The demographics and range of African-American parishes in the Episcopal Church have shifted as America’s black population has experienced new waves of immigration resulting from the West Indian and African diaspora. Several African-American congregations stand out as cardinal parishes, which have been self-sufficient communities known primarily for raising up their own lay leadership and for the formation of an ordained ministry.
Beginning in 1794 with the founding of the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas in Philadelphia, services for years without any sponsorship, recognition, or oversight by an episcopal jurisdiction. The Church endorsed a separate cultivation of black religious life throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth century with the result that newer black parishes rooted themselves in a legacy of Afro-Anglican liturgical and social traditions.
As of 2014, there were 90 historically black parishes. Many of these congregations have become multi-cultural communities in recent years as the church has become more conscious of its mission to end racism. This list is not definitive and does not include the many historical churches that have been forced to close as a result of a radical transformation of America’s cities since the Second World War.
There are three local parishes in the Diocese of Michigan that are included on this list:
- St. Matthew’s and St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church was founded in 1845
- Church of the Messiah, Detroit was founded in 1874
- St. Cyprian’s Episcopal Church, Detroit was founded in 1919
- St. Clement’s Church, Inkster was founded in1936
- *St. Philip’s Church, Grand Rapids dated founded is unknown (local parish from the Diocese of Western Michigan)
Click here for a list of the other historically black parishes
Source: http://www.episcopalarchives.org/Afro-Anglican_history/exhibit/legacy/black_parishes.php