A body of Negroes first incorporated as the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1801, although separate and distinct from the preceding African Methodist Episcopal Church. It was not until 1848 that the name African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church was adopted. They are in close accord with the Methodist Episcopal Church, accepting the Apostle's Creed "and adhering strictly to the doctrine of the new birth, regeneration followed by adoption, and entire sanctification." Four periodicals are published by them. Foreign missionary work is carried on in Liberia and the Gold Coast Colony, West Africa, and in South America.