In June 1821, the first convention of the new Zion’s denomination, James Varick was appointed district chairman, an interim supervisory position for the whole denomination, and on this date in 1822 a white Methodist elders ordained Abraham Thompson, James Varick, and Levin Smith. James Varick officially became supervisor of the church. As early as 1780, blacks has been meeting of the John Street Church were holding separate class and prayer meetings. The groups met for prayer on Sundays, and preaching and exhortation on Wednesdays by 1799 they erected a building and formed a separate church, and began as the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, although it was officially dedicated by the mother church of Zion in 1848.
