The Ransom Pentecostal African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church was born in the Spirit and founded in 1961 as the Ransom Pentecostal Church of God by our founding ministers Rev. Vincent Fagan, Rev. Horace Gordon and Rev. May. Fifty four years ago at the invitation of Rev. Vincent Fagan, Bishop Herbert Bell Shaw along with pastors and lay members of the First Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church came to London to plant the banner of the AME Zion Church in the United Kingdom. In November 1970, this vibrant body of believers joined the AME Zion denomination to be established as the Mother Church of AME Zion in the United Kingdom. 

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The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (AME Zion Church) traces its roots to 1796, when Peter Williams, Christopher Rush, James Varick, and other African Americans left the white John Street Methodist Church in New York City to form a black church. Five years later, the group was chartered as the African Methodist Episcopal Church ("Zion" was added in 1848). Unable to penetrate the white-dominated South during slavery, the AME Zion Church was primarily a northern institution for decades. It became known as the "freedom church" because of its efforts to help slaves escape from their masters, and because its membership included celebrated black leaders Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, and Frederick Douglass. 

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The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church is a member of the World Methodist family of denominations and is distinguished as the first independent Protestant denomination to be founded by Black people. Throughout its history, the AME Zion Church has advocated greater citizenship rights and educational and economic opportunities for people of African descent while always being open to people of all racial backgrounds. At Ransom we carry much of the responsibility for our own progress and continue to speak truth to power. We have been the leader among all Protestant denominations in ordaining women and giving them powerful roles in the church. The Ransom AME Zion Church is a member church of the London-Midland conference, and the North Eastern Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.

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We are proud of our heritage as a historic and vibrant body of believers guided by the Holy Spirit, celebrating the presence of God and the work of Jesus Christ in the world. We are a praying, spirit-filled, worshipping Church that attends to the spiritual needs of our community.  The Ransom Pentecostal AME Zion Church identifies with the aspirations and desires of persons of African heritage to lift up humanity, to establish and maintain the beloved community that God called us to be. We intend to fully embrace the social justice requirements of the Gospel as we believe our purpose is to connect our faith in a God who creates, redeems, loves and inspires all people, given the realities of life today.