Imani Temple African-American Catholic Congregation
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The Imani Temple African-American Catholic Congregation is an Afrocentric Christian church. It was founded in 1989 by the Reverend George Augustus Stallings, Jr, an ordained Catholic priest, as an independent Church for former Roman Catholics who held beliefs that differed from those presented by the established Roman Catholic Church.
Originally, the Imani Temple began as a group of nine churches. The opening mass was held on July 2, 1989.[1] The Imani Temple African-American Catholic Congregation eventually expanded to include thirteen churches. Its beliefs differ from those of the Roman Catholic Church because it allows women to be ordained and does not require their priests to remain celibate.
In an article in Time Magazine, founder Stallings is referred to as "Catholicism's Black Maverick". Stallings has claimed the "Catholic Church's unwillingness to recognize the spirtual needs of African Americans" as one reason for breaking from the church and founding the Imani Temple. Responding to an accusation by Reverend Stallings that the Roman Catholic Church is racist, Bishop Joseph A. Francis of Newark commented, "You can't change the institutions by divorcing the institutions"[2] Because continued to exercise his priestly functions after breaking communion with his bishop and persisted in public heresy, he was excommunicated in 1990.
The Imani Temple has headquarters based in Washington, D.C. Several of the bishops are former Roman Catholic priests and now minister to those who have left both Protestant and Catholic churches to follow the Imani Temple African American Catholic Congregation and its teachings.
