[61] Finally, she changed the visible presence of women in ministry with the introduction of the ministry "habit". In 1988, he was installed as Pastor of Greater Emmanuel Church. At the time, because many churches disagreed with what they considered its eccentric worship styles and expressions of Pentecostalism, such as the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues and the laying on of hands, many churches distanced themselves from the COGIC for many years. National Baptist Convention of America, Inc. National Missionary Baptist Convention of America, Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic Faith, Church of Universal Triumph, Dominion of God, Fire Baptized Holiness Church of God of the Americas, Triumph the Church and Kingdom of God in Christ, United Pentecostal Council of the Assemblies of God, Incorporated, Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America, Imani Temple African-American Catholic Congregation, Israelite School of Universal Practical Knowledge, Original Church of God or Sanctified Church, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Charles_Edward_Blake_Sr.&oldid=1138808010, People from Los Angeles County, California, Presiding Bishops of the Church of God in Christ, African-American television personalities, Interdenominational Theological Center alumni, Short description is different from Wikidata, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, April, 2007, November 2008, November 2012, November 2016, This page was last edited on 11 February 2023, at 19:00. As a result, an ongoing dispute between Elder Carter and Bishop Blake continued without resolution. Drew Sheard was born on Jan. 1, 1959, in Detroit, Michigan, to Bishop and Mrs. John Henry Sheard. During his visit, Mason received the baptism of the Holy Ghost; the evidence was believed to be his "speaking in other tongues", in accordance with the biblical account found in the book of Acts 2:4. Mallory retired in 1976 after fifty years of service; and she had a national reputation. [29], Bishop Charles E. Blake assumed leadership and was elected Presiding Bishop of the church after the death of Bishop G.E. [4] He was reelected to a third term as Presiding Bishop on November 15, 2016. Vice Chairman of the Board of Bishops Bishop Roger L. Jones. Presiding bishop - Wikipedia Bishop Blake was the pastor of the West Angeles Church of God in Christ,[7] one of the largest African-American churches in the Western United States, with a membership of over 24,000, from 1969 until his retirement in 2022. Mason was given authority to lead the new denomination. Patterson Sr. in 1989. However, after a meeting in Hot Springs, Arkansas that led to the founding of the Assemblies of God, the white constituency of COGIC continued to decline, until it was almost nonexistent by the 1930s. Bishop James Oglethorpe Patterson 1968-1989* *Tenure as leader of the church: Presiding Bishop Gilbert Earl Patterson 2000-Present: Bishop Louis Henry Ford 1990-1995* Bishop Chandler David Owens 1995-2000* Drew Sheard. Since so many new holiness groups and fellowships were forming that used the name "Church of God," C. H. Mason sought a name to distinguish his Holiness group from others. ", Elder Carter said that such public rebuke and condemnation were unwarranted, as he was not given a chance to say why he had made such statements. Bishop L. H. Ford (Former Presiding Bishop COGIC) - YouTube Jurisdictions range in size between 30 and 100 churches. Patterson, former presiding bishop of the Church of God In Christ.. In 1988, after a thirteen-year exodus from COGIC, Bishop G. E. Patterson returned as the founding Prelate of the newly formed Tennessee Fourth Jurisdiction. As African Americans migrated north and west to industrial cities during the Great Migration, he began to establish COGIC churches in the north and, especially after 1940, in the west. He called for an annual gathering of COGIC members, known as the "International Holy Convocation", to be held in Memphis. These departments include: the Women's Department, the Sunday School Department, the Youth Department known as Y.P.W.W. Today COGIC has more than 12,000 churches, and several schools, missions, and medical clinics in more than eighty nations, including every inhabited continent. The international headquarters is in Memphis, Tennessee. Their pastor was then elder Gilbert Earl Patterson, who also became a COGIC Presiding Bishop, at Holy Temple COGIC in Memphis, Tennessee. Charles Edward Blake Sr. (born August 5, 1940) is an American minister and pastor who served as the Presiding Bishop and leader of the Church of God in Christ, a 6 million-member Holiness Pentecostal denomination, that has now grown to become one of the largest predominantly African American Pentecostal denominations in the United . Church Of God In Christ, Inc. 2015-23. Bishop Michael E. Hill Assistant Secretary to the General Board (2021present) and board member (2021present). Built in the 1940s during World War II, the nearly 4000-seat building was the largest church auditorium of any African-American religious group in the United States. He was elected four times uncontested as presiding bishop. The early conventions of the Evangelist Board were basically crusades led by Page and a few other Evangelists from across the country. President, International Music Department Dr. Myron Williams, General Assembly and Call Meeting (April) Memphis, General Council of Pastors and Elders (May), International Women's Crusade and Convention (May), Auxiliaries in Ministry (AIM) Conference (July), Bishop Mason's Birthday/Founder's Celebration (September), International Holy Convocation and General Assembly (November), Mother Lizzie Woods Robinson first general supervisor (19111945), Mother Lillian Brooks Coffey second general supervisor and founding president of the Women's International Convention (19461964), Mother Annie L. Bailey third general supervisor (19641975), Mother Mattie McGlothen fourth general supervisor (19751994), Mother Emma F. Crouch fifth general supervisor (19941997), Mother Willie Mae Rivers sixth general supervisor (19972017), Mother Barbara McCoo Lewis seventh general supervisor (2017present), Evangelist Emily Bram Bibby#, longest-serving national female evangelist, Missionary Pearl Paige Brown#, foreign missionary. Church of God in Christ - Wikipedia We believe in the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit, by whose indwelling a Christian is enabled to live a holy and separated life in the present world. Later in 1897, while in Little Rock, Arkansas, C. H. Mason stated that God had given him such a name for the group, the "Church of God in Christ". She was the wife and companion of Bishop John Seth Bailey, a trusted adviser of Bishop Mason, and later the first assistant presiding bishop of the church. In addition to the general board, there is a board of bishops that is composed of all jurisdictional and auxiliary bishops, a national trustee board that is composed of 15 members who are elected for a term of four years, the General Council of Pastors and Elders, which is open to any officially recognized pastor and current credentialed ordained elder in the church. Pages in category "Presiding Bishops of the Church of God in Christ". By that time, it was known as Saints Academy and Junior College. Chairman of the General Council of Pastors and Elders Superintendent Michael Eaddy. As the first elected presiding bishop, Bishop Patterson Sr. established the Charles Harrison Mason Seminary in Atlanta, Georgia. Bishop Patterson was also to date the youngest person to ever be elected presiding bishop of COGIC at the age of 56; the second youngest was his nephew Gilbert Earl (G.E.) They are the largest department in the COGIC. In 1982 he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Education, and in 1998 he earned a Master of Arts in Mathematics from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. He was recognized in Washington, D. C. by President Barack Obama in 2009 and invited to serve on the White House Advisory, Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. He re-ignited the church to be a flagship Pentecostal denomination. He established the World Fellowship of Black Pentecostal Churches and gained COGIC membership in the Congress of National Black Churches. Today COGIC operates the All Saints Bible College in Memphis, the C. H. Mason system of bible colleges, and the C. H. Mason Theological Seminary in Atlanta, Georgia. As a Pentecostal church, COGIC teaches that when one is baptized in the Holy Spirit, the believer will experience an initial evidence of speaking in tongues (glossolalia) by the will of God. A local church mother since the age of 21, she was committed to strengthening the auxiliaries in the local churches and to prepare the younger women to carry the mission of COGIC into the Twenty-first Century. From 1985 to 2009, he maintained the position of Prelate for the First Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction of California, where he was responsible for overseeing over 250 . Mrs. Anna Broy Crockett Ford was the first organizer and director of the National Music Department, which was formally established in November 1949. [27], Bishop James Oglethorpe Patterson Sr. was elected in November 1968 as the first presiding bishop of the church by the General Assembly at the Sixty-First Holy Convocation of the church. Category : Presiding Bishops of the Church of God in Christ Bishop John Drew Sheard Sr., who had previously been elected to the General Board in 2012 and 2016, was reelected to the General Board and subsequently elected as the current Presiding Bishop on March 20, 2021, in the first-ever virtual online election for the denomination. The then"Minister & Sister Carter" established and . Young, James Brewer, Daniel Spearman, and J. H. Boone. The rope that holds the shaft together represents Charles Harrison Mason, COGIC's founding father. Research Center at Boston University, the Greenlining Institutes Big Heart Award, a Trumpet Award, and the Urban Leagues Whitney M. Young award, among many others. Battles served as president until his death in December 1996. Assistant Elect Lady, COGIC World Missions-Supervisor Lee E.Van Zandt. He also instituted the Annual Prayer Breakfast, conducted Evangelistic Crusades across the country and developed the Church of God in Christ National Evangelist Registry. Bishop O. T. Jones Sr, however, did not leave the COGIC. COGIC licensed female evangelists may also serve as chaplains in military, federal, state, and local institutions requiring chaplains. Christ is the Head of the church, and He is the only mediator between God and humanity, and there is no salvation in any other. [29], Bishop Louis Henry Ford of Chicago, Illinois, was elected after the death of J.O. [36], In 2022, it was present in 112 countries in 2022. Co Directors of the Men's Department Bishop Michael B. On February 21, 1965, when Malcolm X was assassinated and the family needed a place for his funeral, no major black church or facility would open their doors for the service. The denomination considers these to be inconsistent with COGIC doctrine and teaching. Adjutant General Bishop Dickerson L. S. Wells Sr.. General Supervisor, Department of Women Mother Barbara McCoo Lewis. COGIC has always been traditionally anti-abortion. We believe that the Baptism of the Holy Ghost, according to Acts 2:4, is given to believers who ask for it. After being removed from the office of Senior Bishop, he remained the Jurisdictional Bishop of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania until his death in 1972. Many Holiness Christian groups and fellowships forming at the time wanted biblical names for their local churches and fellowships, such as "Church of God, Church of Christ, or Church of the Living God". Elder L. C. Patrick was added to the National Sunday School. According to the press release, The COGIC General Assembly, the legislat Deaconess Missionaries serve and assist in the ceremonial and temporal affairs of the local church. On the local church level in addition to the office of missionary, COGIC developed and has maintained the position of the "church mother." Finding two groups of women in the church, one group praying known as the Prayer Band, the other group studying and teaching the Word known as the Bible Band, she combined the two under the name of the Prayer and Bible Band. He has one older brother, J. It had a membership of more than 400,000, who supported more than 4,000 churches. He believed that the name, taken from 1 Thessalonians 2:14, was divinely revealed and biblically inspired. His ministry spanned more than seven decades. Mother Deborah Mason Patterson#, daughter of founder, Bishop Mason and wife of first presiding bishop James O. Patterson Sr. Desiring to learn more about the work of the Holy Spirit in the church, C. H. Mason, J. Bishop Jones was the only living bishop of the five original bishops consecrated by Bishop Mason. However, in 1996, the umbrella format was revised under the administration of Bishop C.D. Bishop. A general supervisor of women is appointed by the presiding bishop and given authority to lead the International Women's Ministry of the church. The Five Presiding Bishops of the Church Of God In Christ (RNS) A Detroit bishop of the Church of God in Christ has been named the new presiding bishop of the nation's largest historically Black Pentecostal . Student Aid a ministry of support to foreign students. In 1945, Mason dedicated Mason Temple in Memphis as the church's national meeting site. Robinson was a staunch advocate for holiness and taught strict guidelines for the women with regard to dress and worldliness. She revolutionized and reorganized the music ministry to become a leading department in the church. The judicial board serves as the judicial branch and is the supreme body that interprets polity and practice. He was able to bridge denominational barriers and encourage non-COGIC ministries to work collboratively with the COGIC denomination. MEMPHIS, Tenn. The Church of God in Christ announced it has elected a new Presiding Bishop to lead the organization. For the Anabaptist denomination, see, The official seal of the COGIC features a sheaf of wheat representing the members of the COGIC. She is the longest serving president of the International Music Department and her influence and legacy have been indelible and are recognized around the world. According to a 2015 statistical study by the Pew Research Center, the denomination was estimated to have a United States membership of approximately 84% African-Americans, 5% White Americans, 8% Latino-Americans, and roughly 2% Asian-Americans. Nevertheless, women are licensed in COGIC to proclaim the gospel as evangelists.