Tyree
AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH
About Tyree AME Church
Tyree African Methodist Episcopal Church is located in the Powelton Village Section of Philadelphia. This is a very diverse and densely populated community which is fertile ground for soul winning. Tyree Church has stood as a beacon of hope for all people and carried out the Great Commission of Jesus Christ for over 100 years. The church building was the first home of Tenth Presbyterian Church which was built in 1863.
Tyree A.M.E. Church was founded on April 5, 1913 by The Rev. William B. Lyons and a group of members from Mt. Pisgah A.M.E. Church in Philadelphia. The first church building was located at 3832 Haverford Ave., Phila., Pa. The church was named after Bishop Tyree who served in the First Episcopal District of the A.M.E. Church. In 1941 The Rev. R.W.E. Irwin moved the congregation to its present location at 3800 Hamilton Street. The church grew spiritually and numerically.
Tyree Church has had 18 pastors. The first woman pastor of Tyree African Methodist Episcopal Church was The Rev. Olivia Henry. She was assigned as pastor in 1951. Under her administration the church grew from 100 to over six hundred parishioners. All of the pastors were great shepherds of the flock.
Currently the main focus of Tyree Church is on soul winning, and community outreach. Tyree Church has adopted and supports the needs of the women and children in Gloria’s Shelter. The church also provides food and clothing for men in homeless shelters. Tyree Church is often called upon to support various projects at St. Ignatius Nursing Home. Tyree Church is carrying out the mandate of Jesus Christ in Matthew 10: 5-15, which is to seek out and save the lost, serve the needy by preaching the gospel, clothing the naked, housing the homeless, cheering the fallen, providing jobs for the jobless, and administering to the needs of those in nursing homes, mental institutions, caring for the sick and shut-in, and encouraging thrift and economic advancement.
Our Legacy
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Over two hundred years ago, African American worshippers at St. George's Methodist Church in Philadelphia were pulled from their knees during prayer by white worshippers. Richard Allen, one of the African Americans, asked that they be allowed to finish prayer and they then would leave and trouble St. George's no more. Prayer ended before the commotion did and Richard Allen led the African Americans out of St. George's Methodist Church. The year was 1787. In the days that were to come, Richard Allen and those few men and women founded the church that became the African Methodist Episcopal Church. The new congregation worshipped in a blacksmith's shop that Allen purchased with his own money. Allen, who later became Bishop Richard Allen, preached in the blacksmith shop, with an anvil as his pulpit, a doctrine of self-help. He taught the people that they should rely on God and their own resources to make a difference in their lives, their church and their community.