AME Zion Church Wins A Round In Property Fight With Spin-Off Group

Jet, April 17, 2000

The ministerial career of a former store-front church pastor who founded and developed it into a Clinton, MD, congregation of 24,000 members was temporarily slowed by a court decision.

In a crucial ruling, Prince George's County (MD) Circuit Court Judge E. Allen Sheperd settled a dispute between the AME Zion Church and Rev. John A. Cherry, regarded as the miracle man of the faith.

Pastoring a tiny store-front AME Zion church, Rev. Cherry shepherded the small congregation to one of the largest in the country.

With an all time-high 24,000 membership, the church controlled almost $49 million in assets, including cash, a national television ministry, two buildings, and an estimated 120 acres of land in Prince George's County.

One of the most talked-about possessions was a private jet that Rev. Cherry used to travel around the world on business.

At the packed hearing where neither side expected a quick decision on the matter affecting one of the largest and most important Black denominations in the country, the judge surprised the audience by stating that supporters of Rev. Cherry, who abandoned the AME Zion faith last summer, had no right to take millions away from his former church--even though a majority of the members followed him to his new denomination, From the Heart Ministries.

Remaining members of the Full Gospel AME Zion Church congregation charged that Rev. Cherry was draining their resources when he filed suit last summer to reclaim $40 million in various assets, according to the Washington Times.

"This isn't a transfer of property case," argued one of Rev. Cherry's attorneys. "We left the church and we took with us our own property."

Rev. Milton A. Williams, the bishop of the AME Zion Philadelphia-Baltimore district, concluded, "The battle is not over. We keep praying that God will direct us."