrics: "He'd love to spend the night in Zion. He's been a long while in Babylon".

Latter Day Saint movement[link]

A similar metaphoric transformation of the term "Zion" occurs in the modern Latter Day Saint movement, originating in the United States in the 1830s. In this interpretation, Zion refers to a specific location to which members of the millennial church are to be gathered together to live. During that time the ancient city of Enoch, also named Zion, that was taken to Heaven will return to the Earth. A Temple is to be built unto the Lord for a sacred work to be performed and for the Lord Jesus Christ to reign when he returns at the Second Coming. Until the gathering of Israel (Gentile and Jew who have accepted Jesus as their savior), when the second coming of Jesus Christ.^{[clarification needed]}

Latter Day Saints also believe Zion to be their location congregations where they gather weekly to renew vows and covenants made to God the Father and to the Son of God.

In popular culture[link]

Zion is referenced in several media and entertainment groups. For example in music the band with the name Mind Zion also there are song titles such as "To Zion", a song by Lauryn Hill, "Road to Zion", by Damian Marley, "Iron Lion Zion" by Bob Marley, or the "Zion (David Bowie song)". It is referenced in the song "Pancake" by Tori Amos from her concept album "Scarlet's Walk". In film, Zion is a fictional human-controlled underground city in The Matrix (franchise). In literature, Zion is a space station in the 1984 cyberpunk novel Neuromancer.

In February 2011 the Iranian government issued a formal complaint, saying that Britain's 2012 Olympics logo spelled the word "Zion". They initially threatened to boycott the event if the "offensive" logo was not replaced.

Mount Zion today[link]

Dormition Church, situated on the modern "Mount Zion"

Today, Mount Zion refers to a hill south of the Old City's Armenian Quarter, not to the Temple Mount. This apparent misidentification dates from the Middle Ages, when Christian pilgrims mistook the relatively large, flat summit (the highest point in ancient Jerusalem) for the original site of the Jewish Temple. The Dormition Church (right) is located upon the hill currently called Mount Zion.

See also[link]

• Book of Micah
• New Jerusalem

References[link]

• Ludlow, D. H. (Ed.). (1992) Vol 4. Encyclopedia of Mormonism. New York: Macmillian Publishing Company.
• McConkie, B.R. (1966).Mormon Doctrine. (2nd ed). Utah: Bookcraft.
• (Online) Available http://www.lds.org.
• Steven Zarlengo: Daughter of Zion: Jerusalem's Past, Present, and Future. (Dallas: Joseph Publishing, 2007).

Further reading[link]

• Batto, Bernard F.; Roberts, Kathryn L. (2004). David and Zion: Biblical Studies in Honor of J.J.M. Roberts Eisenbrauns, USA. ISBN 1-57506-092-2.

Coordinates: 31°46′N 35°14′E / 31.767°N 35.233°E / 31.767; 35.233