Metropolitan Spiritual Churches of Christ

The Metropolitan Spiritual Churches of Christ was a Spiritualist church operating in the African American community in the United States. Spiritualism moved into the black community in strength early in the twentieth century, but black people were not welcomed in many Spiritualist congregations. As independent movements began to form around talented individual mediums, they tended to adopt the forms dominant in the pentecostal and holiness churches and retain a central emphasis upon the Bible. They also took the name "spiritual," a reference to the teachings concerning spiritual gifts mentioned in several places in the epistles of St. Paul.

The Metropolitan Spiritual Churches of Christ were founded in Kansas City in 1925 by Bishop William Frank Taylor (formerly a minister in the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church) and Elder Leviticus Boswell (of the Church of God in Christ). It grew quickly and soon had congregations across the Midwest and one in California. In 1942, shortly before Taylor's death, the Metropolitan Churches merged with the Spiritual Churches of the Southwest to create the United Spiritual Churches of Christ. However, soon after Taylor died, a split occurred between Bishop Clarence Cobbs of Chicago, who believed himself Taylor's rightful successor, and Bishop Thomas Watson, who had headed the former Spiritual Churches of the Southwest. Two factions developed, the largest one accepting the leadership of Cobbs, pastor of the First Church of Deliverance.

Under Cobbs's leadership, a revived Metropolitan Spiritual Churches of Christ expanded to encompass close to 100 congregations in the 1960s. It also expanded to West Africa, making it the largest spiritual association operating in the United States. Last known address: 4329 Park Heights Ave., Baltimore, MD 21215.

Sources:

Murphy, Larry G., J. Gordon Melton, and Gary L. Ward. Encyclopedia of African American Religions. New York: Garland Publishing, 1993.