Pentecostal Assemblies of the World | |
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Orientation | Oneness Pentecostalism |
Leader | Theodore L. Brooks, Sr. |
Region | Worldwide |
Origin | 1917 |
Merger of | Pentecostal Assemblies of the World (pre-1917), General Assembly of the Apostolic Assemblies |
Separations | Pentecostal Church, Incorporated, Apostolic Church of Jesus Christ, Emmanuel’s Church of Jesus Christ |
Congregations | Approx. 4,000 [1] |
Members | 2 million [2] |
Official website | PAW Website |
The Pentecostal Assemblies of the World (P.A.W. or PAW) is a Oneness Pentecostal denomination headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. [3]
The Pentecostal Assemblies of the World is the result of the merger of two Oneness Pentecostal bodies in the early years of the Pentecostal movement. The oldest body was founded in 1914 by a Oneness minister named J. J. Frazier. The church was centered on the West Coast and was the first to use the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World name. [4]
The second body resulted from a schism within the Assemblies of God USA in 1916. That year the Assemblies of God general council disapproved of Oneness Pentecostal doctrine and adopted a trinitarian Statement of Fundamental Truths. This forced a large minority of Pentecostal ministers and churches to withdraw from the Assemblies of God and form a new group advocating Oneness Pentecostalism. They were led by Garfield Thomas Haywood, formerly the leading African-American pastor within the Assemblies of God. This group met in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, to create an organization capable of issuing ministerial credentials named the General Assembly of the Apostolic Churches. The top officials of this new organization were D. C. O. Opperman and Howard A. Goss, formerly important leaders of the Assemblies of God. [4]
Early Pentecostals were pacifists. As the likelihood of America's entering World War I increased, the General Assembly of the Apostolic Churches attempted to gain government recognition in order to protect its young ministers from the draft law. Being unsuccessful in this endeavor, it was decided to merge with a similar organization already possessing incorporated status. Frazier's group was already incorporated, and the two groups merged in late 1917 under the PAW name. The first chairman of the merged group was C. W. Doak, a white man, and the first secretary was G. T. Haywood. [4]
For nine years after the merger, the PAW was able to maintain its status as an interracial fellowship of churches. Certain factors, however, would eventually lead to a breakdown in the communion between whites and blacks. One contributing factor to division was the reality of racial segregation and Jim Crow laws in the southern United States. Because no racially integrated meetings could be held in the South, all of the PAW's conventions had to be held in northern cities. Due to the distance, there were always fewer southern representatives in the church's governing bodies. Since the majority of northern members were black and the majority of southern members were white this created a situation where whites were always outvoted. [5]
In 1924, white leaders of the organization separated from the PAW to form the Pentecostal Church, Incorporated. This group subsequently merged with the Pentecostal Assemblies of Jesus Christ to become the present-day United Pentecostal Church International. [6]
Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestant Charismatic Christian movement that emphasizes direct personal experience of God through baptism with the Holy Spirit. The term Pentecostal is derived from Pentecost, an event that commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and other followers of Jesus Christ while they were in Jerusalem celebrating the Feast of Weeks, as described in the Acts of the Apostles.
The Church of God, with headquarters in Cleveland, Tennessee, United States, is an international Holiness-Pentecostal Christian denomination. The Church of God's publishing house is Pathway Press.
The United Pentecostal Church International (UPCI) is a Oneness Pentecostal denomination headquartered in Weldon Spring, Missouri. The United Pentecostal Church International was formed in 1945 by a merger of the former Pentecostal Church, Inc. and the Pentecostal Assemblies of Jesus Christ.
Oneness Pentecostalism is a nontrinitarian religious movement within the Protestant Christian family of churches known as Pentecostalism. It derives its name from its teaching on the Godhead, a form of Modalistic Monarchianism commonly referred to as the Oneness doctrine. The doctrine states that there is one God―a singular divine spirit with no distinction of persons―who manifests himself in many ways, including as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This stands in sharp contrast to the mainstream doctrine of three distinct, eternal persons posited by Trinitarian theology.
The World Assemblies of God (AG), officially the World Assemblies of God Fellowship, is an international Pentecostal denomination.
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Charles Fox Parham was an American preacher and evangelist. Together with William J. Seymour, Parham was one of the two central figures in the development and initial spread of early Pentecostalism, known as Holiness Pentecostalism. It was Parham who associated glossolalia with the baptism in the Holy Spirit, a theological connection crucial to the emergence of Pentecostalism as a distinct movement. Parham was the first preacher to articulate Pentecostalism's distinctive doctrine of evidential tongues, and to expand the movement.
Pilgrim Holiness Church (PHC) or International Apostolic Holiness Church (IAHC) is a Christian denomination associated with the holiness movement that split from the Methodist Episcopal Church through the efforts of Martin Wells Knapp in 1897. It was first organized in Cincinnati, Ohio, as the International Holiness Union and Prayer League (IHU/IAHC). Knapp, founder of the IAHC, ordained and his Worldwide Missions Board sent Charles and Lettie Cowman who had attended God's Bible School to Japan in December 1900. By the International Apostolic Holiness Churches Foreign Missionary Board and the co-board of the Revivalist the Cowmans had been appointed the General Superintendents and the Kilbournes the vice-General Superintendent for Korea, Japan and China December 29, 1905. The organization later became the Pilgrim Holiness Church in 1922, the majority of which merged with the Wesleyan Methodists in 1968 to form the Wesleyan Church.
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The Assemblies of God USA (AG), officially The General Council of the Assemblies of God, is a Pentecostal Christian denomination in the United States and the U.S. branch of the World Assemblies of God Fellowship, the world's largest Pentecostal body. The AG reported 2.9 million adherents in 2022. In 2011, it was the ninth largest Christian denomination and the second largest Pentecostal denomination in the United States. The Assemblies of God is a Finished Work denomination, and it holds to a conservative, evangelical and classical Arminian theology as expressed in the Statement of Fundamental Truths and position papers, which emphasize such core Pentecostal doctrines as the baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, divine healing and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
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The Pentecostal Assemblies of Jesus Christ (PAJC) is an independent association of Oneness Pentecostal churches, primarily located in the United States. Historically they have had members across the U.S. and abroad. They were formally organized in 1931. The original headquarters were located in Columbus, Ohio, later moved to St. Louis, Missouri, and then to Cleveland, Ohio. Today they are in Reesville, Ohio.
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