This report provides information about the largest religious traditions and denominations in Black communities, providing a basic understanding of how these denominations operate, how the leadership structure is organized and how their decision-making is negotiated, as well as a historical overview of their development and a bit about their economic and financial structure.
Please keep in mind that these profiles will provide a basic overview and will not address finer points such as regional and local differences between particular denominations. Each individual in a faith community is unique in how they understand and interpret the mandates and the teachings of their faith. Nonetheless, this sort of foundational religious and cultural competence can open doors in the religious community and aid in relationship building.
The report is written to identify and describe traditions as they define themselves, not by how others may view them. Please also keep in mind that reliable statistics on religious affiliation in the United States are notoriously difficult to obtain. Population statistics provided should be considered estimates. This guide should be augmented by field experience working with religious communities and individuals and is best used as a tool for developing relationships with religious actors for the purpose of bettering the community. An orientation toward building community rather than clientele is exceptionally important when cultivating relationships with faith communities across denominations and even across different faith traditions.
This report provides information about the largest religious traditions and denominations in Black communities, providing a basic understanding of how these denominations operate, how the leadership structure is organized and how their decision-making is negotiated, as well as a historical overview of their development and a bit about their economic and financial structure.
This report will cover the follow:
- Overview of Religious Competency
- Relationship-Building: Community, Not Clientele
- Christian Traditions in the African-American Community
- African Methodism:
- African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church
- African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AMEZ) Church
- Christian Methodist Episcopal (CME) Church
- Church of God in Christ (COGIC)
- National Baptist Convention
- Catholicism
- SHORT PROFILES:
- Black Episcopalianism
- Black Interdenominational
- African Methodism:
- Islamic Traditions in the African-American Community
- Introduction
- Nation of Islam
- Sunni and Shia Islam
You can navigate these tips sheets using the menu to the right (on a computer browser) or below (on a mobile device).
To see full endnotes, please refer to the end section of our report.
