They were also instrumental in establishing 75 churches across the nation. 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. Dr. Valerie Daniels Carter, entrepreneur, Jurisdictional Supervisor, Dr. Dorinda Clark Cole, International Elect Lady of Evangelism Dept., international evangelist. In 2000 at the Ninety-Third International Holy Convocation, the COGIC General Assembly elected Bishop Gilbert Earl Patterson to replace Owens as Presiding Bishop. The Church of God in Christ was formed in 1897 by a group of disfellowshipped Baptists, most notably Charles Price Jones (18651949) and Charles Harrison Mason (18641961). From the very beginning of gospel music, COGIC members have influenced its rise. Bishop Charles E. Blake, Sr. is the fifth Presiding Bishop and the seventh leader in succession, appointed in November 2007 by the General Assembly of the Church of God in Christ. CN Morning Rundown: Watch COGIC Installation, Consecration of Bishops As a visionary who is both inspiring and influential, the awards and recognitions that Bishop Blake has received are extensive. COGIC clergy do not officially sanction or recognize same-sex relationships to be united in marriage and the denomination at-large discourages same-sex relationships as unbiblical and immoral. Church of God in Christ names Detroit's Bishop J. Drew Sheard new We believe that the only means of being cleansed from sin is through repentance and faith in the precious Blood of Jesus Christ. [29], Bishop Louis Henry Ford of Chicago, Illinois, was elected after the death of J.O. Secretary of the General Council of Pastors and Elders Superintendent Prince W. Bryant, II. Each jurisdictional bishop appoints a jurisdictional supervisor to lead the work of the women on a jurisdictional level. Jones Sr. was elected Senior Bishop by the General Assembly. Patterson, who became presiding bishop in 2000 at the age of 60. President Moody also added these ministries to the Missions Department:[62]. [29] In 1926, upon the recommendation of Mother Lizzie Roberson, Elder C. G. Brown of Kansas City Missouri, was appointed the first Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the Home and Foreign Missions Department by Bishop C. H. Mason. F or the first time, the nation's largest Pentecostal and African-American denomination, the 5.5 million-member Church of God in Christ (COGIC), has voted out its presiding bishop. He was also a member of the General Board, the twelve head religious and executive leaders and head bishops of the COGIC denomination from 1988 until 2021. [2][4] The church teaches three separate and distinct works of grace that God performs in the life of believers: salvation, entire sanctification, and the baptism or infilling of the Holy Ghost. This group of seven bishops became known officially as the executive commission; they took on greater responsibility over church affairs until Mason's death. He testified to receiving entire sanctification after reading her autobiography in 1893. They unanimously chose C.H. Bishop Sheard was inducted into the prestigious Morehouse College Martin Luther King, Jr. Board of Preachers. To be consistent with progressive measures and modernization, in the Nineties, the international church along with many local COGIC churches began to use the term "youth department" instead of "YPWW. " The Voice of Missions a bimonthly magazine, John Seth Bailey#, general board member, jurisdictional bishop, Michigan Southwest Jurisdiction; pastor, Bailey Cathedral, Detroit, MI, Elmer Elijah Cleveland#, jurisdictional bishop, Northern California Jurisdiction, pastor, Ephesians, Oakland, CA, Bishop David Willard Grayson, Sr#, Jurisdictional Bishop of Maine, Founding Jurisdictional Bishop of Eastern New York Fourth, David Daniels, educator, professor, auxiliary bishop, James Logan Delk#, politician, pastor, First, Hopkinsville, KY, James Louis Felton, auxiliary bishop, pastor, Mount Airy, Philadelphia, PA, James Neaul Haynes#, general board member, jurisdictional bishop, Texas Northeast First Jurisdiction; pastor, Saintsville, Dallas, TX, Roderick Hennings, author, auxiliary bishop, pastor, Zion Dominion Global Ministries, Amherst, NY, William Morgan James#, general board member, jurisdictional bishop, Ohio North First Jurisdiction, pastor, St. James, Toledo, OH and James Temple, Cincinnati, OH, Orzo Thurston Jones Jr.#, general board member, jurisdictional bishop, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Jurisdiction; pastor, Holy Temple, Philadelphia, PA, Otha Miema Kelly#, general board member, jurisdictional bishop, Eastern New York First Jurisdiction; pastor, Kelly Temple, Harlem, NY, Otis Lockett#, church planter, jurisdictional bishop, North Carolina Second Jurisdiction, pastor, Evangel Word Fellowship, Greensboro, NC, George Dallas McKinney#, scholar, general board member, jurisdictional bishop, Southern California Second Jurisdiction; pastor, St. Stephen's Cathedral, San Diego, CA, S.E. It was also around this time, that he married his wife, Mae Lawrence Blake, a native of Michigan and daughter of another COGIC bishop and pastor, and they had three children together, Charles Blake, Jr., Lawrence "Larry" Blake, and Kimberly Blake. [26], The parties filed lawsuits in the Chancery Court of Shelby County, Tennessee, to resolve the legitimate authority of the denomination. C. D. Owens had gained national attention in the church as the president of the Youth Department. Bishop Carter came into holiness in 1952 at the Jones Avenue Church of God in Christ, under the leadership of the late Bishop George Briley. Chairman of the National Judiciary Board Bishop Martin Luther Johnson. [29] The spread of COGIC was due largely to the efforts of its evangelists through crusades and revivals. He was able to bridge denominational barriers and encourage non-COGIC ministries to work collboratively with the COGIC denomination. President, International Department of Evangelism Evangelist Gary Sprewell, Elect Lady, International Department of Evangelism . Well-known gospel musicians with COGIC roots include; Andrae Crouch and Sandra Crouch, Walter Hawkins and Edwin Hawkins, Tramaine Hawkins, Rubenstein McClure, Yvette Flunder, Sara Jordan Powell, Daryl Coley, BeBe and CeCe Winans, The Winans, "Detroit" Gary Wiggins, John P. Kee, The O'Neal Twins, Vanessa Bell Armstrong, Rance Allen, Rev. At the 1907 COGIC Convocation held in Jackson, a separation occurred among Jones and other leaders in the church because of such disagreements. By that time, it was known as Saints Academy and Junior College. The school closed in 1977 after her death, as it struggled financially in a period when some families were choosing integrated schools for their children. [29] She is also the Jurisdictional Supervisor of Women for the South Carolina Jurisdiction. [25], Bishop Ozro Thurston Jones Sr. was pastor of the Holy Temple Church of God in Christ in Philadelphia and the Jurisdictional Bishop of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Jurisdiction. [35], In 2016, the Church had 5.5 million members in 60 countries around the world. Chairman of the National Board of Trustees Bishop Dwight E. Walls Sr.. First Vice Chairman of the National Board of Trustees Superintendent Melton Timmons. As the first elected presiding bishop, Bishop Patterson Sr. established the Charles Harrison Mason Seminary in Atlanta, Georgia. Deaconess Missionaries serve and assist in the ceremonial and temporal affairs of the local church. Drew Sheard June 22 and the consecration service for the jurisdictional and auxiliary bishop designates June 23, 2021. . Between 2009 and 2011, in response to the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa, Blake founded and was the first president of the Pan African Children's Fund (PACF). [93] Leaders within the COGIC, other denominations and Bishop Blake's own family came to his defense. The Holy Spirit is the agent that equips, empowers, leads, and guides the church until the return of Christ. The jurisdictional supervisor is assisted by district missionaries who oversee the women's ministry of the district. [4] He was reelected to a third term as Presiding Bishop on November 15, 2016. 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. In 1981, Bishop J.O. Supervisor Irene Oakley#, pastor, supervisor, bishop's wife, Mother Louise Patterson, evangelist, former first lady and wife of G.E. Jurisdictions are set up similar to the national church in terms of composition, polity, and procedure. The seminary is accredited by the Association of Theological Schools (ATS) and is part of a consortium of the Interdenominational Theological Center. The international headquarters is in Memphis, Tennessee. [citation needed] Bishop Ford is credited with inviting President Bill Clinton, a personal friend, to speak to the Eighty-Sixth International Holy Convocation on November 13, 1993. Patterson established protocols of worship, policy and practices. [19], Mason continued to travel across the nation preaching and establishing COGIC churches. "[91] Bishop Blake apologized to a young man (Andrew C. Caldwell) who, following Superintendent Carter's message, came forward to proclaim that he had been delivered from homosexuality. Among those who died after reportedly contracting the virus were: First Assistant Presiding Bishop Phillip A. Brooks, a preacher, and leader from Detroit who was No. A. Blackwell, E. M. Blackwell, E. M. Page, R. H. I. Clark, D. J. Jurisdictions range in size between 30 and 100 churches. After the death of Mother Coffey in 1964, Dr. Annie L. Bailey (19641975), became the third General Supervisor. COGIC clergy are also allowed to be married. COGIC became a staple of gospel music under the guidance and leadership of Dr. Mattie Moss Clark. He led a group of students to participate in the March on Selma. The church believes that women are gifted and called to ministry; it does not, however, officially ordain women to the office of elder, pastor, or bishop. The most active women's auxiliaries include: Missionary Circle, Hospitality, Executive Hospitality, Hulda Club, Wide Awake Band, Minister's Wives Circle, Deaconess, Deacon's Wives Circle, Prayer Warriors, Young Women's Christian Council, Usher Board, Educational Committee, Boy's League, Big Brothers, Cradle Roll, Women's Chorus, Board of Examiners, Public Relations, News Reporters and the Burners Home and Foreign Mission Bands. 1st Assistant Presiding Bishop Bishop Jerry W. Macklin. Dr. Roy L.H. 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. Later, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, ironically known as the "godmother of Rock and Roll," expanded and highlighted the COGIC sound to the greater American public in the 1930s and 1940s. These jurisdictions are then separated into districts, which consist of 5 to 7 churches and are governed by superintendents (ordained elder or pastor). Patterson Sr., the five major departments of COGIC were united under an umbrella convention known as UNAC-5 (United National Auxiliary Convention). Music Dept. 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. We believe that there is One God, eternally existent in three persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. She organized the sewing circle and after meeting Elder Searcy, she encouraged the women to support mission work through the Home and Foreign Mission bands. There is one God eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. During 19101913, two white ministers, Elder H. A. Goss and Elder Leonard P. Adams, were clergy under the authority of C. H. Mason. COGIC teaches that because God uses conception through and after sexual reproduction and intercourse to create human life, that willfully aborting a human fetus is contrary to God's Word and Christian ethics, and it is considered to be a sin against God and the Bible within the denomination. Bishop. In 1918, COGIC opened its first institution of higher learning, the Saints Industrial and Literary School in Lexington, Mississippi, for both girls and boys. Mason was influenced by the testimony of the African-American Methodist evangelist Amanda Berry Smith, one of the most widely respected African-American holiness evangelists of the nineteenth century. Winbush was selected to serve as the first chairman. Bishop Carlis Moody immediately began to reorganize the Missions Department, giving new guidelines. A Jeter and D. J. The early pioneers of this newly formed Holiness-Pentecostal body in 1907 were E. R. Driver, J. Bowe, R. R. Booker, R. E. Hart, W. Welsh, A. In 1992, during the Ford administration, UNAC was disbanded in favor of three separate conventions namely: the International Sunday School Convention, the MY Convention (Music and Youth) and the ME Convention (Missions and Evangelism) again meeting in separate cities.. As the International Holy Convocation grew to thousands, COGIC leaders had to negotiate with city officials to provide hotel accommodations for the saints. Chairlady, International Youth Department Evangelist Vandalyn Kennedy. She also established a musical program. Bishop Blake has several academic and honorary degrees, including a Doctor of Divinity from California Graduate School of Theology, a Doctor of Law degree from Oral Roberts University and an honorary doctorate from California State University, Los Angeles. Helm Baptist Church in Jackson, Mississippi, attended by Mason and others from several states. William B. Holt was appointed as General Superintendent. Battles served as president until his death in December 1996. The Presiding Bishop - Church Of God In Christ Bishop John Drew Sheard is Presiding Bishop and Chief Apostle of the Church of God in Christ, Inc., one of the largest African American Pentecostal denominations in the United States with 12,000 churches in over 112 countries. These departments include: the Women's Department, the Sunday School Department, the Youth Department known as Y.P.W.W. It teaches that sanctification should precede the baptism with the Holy Spirit. Evangelist Goldia Haynes, Elder Utah Smith, Madame Earnestine Washington, and Marion Williams continued COGIC's influence throughout the fifties and sixties. They have two children, Kierra Kelly and John Drew Sheard, II, one son-in-love, Jordan Kelly, and two grandchildren. The human soul is immortal and will spend eternity either in heaven as the redeemed or in hell as the damned. [16], A few years after the Azusa Revival, in 1914, shortly before the United States entered World War I, approximately 300 white ministers, representing a variety of independent churches and networks of churches, including the "Association of Christian Assemblies" of Indiana; and the "Church of God in Christ and in Unity with the Apostolic Faith Movement" from Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Texas; met in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Mason was given authority to lead the new denomination. The current General Supervisor of Women is Dr. Barbara McCoo Lewis of Los Angeles, California. As a result, the general board exercises great authority over the church. Organized in the South and having a predominately African-American membership, COGIC has had a long history in advancing civil rights. March 22, 2021. In her brief tenure, she encouraged the women to stay focused and supportive to the leadership of the church. In 2000, he was elected as the Presiding Bishop of COGIC. In keeping with the times, the school had some industrial education and training for its students, so that they could learn practical skills. In 1933, he set apart five overseers to the Office of Bishop in the church, the first five bishops of COGIC. The COGIC has always had a long history with Christian ecumenism, partnering up with and collaborating with other Christian churches and denominations for the purposes of advancing ministry and charity efforts, both in the United States, and globally in foreign countries as well. Another body operating under the same name Church of God in Christ, International, split and organized in the Northeast area under Bishop R. T. Jones of Philadelphia and later Bishop C. E. Williams Sr. of Brooklyn, New York. In Chicago, Ford organized voter registration initiatives. [32], Bishop Chandler David Owens Sr. was elected Presiding Bishop after the death of Bishop Ford in 1995. [10] After testifying to being sanctified, members of the church referred to themselves as "Saints", believing that they were set apart to live a daily life of Christian Holiness in words and deeds.[11]. By. Drew Sheard is a former public-school teacher. COGIC Presiding Bishop Charles E. Blake issued a public apology, saying "I apologize for what seemed to be a harsh, uncompassionate, disrespectful spirit on the part of that speaker. Lizzie Woods Robinson (19111945) was the first "General Mother" of the church. As COGIC has continued to grow, new departments, auxiliaries, and ministries have been established including the music department, the National Adjutancy, Men's Department, COGIC Charities, and Urban Initiatives to name a few.