William B. Holt was appointed as General Superintendent. She revolutionized and reorganized the music ministry to become a leading department in the church. Remarriage is usually highly discouraged, except in the case of the death of a spouse or former spouse. COGIC teaches that the Holy Spirit is alive and active in the world. Today, the International Youth Department (IYD) is led by the International Youth President, Superintendent Nathaniel Green of Dallas, TX, and the International Chairlady, Evangelist Vandalyn Kennedy of Queens, NY. B. McEwen, Bishop J. S. Bailey, and Bishop O. M. Kelly as his assistants. [6], In June 1896, Jones held a Holiness convention at Mt. White. He is also known for his aggressive initiative, "Save Africa's Children" which supports hundreds of African children who have been affected by HIV/AIDS in orphanages in several countries in Africa. During the 1950s and 60s, during the height of the civil rights movement, COGIC ministers and congregations played host to many significant events. 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. 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. Chairlady, International Youth Department Evangelist Vandalyn Kennedy. Upon his return to Jackson, Mississippi, Mason faced opposition when he recounted his experience. [29] The spread of COGIC was due largely to the efforts of its evangelists through crusades and revivals. Elder Carter called for a Church trial before the COGIC General Assembly and Judicial Board according to the Constitution of the COGIC. 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. During the 1930s and 40s, a white COGIC elder named James L. Delk who remained in the church after many whites had left, was very active in politics in Missouri and worked to promote civil rights by writing legislatures and petitioning the federal government on the behalf of COGIC. This endorsement allows female chaplains who are serving in the military, working in an institution or jails to perform religious services including funerals and weddings. Divorce is considered inconsistent with biblical teachings and is highly discouraged as well, but exceptions are made for special circumstances. Patterson in March 2007. 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 States, from 2007 to 2021. Bishop Sheard is married to Evangelist Karen Clark Sheard. March 22, 2021. During the tenure of Bishop L. H. Ford as Presiding Bishop in the 1990s, he helped gain COGIC membership into the Pentecostal/Charismatic Churches of North America, a more diverse, international caucus of different Pentecostal church denominations and organizations that sought to heal the racial divides in the North American Pentecostal movement.[57]. The study also found that over 70% of COGIC members overwhelmingly opposed the legalizing of same-sex marriage, and considered relationships from infidelity, polygamy, polyamory, and sex outside of marriage as sinful and unbiblical as well.[56]. Historically, women in ministry in COGIC are known as "Missionaries" and are designated in two categories: Deaconess Missionary, and Evangelist Missionary. [29], Bishop Louis Henry Ford of Chicago, Illinois, was elected after the death of J.O. It includes not only those who are members of COGIC, but all believers who have placed their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. A. Jeter was selected as Overseer of Arkansas. The three-year initiative would also help encourage COGIC clergy to use their missions and charity ministries in local churches to help offer aid and assistance to African-Americans and people of other ethnic minorities, and people of low incomes in local communities who are considering and contemplating abortion and offer aid and assistance to people dealing with economic and medical issues from pregnancy. She served as the jurisdictional supervisor of several states including Maryland and New Jersey helping to establish and stabilize struggling jurisdictions. Adelle M. Banks. [55], A 2014 statistical study from the Pew Research Center Forum on Religion & Public Life, reported that most members of COGIC usually got married between the ages of 25 and 30, and that over 42% of COGIC members between the ages of 25 and 65+ were married, at least 19% were divorced or separated, 32% were never married, and at least 5% were widowed. From 1997-2001 Bishop Sheard served COGIC as President of the International Youth Department; and he served as Chairman of the AIM Convention from 2004 to 2012. Gilbert. After graduating from high school, he matriculated to Wayne State. Superintendent, International Sunday School Department Superintendent Mark Ellis. Jurisdictions are set up similar to the national church in terms of composition, polity, and procedure. This office is reserved for a woman who serves as counterpart to the Sunday School Superintendent. He testified to receiving entire sanctification after reading her autobiography in 1893. [36], In 2022, it was present in 112 countries in 2022. 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. Bishop Sheard was first elected to the General Board in 2012 and re-elected in 2016. She built a home for missionaries in the Bahamas, a pavilion for senior citizens and unwed mothers in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. General Treasurer Bishop Charles Harrison Mason Patterson Sr.. Financial Secretary Bishop Frank A. 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). Presiding Bishop J. "[90] This excerpt of Elder Carter's sermon went viral throughout social media and was picked up by major television news broadcasts. Each jurisdictional bishop appoints a jurisdictional supervisor to lead the work of the women on a jurisdictional level. Today the International Women's Convention/Crusade meets annually in May in different cities throughout the nation drawing thousands of women from around the world. On November 14, 1968, the General Assembly of the COGIC elected the first general board and presiding bishop of the church. Coffey was a child convert to COGIC under the preaching of Bishop Mason, and was influential in organizing many of the auxiliaries, bands, and units that exist within the COGIC Women's Department. [29] Former International Music Department President Professor Iris Stevenson-McCullough (originally from Rochester, NY) is a major influence in the gospel music industry around the world. 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. They have three children and eight grandchildren. [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]. He is an example of servant leadership and has become a voice to the nations to uphold the standards of holiness. In 1997, Bishop Chandler D. Owens appointed Evangelist Richard "Mr. Clean" White as president of the Department of Evangelism. The current Presiding Bishop is Bishop John Drew Sheard Sr., who is the Senior Pastor of the Greater Emmanuel Institutional Church of God in Christ of Detroit, Michigan. 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. COGIC policies and bylaws have also been established regarding sexual misconduct of COGIC clergy and laymembers for disciplinary purposes. Then in 1946, the YPWW Department was combined with the Sunday School Department for joint conventions until 1951 when they were separated once again. The then"Minister & Sister Carter" established and . [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. Vice chairman of the General Council of Pastors and Elders Bishop Marcus Ways. COGIC does not teach that Spirit baptism is the same as salvation. In 2015, after more than 40 years of faithful service, Bishop Carlis L. Moody was emeritized as Bishop of Missions. He became a Christian and converted to Pentecostal Christianity as a young adolescent, under the ministry of his mother and father in Arkansas, and he and his family moved to Los Angeles when he was in his 20's when his father was asked to take over as a bishop of the First Jurisdiction of Southern California for the COGIC denomination. In 1951, the first separate National Sunday School Convention convened in Kansas City, Missouri. [13], Although the Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee) began earlier, it is still the case that in 1907, with ten congregations, The Church of God in Christ became the first legally chartered Pentecostal body incorporated in the United States. Since 2007, Ebony has recognized Bishop Blake annually, as one of its 100+ most influential African Americans. Mason was given authority to lead the new denomination. [19], Mason continued to travel across the nation preaching and establishing COGIC churches. [5] He officially retired on March 19, 2021, and was succeeded by Bishop J. We believe that the regeneration by the Holy Ghost is absolutely essential for personal salvation. His decision means that the Feb. 23 Quadrennial Election will vote-in a new Presiding Bishop. His ministry spanned more than seven decades. 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. [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. [29] She is also the Jurisdictional Supervisor of Women for the South Carolina Jurisdiction. Bishop Mason was opposed to the ordination of women to formal ministry, but in 1911 created an autonomous department to promote the ministry of women in the church. The Holy Spirit is the agent that equips, empowers, leads, and guides the church until the return of Christ. 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.
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