Bishop Charles Edward Blake of Los Angeles, Calif. serves as Presiding Bishop of the six-million-member Church of God in Christ (COGIC), one of our nation’s largest denominations. He was in Jackson recently and Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. gave him the key to the city. Blake is pastor of the West Angeles Church of God in Christ.
During the Mississippi South-ern First Ecclesiastical Jurisdict-ion Church of God in Christ 100th Annual Convocation, Mayor Johnson welcomed and greeted Blake and the convocation attendees. The convocation was held at the newly constructed Jackson Convention Complex in downtown Jackson July 16-17.
Also on hand for Mayor Johnson’s key-to-the-city presentation to Blake was First Jurisdiction Bishop Hollis Musgrove, pastor of Jackson’s Liberal Trinity Church of God In Christ.
According to Centennial celebration chairman Elder Larry Weems, the event was well attended. “We had about 3,500 to 4,500 people attending the convocation,” he said. Weems is pastor of Davis Temple COGIC on Dalton Street in Jackson. Davis Temple is the Jurisdiction’s headquarter.
Weems also serve as Jurisdiction Secretary and District Superintendent.
To the surprise of some, Rev. Dr. Jerry Young, president of the Mississippi General Missionary Baptist Convention was among the key speakers of the COGIC gathering. “Historically, the Church of God In Christ grew out of the Baptist Church,” Weems noted. “Bishop Mason was first a Baptist preacher.”
Bishop Charles Mason is noted as founder of the denomination. It was established in Lexington, Miss., where the church owns a school, Saints Academy, formerly Saints College.
He also told The Mississippi Link that one of the key elements that came out of the convocation is that COGIC “embellishes our past and has a brighter future. We are global and open to anyone.”
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