Our Mission

The Mission of the African Methodist Episcopal Church is to minister to the spiritual, intellectual, physical and emotional, and environmental needs of all people by spreading Christ's liberating gospel through word and deed. At every level of the Connection and in every local church, the African Methodist Episcopal Church shall engage in carrying out the spirit of the original Free African Society, out of which the A.M.E. Church evolved: that is, to seek out and save the lost, and serve the needy through a continuing program of:

1. Preaching the gospel

2. Feeding the hungry

3. Clothing the naked

4. Housing the homeless

5. Cheering the fallen

6. Providing jobs for the jobless

7. Administering to the needs of those in prisons, hospitals, nursing homes, asylums, mental facilities and senior citizens' homes; caring for the sick, the shut-in, the mentally and socially disturbed, and Encouraging thrift and economic development.

  Church Profile

The first A.M.E church on Long Island, established almost 200 years ago in Amityville, was destroyed by fire. Later rebuilt at its present site in. Copiague, Bethel A.M.E. Church is said to be the Island's oldest black church. It is a contemporary structure compared to the single-gable, pitched-roof design of many churches on Long Island. Today, it has a membership of more than 600.