What is the difference between AME and AME Zion Churches From (limited) personal experience, A.M.E. and A.M.E. Zion churches hold very similar structure, theology, and culture. What are the principle differences? Are there subtle separations in these points, or are they realistically simply two different political entities?
According to Wikipedia, the AME-Zion denomination originated among African American Methodists in New York, and the AME denomination originated among African American Methodists around Philadelphia, both around 1800. Otherwise the histories of the two bodies are similar, and in 2012, they agreed to enter full communion with each other, and other Methodist bodies.