A.M.E.

Bethany Collins, 39, who lives in Chicago, occasionally makes simple shapes on handmade paper that have been compared to the work of Agnes Martin; she also recently completed a series titled “Old Ship,” in which she uses pink granite dust from the base of a dismantled Confederate monument in Charlottesville, Va., to forge three-dimensional forms on canvas inspired by architectural details from the Old Ship A.M.E.

But the A.M.E. council’s statement goes further than a cease-fire demand, insisting that the United States immediately stop its financial support of Israel.

“Voter registration will take place every Sunday in our churches,” said Cheryl Davenport Dozier, who helps coordinate civic engagement efforts for the A.M.E.

“Regardless of what anyone says, Black people do believe in the institutions that are in place to protect our rights,” said the Rev. Willie J. Barber II, who also works on civic engagement efforts for the A.M.E.

Those experiences informed her efforts to persuade lawmakers to take down the Confederate battle flag at the South Carolina Statehouse in 2015, after a white supremacist shot and killed nine Black parishioners at the Emanuel A.M.E.