We Are The Black Puritans, USA !

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Agape ("love") is at the heart of Our emphasis upon family ministry which is rooted in the New Testament.

We believe that Christ was proclaimed to be a High Priest (Hebrews 5:1-14), and that Christ’s priesthood was “after the order of Melchisedec.” (Hebrews 5:6, 10).  “And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God.” (Genesis 14:18).

And so, Christ was, like Melchizedek, both a king and a priest.  Not only was Christ both a priest and a king, but the Book of Revelation informs us that Christ also “made us kings and priests unto God and his Father.” (Revelation 1:6).  And before the Levitical priesthood was instituted in Exodus 32, the entire nation of Israel was so designated as “a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.” (Exodus 19:6).   The Apostle Peter used this same description to describe the Church of Jesus Christ, to wit: “[b]ut ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people….” (1 Peter 2:9).  

From this we deduce the correctness of Martin Luther’s doctrine on the “Priesthood of All Believers,” and of John Calvin’s conceptualization of the “Presbyterian” forms of both ecclesiastical and civil polity-- i.e., the fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, and democracy.  (See, e.g., Acts 6:6; 1 Timothy 4:14; and 2 Timothy 1:6, describing “the presbytery,” “laying on of hands,” etc., by a Council of Elders).  

Christ’s restored Israel would be a nation of priests (or a nation of elders or presbyters  (i.e., holy men and holy women)).  This means that every man and woman has equal worth and dignity and that a sort of “democracy” should be included within ecclesiastical polity.   

Our Puritan roots run through the Mayflower ship and the Mayflower Compact of 1620 and through Puritan colonial New England.  

Here the English settlers organized individual, autonomous congregations (i.e., "Congregationalism") and upheld Calvinistic theological doctrines, including the doctrine of Predestination, total depravity, unconditional election, irresistible grace, limited atonement, and perseverance of the saints. 

We note that to train its Puritan ministers, the Puritans founded Harvard College (1636); Yale College (1701); the College of New Jersey (Princeton) in 1746; and Brown University (1764).  (We note this important history not to endorse "elitism" but rather in order to emphasize the plain fact that the Black Puritan movement, like their Puritan predecessors, supports and sustains a highly-educated and trained ministry). 

The graduates of these institutions were most influential in laying the constitutional foundation of the United States.   And even though the Puritan-church state came to an end during the early 18th century, its constitutional ideal remained an enduring legacy in American theological, constitutional, and political discourse.

The “African American” Puritan heritage is noteworthy.  

The first African American clergyman in North America was a Puritan-Congregationalist named Rev. Lemuel Haynes (1753-1833).   "A veteran of the American Revolution, Haynes was the first black man in the United States to be ordained as a minister....  Haynes also became an anti-slavery activist. In addition to arguing against involuntary servitude and preaching against the slave trade, Haynes also advocated against the colonization movement, arguing that people of African descent living in the United States should be entitled to the same rights as other citizens, and that having them resettle in Africa would not be beneficial."  ["Lemuel Haynes," Wikipedia]. 

The legacy of Rev. Haynes is being carried on in very many Congregationalist and Presbyterian churches. But aside from the few African Americans who became Puritan-Congregationalists, such as Rev. Haynes, the vast majority of African American slaves became Baptists!  

Hence, the Black Puritans, USA is deeply rooted in the heritage of the Black Primitive Baptists (Calvinistic, or Quasi- Calvinistic), and, through a spirit of ecumenism, closely affiliated with  various other Baptist churches, such as those which comprise the Joint National Baptist Convention, USA.

To that end, we are Reformed Anglicans who are also the spiritual heirs of the original English Baptists, and the brothers of the Black Primitive Baptists of the National Primitive Baptist Convention, USA. 

We, the Black Puritans USA,  focus on building strong fraternal organization among men of all races-- but especially among African American men-- through the blessing of a Congregationalist- Presbyterian ecclesiastical church structure.  

We are a historical church of the English Reformation of the 16th and 17th centuries-- that of the English dissenters.  

Our Anglican Protestant roots begin with King Henry VIII's separation of the Church of England from Rome in 1534; the Elizabethan Settlement of 1559; the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion of 1563; and Rev. Dr. Richard Hooker's "Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity" (1594).   

One of the first group of Puritans to emerge from within the Church of England were the English Baptists.  

The English Baptists were led by John Smith (1554 - 1612) and Thomas Helwys (1575 1616).  Smith was a graduate of Christ's College, Cambridge and an ordained Anglican priest. Helwys was a graduate of the Gray's Inn and a barrister (lawyer). Both Smith and Helwys were  pivotal in the founding of the Baptist sect in England. 

 "In the early 17th century, Helwys was the principal formulator of a demand that the church and the state be kept separate in matters of law, so that individuals might have a freedom of religious conscience. He was an advocate of religious liberty at a time when to hold to such views could be dangerous. He died in prison as a consequence of the religious persecution of Protestant Dissenters under King James I." ["Helwys," Wikipedia].

In "The Importance of Thomas Helwys," Baptist Pastor David Oliver states:

“Among the separatists sailing from Britain to Holland was Thomas Helwys. Helwys was a wealthy barrister whose law practice coupled with an inheritance he had received enabled him to act as an early benefactor for the Mayflower pilgrims. His financial aid allowed these people to afford an otherwise impossible journey.

“However, Helwys did not accompany the pilgrims onto the New World. He held a growing conviction that the practice of infant baptism was unbiblical. This created a disagreement between himself and the rest of the pilgrims. As well, he did not believe that venturing far off from Europe was the proper course of action. He decided instead to return to England and attempt to be persuasive for the cause of religious liberty. Thomas Helwys eventually founded what many historians believe to be the first Baptist church in England."

A second group of dissenters within the Church of England were the "English Presbyterians."

“English Presbyterianism itself dates to the tumultuous year 1641, which saw the execution of the Earl of Stafford, the Imprisonment of the Twelve Bishops, the publication of the Grand Remonstrance, and most importantly the beginning of a great debate within and without Parliament on the subject of church government.  

“On 11 December 1640, 15,000 Londoners presented the Root and Branch petition to Parliament, which led to the Westminster Assembly of Divines. The Assembly reported in July 1645.  

“Later that year, Parliament enacted for the establishment in every parish of a ‘congregational assembly,’ consisting of ruling elders elected by the minister and members of the congregation, and meeting weekly. In practice, few parish assemblies became established.  

“The execution of Charles I in 1649 horrified the Presbyterians…  English Presbyterians came to be representative of those Puritans who still cherished further reformation in church, but were unwavering in their fundamental loyalty to the Crown….

“Following the Restoration of the monarchy under King Charles II, and of the episcopal (bishop-led) system within the Church of England, Anglican ministers who favoured a Presbyterian polity found themselves in a dilemma. 

“The Act of Uniformity 1662 required that they accept the Book of Common Prayer in its entirety, as well as the requirement of episcopal ordination. Ministers who did not accept, some 2,000 of them, were removed from their posts (and, usually, their homes as well) on St Bartholomew's Day, in what became known as the Great Ejection. This was followed by more than a century of persecution, including further acts of Parliament such as the Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act of 1753.

“The Church of England had difficulty filling the vacancies caused by the ejection of so many ministers. In some cases, ministers continued to baptise, marry, and preach in the parish church, quite illegally.  

“In general, the ejected ministers continued to preach to dispersed congregations, making use of now unused chapels of ease (most of which had been built with privately donated funds), and from their own homes. However, by the end of the seventeenth century, the Church of England had reclaimed these chapels of ease, and Dissenting congregations began to build their own chapels.

“Aside from Quaker meetings, the English Dissenters styled themselves as either ‘Independent’ or ‘Presbyterian’. The ’Independents’, who might have a Calvinistic or a Baptist creed, regarded themselves as exclusive, and distinct from the parish church.  

“The Presbyterians, on the other hand, though each congregation was as independent and autonomous as any Independent chapel, used the name ‘Presbyterian’ because they regarded the doors of their chapels as open to all members of the parish; or, at least, all members of the parish who were of good character. In effect, they regarded each chapel as just another parish church. It was this attitude which, at first, caused particular animosity towards Presbyterians from some Anglicans, who regarded them as schismatics, actively seeking to divide the Church in England.

“Outwardly, though, there was initially little difference between ‘Independents’ and ‘Presbyterians’, except that they received financial assistance from the Independent and the Presbyterian Fund boards, respectively.

“The more open attitude of Presbyterian congregations led them to appoint ministers with a more liberal viewpoint, which, amongst other factors such as their ministers being trained in the Dissenting Academies, led to a growing heterodoxy into Arminianism, Arianism, and eventually Christian Unitarianism….  

“The Presbyterian Church of England was founded in 1876 by merging of the English congregations of the chiefly Scottish United Presbyterian Church with various other Presbyterian congregations in England.” ["English Presbyterianism," Wikipedia].

Although we are not strictly "Calvinists," we are, nevertheless, the spiritual heirs of the great Protestant Reformer John Calvin (1509 – 1564) who refined the “presbyterian” form of church governance during the late 16th century.  

The Presbyterian ecclesiastical church structure is ordered around the concept of “Council of Elders” who serve as ruling elders for the local church.   This form of church governance was practiced in the Early Church, but it was refined and formally-established as a “reformation” adjustment to the perceived abuses of Roman Catholicism during the 16th and 17th centuries.   

In the Church of England, the tug-of-war between the “Episcopal” and “Presbyterian” form of church government began in earnest during the English Civil War (1642 – 1651).   During the reign of Oliver Cromwell (1559 - 1668), who was himself a Puritan Independent, the “Episcopal” from of church government within the Church of England was briefly replaced by the Presbyterian form during the 1640s and 50s.  But English “Presbyterianism clearly failed to receive widespread support in either Parliament or the country.”  Thus, Presbyterianism developed on the British Isles through Rev. John Knox (1514 - 1572) and the Church of Scotland, and from there to colonial British North America, especially in the colonies of Pennsylvania and New Jersey.   

In New Jersey, the Presbyterians joined the Puritan Congregationalists and helped to found the College of New Jersey (Princeton) in 1746.  At Princeton, the Scottish Presbyterian Rev. Dr. John Witherspoon (1723 – 1794), who became the college’s President, was the only full-time clergyman to sign the American Declaration of Independence in 1776.  Rev. Witherspoon also taught scores of American leaders who became the Founding Fathers of the United States. Hence, through the influence of Princeton University (i.e., the College of New Jersey) the constitutional foundation of the new United States was deeply Presbyterian in tone, content, and spirit.  

Finally, Black Puritans, USA is, among other things, a Pan-African church mission. 

As such, we honor the development of Christianity on the African continent, with an acknowledgment of the spread of both Judaism and the Christian religion in ancient Egypt and Ethiopia; and, later, throughout northern, western, and southern Africa. (See, e.g., The Meachum School of Haymanot (St. Louis, Mo)).

As a reformed church, we expressly acknowledge the north African Augustine of Hippo (354 - 430 AD) as one of the Western Church's great theologians and a primary influencer of Protestant Reformers Martin Luther (1483 -1546) and John Calvin (1509 - 1564). 

And as Christians who are primarily of African descent, we understand and honor the plain fact that the Trinitarian God was present in Africa, and amongst the Africans, prior to the arrival of the Abrahamic religions, including Christianity; and that certain primitive spiritual practices and proverbs emanating from traditional African philosophy and religion are coterminous with Christ's law of agape (love) (i.e., Matthew 7:12).  See, e.g., Lamin Sanneh, "Whose Religion is Christianity? The Gospel Beyond the West" (Cambridge, UK/ Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Pub., 2003).