CME Church to celebrate founding

Posted: Thursday, December 16, 2010 5:10 pm

The Messenger, December 16, 2010
The  Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, which was started Dec. 16, 1870, will observe its 140th anniversary beginning this evening with a banquet at First United Methodist Church in downtown Jackson at 6 p.m.
The Founders’ Day service, noting the quadrennial theme, “Essential Church; Poised for 21st Century Ministry,” will be Sunday at 3 p.m. at Mother Liberty CME Church on Highland Drive in Jackson.
The Christian Methodist Episcopal Church was started in Jackson by 41 former slaves in December of 1870. Bishop William H. Miles of Kentucky was the first bishop. He and Bishop R.H. Vanderhorst were consecrated by Bishops McYntire and Paine. The CME Church, at that time, was known as the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1954, the “C” in the name was changed from “Colored” to “Christian.”
Collins Chapel CME Church in Memphis, the oldest CME church in the connection, was a ward of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. However, Mother Liberty CME Church, located at 456 South Highland in Jackson, is the site of the church’s formal organization. It is called “Mother Liberty” because there were other churches that came out of it, such as Wesley Chapel United Methodist Church and Greater Bethel AME Church.
The CME Church claims four colleges — Lane College in Jackson, Paine College in  Augusta, Ga., Miles College in Birmingham and Texas College in Tyler — and Phillips School of Theology at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta.
It has more than 30 annual conferences and the church has 11 active bishops. The Rev. Versie P. Easter was the first female presiding elder and Bishop Theresa Snorton was the first elected female bishop. There are 11 Episcopal districts and more than 3,000 churches and the church claims more than 1.2 million members across the United States, with sister churches and missions in Haiti, Jamaica and 14 African nations.
The current Presiding Bishop is the Rev. Thomas L. Hoyt Jr. There are also seven retired bishops: Bishops William Graves, Dotcy Isom, Edward Lynn Brown, Othol Lakey, Ronald Cunningham, Marshall Gilmore and Nathaniel Linsey. The College of Bishops includes Hoyt and Bishops Paul Stewart, Lawrence Reddick,  Henry Williamson, Thomas Brown, Kenneth Wayne Carter, James B. Walker, W.E. Lockett, Sylvester Williams, Snorton and Godwin Umoette.
Locally, Mount Zion CME Church at 410 Glenwood St. in Union City is a member of the body and representatives of the church will be joining in the celebration, according to the Rev. Darrell Turner.