The West Angeles Church of God in Christ engages in a number of multicultural outreach programs, led by Bishop and Mrs. Charles E. Blake. With headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee, the Church of God in Christ was founded and organized by Elder Charles Harrison Mason in September 1866, (Story, 2005, p. 1). From ten congregations in 1907, the Church of God in Christ has grown into the second largest Pentecostal group in America, with an estimated 8 million members as of 1997, (Story, 2005).
The Church of God in Christ is a church that will tell me the gospel truth, attaching significant importance to the events on the Day of the Pentecost, the ô50th day after the Passover, or Easter as being necessary for all believers in Christ to experience,ö (Story, 2005, p. 1). The Church of God in Christ is tolerant of human error and sin, so long as believers adopt the ôdoctrine of sanctification or holinessö as essential to mankindÆs salvation, (Story, 2005, p. 1). The Church of God in Christ is not discriminatory with respect to my expression of beliefs or feelings. In fact, in 1914, founder Bishop Charles H. mason was jailed for speaking his views about the ôinequitiesö against Blacks he observed in the U.S., a country that would send Black men onto the battlefield but ôwould not allow those men the same opportunities given the white soldiers,ö (Murray, 2005, C4). After his time in jail, Mason led the Church of God in Christ to many successes, including the formation of Saints Junior College campus and the St. Paul Church in Lexington as well as many others around the world.
The Church of God in Christ does not discriminate among parishioners based on age, sex, class, gender or seniority. Though the membership of the Church of God in Christ is predominantly African American, current Bishop Charles E. Blake (2005, p. 1) maintains that among its millions of members ôindividuals of almost all races are also members of the...