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For Immediate Release
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For additional information, contact:
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Bishop Henry M. Williamson, Sr.
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Chairman, Commission of Social Justice and
Human Concerns
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Christian Methodist Episcopal Church
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The Christian Methodist Episcopal Church
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Celebrates Its 141st Anniversary on December 16,
2011
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The
Christian Methodist Episcopal (C.M.E.) Church will
celebrate its 141st anniversary on December 16, 2011.
Organized in Jackson, Tennessee by forty-one
ex-slaves, the C.M.E. Church currently has more than
1.2 million members across the United States, and
missions and sister churches in Haiti, Jamaica and
fourteen African nations. The C.M.E. Church has a
celebrated rich history of salvation, education and
liberation, and its quadrennial theme, “An
Essential Church: Poised for 21st Century
Ministry,” defines the urgency to meet the
challenges of today’s changing world.
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Over
the past 141 years, the C.M.E. Church has been a
major participant in the ecumenical, educational and
civil rights movements in local communities, across
the nation and around the world. Our denomination
is proud to work with many ecumenical organizations
including the National Council of Churches, Churches
Uniting in Christ, Conference of National Black
Churches, World Methodist Council, Bread for the
World, Church Women United, World Federation of
Methodist & Uniting Church Women and the National
Council of Negro Women. During the civil rights
movement the C.M.E. Church was at the forefront and
marched alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
worked with the NAACP, Southern Christian Leadership
Conference (SCLC), National Urban League, Rainbow
Push, Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC),
and other civil rights organizations to advance the
cause of freedom and justice.
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Education has been a strong denominational priority,
extending from the efforts of our first generation
pioneers to develop an educated clergy despite the
fact that during slavery it was against the law for
blacks to learn how to read. The C.M.E. Church was
determined to educate the minds of its members by
planting schools throughout the South. Five CME
schools, Lane College (Jackson, TN), Miles College
(Birmingham, AL), Paine College (Augusta, GA), Texas
College (Tyler, TX), and Phillips School of Theology
at the Interdenominational Theological Center
(Atlanta, GA) have provided thousands of men and
women with a quality education.
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The
C.M.E. Church is under the leadership of Senior
Bishop Thomas L. Hoyt, Jr. and the College of
Bishops, which consists of eleven active Presiding
Prelates in eleven Episcopal Districts and seven
retired bishops. At the historical
37th General Conference in 2010,
Bishop Teresa Snorton was elected the first CME
female bishop, and Bishop Godwin Umotte the first
CME African indigenous bishop.
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The
departments and ministries of the C.M.E. Church,
under the leadership of ten General Officers, cover
every phase of the mission and the work for Jesus
Christ, and assists CME churches throughout the
United States, the Caribbean and Africa in providing
ministries to all of our members and the community.
Additionally the various departments of the C.M.E.
Church including the Women’s Missionary Council, Lay
Ministry, Christian Education and Ministers’ Spouses
provide a significant number of scholarships to
young men and women attending CME colleges, Phillips
School of Theology, and other US colleges and
universities. The C.M.E. Church is proud to work
with the One Church One School Community Partnership
Program that encourages churches around the nation
to partner with public schools to improve the
academic achievement, social behavior and personal
development of students, and provides scholarships
to students.
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Celebrations commemorating the 141st anniversary of the Christian
Methodist Episcopal Church will be held worldwide in
CME churches during the month of December. Special
Founders’ Day events will be held in Jackson,
Tennessee under the leadership of Bishop Lawrence L.
Reddick, III, Presiding Prelate of the First
Episcopal District. The first established CME
Church, Mother Liberty, will host a banquet on
Thursday, December 15, 2011 at 7:00 p.m. at the site
of the denomination’s organizing meeting in 1870,
First United Methodist Church (located at 200 Church
Street). The guest speaker will be Senior Bishop
Thomas L. Hoyt, Jr., Presiding Prelate of the
Seventh Episcopal District. The Rev. Dr. Daryl
Coleman is pastor of Mother Liberty.
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For additional information
about the C.M.E. Church, visit
www.c-m-e.org.
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