OUR CHURCH HISTORY
1501 Caddo St
Arkadelphia, Arkansas
The year two-thousand and one marks one hundred and thirty-seven years of St.Paul A.M.E. Church history. St.Paul was organized in 1864 under the influence of Bishop J.P. Campbell and Archie Jones of Little Rock, Arkansas. The first meeting place for the new congregation was in a Bush Arbor. Later the Bush Arbor was used by both the Methodist and the Baptist. The two congregations was able to move from the Bush Arbor into their own separate places of worship. Bishop Campbell sent Rev. George Relethford to St.Paul to serve as pastor. After he served two years, he was followed by Rev. Nathaniel Jones. The Rev. Jones conducted a revival that brought in about 100 new converts and thereby increasing St. Paul's membership to over 300.
During the tenure of Rev. Dickerson an unfinished frame building was purchased at Twelfth and Main Streets for approximately fifteen hundred dollars. In the early thirties disaster in the form of a fire struck the church. The membership had to relocate again. St.Paul members were very active in the growth of the A.M.E. church in Arkansas. St. Paul leaders accepted the faltering Bethel University(now Shorter College in North Little Rock, Arkansas) in a time when the school was at the point of closing its doors. In 1890 Bethel University moved to Arkadelphia through influential members of St. Paul and others; J.E. Peake and Rev. J.L. Lowe, Presiding Elder of the Arkadelphia District. In 1892, the school was moved back to Little Rock. The church became the home for Circuit Riders covering Clark, Dallas, Garland, Hot Springs, Pike, Hempstead, Nevada, Sevier, Columbia and Lafayette counties.
In January 1940, a church was built on the corner of 15th and Caddo Streets under the leadership of Rev. J.H. Covington and with the support of Rev. V.M. Townsend. The church continued its leadership in the community and in the A.M.E. Church in Arkansas through the years.
In November 1980, Bishop F.C. James appointed the Rev. James H. Thomas pastor of St. Paul. Under his leadership the church moved forward. In 1983 a new van was purchased, In 1985 a lot was purchased across from the church and in 1987 another lot was purchased for parking. On January 15, 1988 a successful bond sale was launched to raise the necessary funds to build a new church and in 1989 a new church was constructed.
Following the construction, in 1996 a 30 passenger van was purchased. Then on March 9, 2000, The mortgage on St. Paul A.M.E. Church was burned by Bishop Frederick H. Talbot, 5 years ahead of time!
St. Paul A.M.E. Church stands as a beacon light towering away in the distance, pointing men, women, boys, and girls, who now walk in darkness to the light that the cross of Calvary sheds in our dismal world.