Imani Temple African-American Catholic Congregation

The Imani Temple African-American Catholic Congregation is an Afrocentric Christian church. It was founded in 1989 by the Reverend George Augustus Stallings, Jr, a former Catholic priest, as an independent Church for former Roman Catholics who held beliefs that differed from those presented by the Roman Catholic Church.

Originally, the Imani Temple began as a group of nine churches. The opening mass was held on July 2, 1989. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/27/AR2006092701846.html "Archbishop Repudiates Expulsion"] Washington Post, September 28,2006, p. A12 Time Magazine, May 4, 1990, "Catholicism's Black Maverick", p. A12] The "Imani Temple African-American Catholic Congregation" eventually expanded to include thirteen churches. Its beliefs differ from those of the 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".Fact|date=September 2008 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 Catholic Church is racist, Bishop Joseph A. Francis of Newark commented, "You can't change the institutions by divorcing the institutions" [http://dickinsg.intrasun.tcnj.edu/di8aspora/part1/pwrpnt/Imani] Because Stallings 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 in Washington, D.C. Several of its bishops are former Roman Catholic priests who attend to Imani Temple congregants who have left Protestant and Catholic churches as well as other religions.

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