Get Out the Vote 2010

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For Immediate Release

For additional information, contact:
Bishop Henry M. Williamson, Sr.
Chairman, Commission of Social Justice and Human Concerns
Christian Methodist Episcopal Church
Telephone: 214-372-9073 Email

THE CME COLLEGE OF BISHOPS
CALL FOR MASSIVE VOTER TURNOUT IN
UPCOMING NOVEMBER MID-TERM ELECTION

During the Annual CME Convocation held September 21-24, 2010 in Louisville, Kentucky, the College of Bishops of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church requested for their clergy and lay leaders nation-wide to launch a massive voter registration drive in their respective communities. Bishop Thomas L. Hoyt, Jr. the Senior Bishop of the CME Church stated, “the issues of jobs, education, home foreclosure, poverty, crime and health care are all tied up with the political process. Therefore, we must register and vote in the upcoming election for those candidates who will help address these critical concerns.”

The recent 2010 Census report of 1 in 7 Americans living below the poverty line is an indication we must take action through our churches to help solve the problems we are facing. Each CME church is encouraged to help at least one family in their congregation and another family in the community who are living below the poverty line with food, clothes, financial and spiritual support. Pastors can initiate a job referral ministry in their churches to help those who are unemployed. All of our churches are encouraged to partner with a public school in their neighborhood to improve the academic achievement, personal development and social behavior of our students.

We must now take the time to meet and organize with other churches in our community to discuss the major issues facing our families, schools and businesses. Let us make certain that every eligible person in our family, church and community is registered and ready to vote in the upcoming November Mid-Term Elections. We are requesting every Pastor, Missionary, and Lay Leader to accept the responsibility for giving leadership to a “Get Out the Vote” effort in their respective communities.

The College of Bishops of the CME Church join with other major denominations in urging all concerned Americans to participate in the NAACP march for jobs, justice and peace in Washington, D.C. tomorrow (October 2, 2010).

We face some serious problems in the African American community all across the nation that must be addressed through the political process.

Now is the time for the church to provide solutions to the problems we face by joining with organizations to give leadership to voter registration drives in our community. It is imperative that we have a large VOTER TURNOUT in the African American community for the November Mid-Term Election.

The Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, under the leadership of Senior Bishop Thomas L. Hoyt, Jr. and its College of Bishops, is a 139-year old historically African American Christian denomination with more than 1.2 million members across the United States, and has missions and sister churches in Haiti, Jamaica, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan/Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda Rwanda and Burundi. For additional information about the CME Church, visit www.c-m-e.org .