A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of dioceses. The role or office of the bishop is called episcopacy. Organizationally, several Christian denominations utilize ecclesiastical structures that call for the position of bishops, while other denominations have dispensed with this office, seeing it as a symbol of power. Bishops have also exercised political authority within their dioceses.
The Church of God in Christ (COGIC) is an international Holiness–Pentecostal Christian denomination, and a large Pentecostal denomination in the United States. Although an international and multi-ethnic religious organization, it has a predominantly African-American membership based within the United States. The international headquarters is in Memphis, Tennessee. 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. He was elected as the denomination's leader on March 27, 2021.
Temple of Deliverance Church of God in Christ is a Pentecostal church located in Memphis, Tennessee. It was founded March 6, 1975, by the late Bishop Gilbert E. Patterson. The church's current pastor is Milton Hawkins. The Temple of Deliverance Church of God in Christ is one of the largest churches in the city of Memphis and the Church of God in Christ denomination.
Charles Edward Blake Sr. is an American minister and retired 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. 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. On October 23, 2020, Bishop Blake announced that he would not seek a re-election as Presiding Bishop nor as a member of the General Board and that he would retire from the Office of Presiding Bishop and from the General Board in 2021. He officially retired on March 19, 2021, and was succeeded by Bishop J. Drew Sheard, Sr. as Presiding Bishop on March 20, 2021.
The United Holy Church of America, Inc. (UHCA) is the oldest African-American Holiness-Pentecostal body in the world. It was established in 1886. It is a predominantly black Pentecostal denomination, with the international headquarters is located at 5104 Dunstan Road in Greensboro, North Carolina. The UHCA consists of an estimated 516 churches, 17 districts, and 8 territories. The largest and the oldest district of the connectional body is the Southern District Convocation.
The Apostolic Assemblies of Christ, Inc., Incorporated (AAofC), is a Christian Church in the Oneness Pentecostal tradition. The Church is episcopal in governance. The Apostolic Assemblies of Christ was founded as an ecclesiastical corporation under the statutes of the non-profit corporation laws of the United States. The purpose of the founding of the corporation was to provide an ecclesiastical body where all churches could feel free to worship God and where all churches would have representations on all levels. The founder and presiding bishop (emeritus) G. M. Boone started with 7 churches and currently there are 259 churches worldwide. From the beginning, the Apostolic Assemblies of Christ had a set goal and purpose to its very existence in order to exalt the name of Jesus Christ. The organization's headquarters is located in Detroit, Michigan.
Bishop Charles Harrison Mason Sr. was an American Holiness–Pentecostal 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 Holiness Pentecostal church denomination and one of the largest predominantly African-American Christian denominations in the United States.
Bishop Frederick Douglas Washington was a Pentecostal minister of the Washington Temple Church of God in Christ (COGIC) in Brooklyn, New York. His most famous protégé is Rev. Al Sharpton, who acknowledged his call as a minister at the age of nine.
Gilbert Earl Patterson was an American Holiness Pentecostal leader and Pastor who served as the National Presiding Bishop and Founder of the Temple of Deliverance COGIC Cathedral of Bountiful Blessings and Chief Apostle of the Church of God in Christ (COGIC), Incorporated. Bishop Patterson was the second youngest person to ever be elected Presiding Bishop of COGIC at the age of 60 in 2000, second to his predeceased uncle Bishop J. O. Patterson, Sr who was 56 when he was elected Presiding Bishop in 1968.
Mattie Moss Clark was an American gospel choir director and the mother of The Clark Sisters, a gospel vocal group. She was the longest-serving International Minister of Music for the Church of God in Christ (COGIC). "Her arrangements, perhaps influenced by her classical training, replaced the unison or two-part textures of earlier gospel music with three-part settings of the music for soprano, alto, and tenor voice ranges—a technique that remained common in gospel choir music for decades afterward."
The Mount Sinai Holy Church of America (MSHCA) is a Christian church in the Holiness-Pentecostal tradition. The church is episcopal in governance. It has approximately 130 congregations in 14 states and 4 countries and a membership of over 50,000. Its headquarters is in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Ozro Thurston Jones Sr. was a Holiness Pentecostal denomination leader and minister, who was the second Senior Bishop of the Church of God in Christ, Inc. (1962–1968), succeeding Bishop Charles Harrison Mason, who was the founder. The Church of God in Christ (COGIC) is the fourth largest denomination in the United States, being in the Holiness Pentecostal tradition.
Denver Heights COGIC, also known as The Mother Church, is a Pentecostal church in San Antonio, Texas. It has historical significance since it is one of the first churches in the United States to be founded after the Azusa Street Revival that took place in Los Angeles, California on April 14, 1906. The participants received criticism from secular media and Christian Theologians for behaviors considered outrageous and unorthodox at the time. Today, the revival is considered by historians to be the primary catalyst for the spread of Pentecostalism in the 20th century. Denver Heights is considered to be the birthplace of modern-day Pentecostalism in San Antonio and South Texas.
Dickerson LeMoyne Shillicutt Wells is an American preacher from Memphis, Tennessee in the Church of God in Christ and was the youngest minister, at the time in 1978, to be ordained as a clergyman in the COGIC denomination in the state of Tennessee.
Samuel Lee Green Jr. was an American pastor and bishop in the Church of God in Christ.
James Oglethorpe Patterson Jr. was a Holiness Pentecostal minister in the Church of God in Christ and a former Mayor of Memphis, Tennessee, the first African-American to hold the office.
Chandler David Owens Sr. was an American minister and Holiness Pentecostal denomination leader of the Church of God in Christ (COGIC), for which he served as the Presiding Bishop from 1995 to 2000, after the death of Bishop Louis Henry Ford.
Barnett Karl Thoroughgood was an African-American Holiness Pentecostal 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.
John Drew Sheard is an American pastor and minister from Detroit, Michigan, who is the current Presiding Bishop of the Church of God in Christ, a 6 million-member predominantly African-American Holiness Pentecostal denomination that has now grown to become one of the largest African American Pentecostal denominations in the United States. He was elected as the leader of the denomination in the denomination's first ever all-virtual online election, that was held virtually online due to the COVID-19 Pandemic on March 20, 2021. He is the first Presiding Bishop of the Church of God in Christ from the state of Michigan and is the pastor of the Greater Emmanuel Institutional Church of God in Christ, one of the denomination's largest churches in Michigan. He also previously served as a member of the General Board, the twelve bishops who make up the national Board of Directors of the COGIC denomination, and as the president of the COGIC International Youth Department, the auxiliary ministry department of the COGIC denomination focused on youth and young adults, from 1997 to 2001, and the International President and Chairman of the COGIC Auxiliaries In Ministry (AIM) convention from 2004 to 2012.
