On East Bute Street in downtown Norfolk, the 1888 edifice of St. John's A.M.E. Church rises as the congregation's own "Mother Church of African Methodism in Virginia" and "the cradle of Black Suffrage in Norfolk." Founded as a mission for enslaved worshipers about the year 1840 and formally received into the African Methodist Episcopal Church on January 1, 1864, St. John's carries nearly two centuries of worship, education, and civic action under a cornerstone laid April 18, 1888.
Mother Church of African Methodism in Virginia
St. John's began as a mission within the body of the Old Cumberland Street Methodist Episcopal Church around 1840, when Black worshipers gathered separately from the white congregation. On October 13, 1863, in the early months of Union occupation of Norfolk, the congregation petitioned the Baltimore Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church for acceptance into the A.M.E. connection. Elder Alexander Washington Wayman, who later became bishop, was sent to negotiate the change. On January 1, 1864, Bishop Daniel Alexander Payne visited Norfolk and officially received St. John's into the A.M.E. Church. The first quarterly conference under the A.M.E. Discipline was held four days later, on January 5, 1864, and Bishop Payne assigned Elder John Mifflin Brown - himself later elected bishop - as the first regular A.M.E. pastor of St. John's.
The 1864 Freedom Ballot
Within months of joining the A.M.E. Church, St. John's became the birthplace of the Black "freedom ballot" in Virginia. Under the leadership of Pastor John M. Brown, who served as a key leader of the Union Monitor Club, the church became a hub of civic mobilization for newly freed Black residents. In 1864, more than one thousand African Americans gathered within its walls to cast their first ballots - an assertion of political agency and collective self-determination that would shape the long struggle for suffrage in Norfolk and the state.
The Coan School and the First Education for Black Norfolk
The Coan School, established in 1863 during the Union occupation, was located at St. John's, making the church the first center for formal education for African Americans in the city. At a pivotal moment in the transition from slavery to freedom, the church offered more than space - it provided leadership. Pastor Brown served as a teacher in the school, embodying the dual role of spiritual and intellectual formation and helping lay the foundation for literacy, leadership, and community development among newly freed people.
The 1888 Edifice, the Pipe Organ, and the 1908 General Conference
The present church edifice was built in 1888 under the Rev. W. D. Cook, with the cornerstone laid April 18 of that year. During the decade that followed, the city and perhaps the state witnessed the installation of the first pipe organ among a congregation of color - a rare attraction that drew many into the church's membership. The adjoining parsonage was completed in 1907 under Rev. Charles W. Mossell. In May 1908, St. John's hosted the Twenty-Third Quadrennial Session of the General Conference of the A.M.E. Church, an occasion on which Bishops E. W. Lampton, H. B. Parks, J. S. Flipper, J. A. Johnson, and W. H. Heard were elected and consecrated. By 1915, when the mortgage - carried for forty-six years - was burned, the church had grown to 1,447 members. St. John's Sunday School was widely regarded as one of the great Sunday Schools of the country; the NAACP's The Crisis featured the church that year, reporting 900 enrolled in the main school, 350 in the Home Department, and 125 in the Cradle Roll.
Generations of Stewardship
The years that followed brought new growth and new stewardship. St. John's gave birth to two other congregations - St. Mark's and John M. Brown - and redeemed and restored St. James Church in Lamberts Point. Under Rev. J. A. Young, the choir loft and organ were rebuilt and moved directly behind the pulpit, and two of St. John's ministers, Dr. S. S. Morris and Dr. L. L. Berry, were elected General Officers of the A.M.E. Church. In April 1978, Bishop Henry Wendell Murphy appointed Rev. Walter C. Davis, under whose leadership the Brotherhood for Christ was reactivated, the church office rebuilt, the Chapel and kitchen modernized, and the Educational Building Fund grew to roughly $140,000. Bishop John Hurst Adams appointed Rev. Irvin W. Knight, Sr. on June 25, 1985, and under his leadership the Educational Building was completed. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Worship, Prayer, and Bible Study on Bute Street
St. John's gathers each Sunday at 10:00 a.m. for in-person worship, with no registration required. Each service is livestreamed on YouTube and broadcast by telephone at (757) 744-2056, so members who cannot be present can still take part. Tuesday evenings at 7:00 p.m. bring a prayer service held by Zoom and telephone, and on Wednesdays at noon a Bible Study is offered through the same channels. The banner verse on the church's home page is from Luke 4:18-19, in which Jesus reads from the prophet Isaiah: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor." Bishop John Hurst Adams - who appointed one of the church's pastors - captured the A.M.E. spirit in three words, "Liberation, Development and Definition," a motto that still hangs over the congregation's self-understanding.
The Thirty-Second Pastor
The Reverend Christian Joseph Savage serves as the thirty-second pastor of St. John's. A graduate of the University of Baltimore (B.A., 2014) and Yale Divinity School (M.Div., 2017), Pastor Savage was born in Baltimore, educated in Baltimore County Public Schools, and preached his trial sermon at eighteen under the pastoral leadership of his mother in ministry, the Reverend Charlotte Clemons. He was ordained an itinerant deacon in April 2015 and an itinerant elder in April 2017, and previously served as pastor of New Mt. Olive A.M.E. Church in Chesapeake from 2017 to 2021, when he was appointed to St. John's. He is a brother of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., and is married to Mrs. Tierra R. Langley. Giving is available online through the church's giving page.