Abstract
Of the 21 million Blacks estimated to be formally affiliated with one church or another, over eighty percent are accounted for by the seven largest black denominations. These, in turn, represent only three different orientations: Methodist, Baptist, and Pentecostal. Even these divisions are substantially structural in nature, and neither the structural nor the doctrinal demarcations have ever succeeded in shattering the transcendent ethnic identity of Blacks that was fired in the crucible of slavery and tempered in the cauldron of Jim Crow segregation. Still, the divisions exist, and united action predicated on the full resources of the Black Church is impeded accordingly. That reality has not been lost on constituent members of the Black Church who have initiated action to overcome division since the early days of denominationalism.