His father, William H. Plummer, joined the Church of God and Saints of Christ soon after Howard’s birth, and the Plummer family became intimately involved in its doctrine and work. In August, 1900, Howard's parents brought him to be blessed by the Church’s founder, prophet William S. Crowdy. Crowdy observed that throughout the blessing, Howard looked directly at him and reportedly said, "Plummer, this boy is looking down my throat and taking in every word I say. Someday, he is going to be a great preacher."[This quote needs a citation]
On 20 April 1917, soon after his father - now Bishop - became the executive leader of the Church of God and Saints of Christ, he was ordained a minister by his father. Following his ordination, he became affectionately known as "Elder Howard" to all of his friends and the membership. Also in 1917, his father appointed him General Superintendent of the Sabbath Schools.
After the death of Bishop Plummer on December 22, 1931 at a meeting of Church Officials held December 28, 1931 in Belleville, Elder Calvin S. Skinner consecrated Elder Howard Z. Plummer and proclaimed him as Leader of the Church of God and Saints of Christ. Plummer led this congregation for over 43 years, ending his tenure in 1975.
Rabbi Plummer's religious life embraced contact with many of the country's leading ministers and educators and collaboration with them in numerous activities. His earnest and productive accomplishments resulted in his being awarded the Doctor of Divinity Degree by Wilberforce University, Wilberforce, Ohio, in 1944.
Rabbi Howard Z. Plummer was noted for his humanitarian efforts, including
Member, Board of Directors Norfolk State College Foundation (This board financially assisted in the formulation of Norfolk State University, Norfolk, Virginia.)
Past President, Interracial Interdenominational Hampton Ministers Conference, 1954. It was during his administration that Dr. Gardner Taylor and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. made one of their memorable appearances as Conference Preachers.
Related Research Articles
In certain Christian churches, holy orders are ordained ministries such as bishop, priest, or deacon, and the sacrament or rite by which candidates are ordained to those orders. Churches recognizing these orders include the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Anglican, Assyrian, Old Catholic, Independent Catholic and some Lutheran churches. Except for Lutherans and some Anglicans, these churches regard ordination as a sacrament. The Anglo-Catholic tradition within Anglicanism identifies more with the Roman Catholic position about the sacramental nature of ordination.
A pastor is the leader of a Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Protestantism, a pastor may be ordained or not while in the Catholic Church and Orthodox Churches, the pastor is always an ordained priest. Pastors are to act like shepherds by caring for the flock, and this care includes teaching. The New Testament typically uses the words “bishops” and “presbyter” to indicate the ordained leadership in early Christianity. Likewise, Peter instructs these particular servants to “act like shepherds” as they “oversee” the flock of God. The words “bishop” and “presbyter” were sometimes used in an interchangeable way, such as in Titus 1:5-6. However, there is ongoing dispute between branches of Christianity over whether there are two ordained classes or three. In traditional Christianity bishops, priests, and deacons are recognised who have been ordained with apostolic lineage. In most Protestant denominations, in contrast, bishops are rejected, as well as the doctrine of apostolic succession.
The Church of God in Christ (COGIC) is a Pentecostal–Holiness Christian denomination. COGIC is the largest Pentecostal denomination in the United States. The international headquarters is in Memphis, Tennessee. The current presiding bishop is Bishop Charles Edward Blake Sr., who is the senior pastor of West Angeles Church of God In Christ.
Charles Edward Blake Sr. is the current Presiding Bishop of the Church of God in Christ, Inc., a 6 million-member Pentecostal-Holiness denomination. On March 21, 2007, he became the Presiding Bishop of the Church of God in Christ, Inc., as a result of Presiding Bishop Gilbert E. Patterson's death. In a November 2007 special election, he was elected to complete the unexpired term of his predecessor as Presiding Bishop. In November 2008, Bishop Blake was re-elected to serve a four-year term as Presiding Bishop. In November 2012, Bishop Blake was re-elected again to serve a four-year term as the Presiding Bishop. He was reelected to a third term as Presiding Bishop on November 15, 2016.
The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the A.M.E. Church or AME, is a predominantly African-American Methodist denomination. It is the first independent Protestant denomination to be founded by black people. It was founded by the Rt. Rev. Richard Allen in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1816 from several black Methodist congregations in the mid-Atlantic area that wanted independence from white Methodists. It was among the first denominations in the United States to be founded on racial rather than theological distinctions and has persistently advocated for the civil and human rights of African Americans through social improvement, religious autonomy, and political engagement. Allen, a deacon in Methodist Episcopal Church, was consecrated its first bishop in 1816 by a conference of five churches from Philadelphia to Baltimore. The denomination then expanded west and south, particularly after the Civil War. By 1906, the AME had a membership of about 500,000, more than the combined total of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in America and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, making it the largest major African-American Methodist denomination. The AME currently has 20 districts, each with its own bishop: 13 are based in the United States, mostly in the South, while seven are based in Africa. The global membership of the AME is around 2.5 million and it remains one of the largest Methodist denominations in the world.
The Church of Jesus Christ is an international and independent Christian religious denomination headquartered in Monongahela, Pennsylvania, United States. The Church of Jesus Christ is a Christian Restorationist church, the 3rd largest church to believe in the Book of Mormon as scripture, and is historically part of the Latter Day Saint movement. The church considers itself the Gospel Restored, or the original church and good news as established by Jesus Christ in the New Testament, restored upon the earth. It also claims to be the spiritual successor to the Church of Christ, organized by Joseph Smith on April 6, 1830. The church sees Sidney Rigdon as Smith's rightful successor following the assassination of Smith because Rigdon was Smith's first counselor in the First Presidency. The church is not officially affiliated with any other church, organization or denomination.
Black Hebrew Israelites are groups of African Americans who believe that they are the descendants of the ancient Israelites. To varying degrees, Black Hebrew Israelites incorporate certain aspects of the religious beliefs and practices of both Christianity and Judaism, though they have created their own interpretation of the Bible. Many choose to identify as Hebrew Israelites or Black Hebrews rather than Jews in order to indicate their claimed historic connections.
William McKendree was an Evangelist and the fourth Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the first Methodist bishop born in the United States. He was elected in 1808.
Charles Price Jones Sr. was an American religious leader and hymnist. He was the founder of the Church of Christ (Holiness) U.S.A..
The Church of God and Saints of Christ is a Black Hebrew Israelite religious group established in Lawrence, Kansas, by William Saunders Crowdy in 1896. William Crowdy began congregations in several cities in the Midwestern and Eastern United States, and sent an emissary to organize locations in at least six African countries. The congregation later established locations in Cuba and the West Indies.
Charles Harrison Mason Sr. was an American Pentecostal–Holiness pastor and minister. He was the founder and first Senior Bishop of the Church of God in Christ, based in Memphis, Tennessee. It developed into what is today the largest Pentecostal church denomination and one of the largest predominantly African-American Christian denominations in the United States.
William Saunders Crowdy was an American soldier, preacher, entrepreneur, theologian, and pastor. As one of the earliest Hebrew Israelites in the United States, he established the Church of God and Saints of Christ in 1896 after he claimed to have had visions telling him "that Blacks were descendants of the twelve lost tribes of Israel."
Samuel Hiestand was an American Bishop of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, elected in 1833. He was the ninth Bishop of this Christian denomination.
In Christianity, an elder is a person who is valued for wisdom and holds a position of responsibility and authority in a Christian group. In some Christian traditions an elder is an ordained person who serves a local church or churches and who has been ordained to a ministry of word, sacrament and order, filling the preaching and pastoral offices. In other Christian traditions, an elder may be a lay person serving as an administrator in a local congregation, or be ordained and serving in preaching or pastoral roles. There is a distinction between ordained elders and lay elders. The two concepts may be conflated in everyday conversation. In non-Christian world cultures the term elder refers to age and experience, and the Christian sense of elder is partly related to this.
William Bickerton was a leader in the Latter Day Saint movement after the 1844 succession crisis. In 1862, Bickerton became the founding president of the church now known as The Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite), which is one of many churches that claim to be a continuation of the Church of Christ founded by Joseph Smith in 1830.
Charles Henry Brent was the Episcopal Church's first Missionary Bishop of the Philippine Islands (1902–1918); Chaplain General of the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I (1917–1918); and Bishop of the Episcopal Church's Diocese of Western New York (1918–1929). The historian and Episcopal minister Frederick Ward Kates characterised him as a "gallant, daring, and consecrated soldier and servant of Christ" who was "one of modern Christendom's foremost leaders, prophets, and seers."
Bishop Ted Gera Thomas Sr. was an American cleric with the Church of God in Christ (COGIC) who was consecrated to be the senior bishop of the Historic First Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction of Virginia, one of the largest dioceses/jurisdictions of the COGIC in Virginia.
The Very Reverend Thomas Bell, Rector of the Vale Church, Dean of Guernsey, and Canon of Winchester Cathedral. was an eminent Anglican priest in the latter part of the 19th and the early part of the 20th centuries.
Barnett Karl Thoroughgood was an African-American Pentecostal-Holiness minister and church leader of the Church of God in Christ. He was an influential pastor in the city of Virginia Beach, Virginia and the Hampton Roads area of Virginia known for his public service and who served as the Commissioner of Ecclesiastical Services and the Former Adjutant General of the COGIC denomination from 2001 until his death in 2012.
Enoch Mgijima was a Christian Xhosa prophet and evangelist. He formed his own church, known as the Israelites, a breakaway from the Church of God and Saints of Christ, and led them through a clash with the white Union of South Africa government, which left 163 Israelites dead, 129 wounded and 95 taken prisoner, in what became known as the Bulhoek Massacre.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
