User:Tmopr/West Virginia & East Tennessee Council (P.A.W.)

'West Virginia & East Tennessee Council (P.A.W.)' new article content ...



The West Virginia & East Tennessee Council (WVETNC) is the 23rd Episcopal District of the international Pentecostal Assemblies of the World (P.A.W.), a Christian organization that is the oldest Apostolic Pentecostal organization in existence. The WVETNC is one of 13 districts in the eastern United States that was uniquely founded through direct involvement and leadership of longtime P.A.W. Presiding Bishop Samuel J. Grimes.

The P.A.W., which traces its roots back to 1907 as an outgrowth of the Bonnie Brae/Azusa Street revival, has more than 7,000 churches throughout the United States and in Canada, Jamaica, Haiti, the Bahamas, India, Nigeria, Egypt, Togo, Liberia, Australia, the South Pacific, South America, and several European nations. Today, it is the second largest predominately African-American Pentecostal church organization in the world.

The West Virginia & East Tennessee Council, often referred to as District 23, was founded in 1932 and consists of churches throughout West Virginia, southwest Virginia, and eastern Tennessee. The district currently includes churches as far north as Parkersburg and northwest as Huntington (both on the Ohio border), and as far south as Bluefield (on the Virginia border) in West Virginia. It extends as far south as Wytheville and southwest as Abingdon in Virginia (near the Tennessee border). The district also includes several churches as far southwest as Knoxville in Tennessee.

The Early Years

The Apostolic Temple located in Gary, WV (site of U.S. Steel Corporation's primary coal producing operation in the United States) resigned its affiliation with the Emmanuel Tabernacle church organization in 1930. Emmanuel Tabernacle was under the leadership of Bishop M.R. Gregory.

Following two years of study, which included deliberations with landowner (U.S. Steel), Apostolic Temple affiliated itself with the Indianapolis-based Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Inc. in 1932. P.A.W. Presiding Bishop Samuel J. Grimes of NYC, who was actively rebuilding the P.A.W. in the eastern U.S. following a failed merger with the Pentecostal Assemblies of Jesus Christ, became pastor of Apostolic Temple. With just two P.A.W. churches in West Virginia (Gary and Huntington), Gary was established as district office headquarters.

Bishop Grimes organized the initial meeting of West Virginia churches in 1933, with an eye toward expansion. Several additional churches were established in communities throughout West Virginia, and in the late 1930s, Evangelist Shelton Redd (who had been saved at Apostolic Temple in Gary) moved with her family to Johnson City, TN. In 1939, Redd established Grace Temple in Johnson City, and began the district's expansion into eastern Tennessee. Around this time, the growing group of churches became recognized by the international P.A.W. as District 23 - The West Virginia & East Tennessee Council.

Council Growth / Prominent Figures

In the ensuing years, the West Virginia & East Tennessee Council expanded throughout West Virginia and into various cities in eastern Tennessee including Bristol, Kingsport, Johnson City, and Knoxville. Its foothold in eastern Tennessee spilled over into nearby southwest Virginia, as churches were established in Abingdon, Chilhowie, Marion, and eventually Wytheville. While yet smaller than some of the national organization's other dioceses, this geographic expansion created a diocese of significance within the P.A.W.

District 23 has produced its share of prominent national religious figures. Some moved on to major urban centers and established widely recognized ministries, while others established their platform from within the district. Aside from Grimes, who is the longest serving Presiding Bishop in the P.A.W.'s history; the West Virginia & East Tennessee Council produced a longtime Editor of the P.A.W.'s national magazine The Christian Outlook (Thomas Streitferdt), a well-known national evangelist and church-builder (Robert Hairston), a President of the P.A.W. Ministers' Wives Auxiliary (Ada Parker), and a Chairman of the P.A.W. International Foreign Missions Department (Clarence E. Moore). Other alumni of District 23 include: * Dr. W. James "Jimmie" Abbington - an Emory University music professor, author of numerous books and hymnals, Executive Editor of GIA Publications' Sacred Arts division, and former board member of the Hymn Society of America * John Hairston - longtime former Director of External Affairs at the NASA Glenn Research Center (Cleveland) * Bishop Winfred Hamlet - Asst. Presiding Bishop of Pentecostal Followers of Jesus Christ, Inc. (Hartford, CT) * Dr. Leslie D. Callahan - former University of Pennsylvania religion professor, current professor at New York Theological Seminary, and first female Pastor of historic St. Paul's Baptist Church (Philadelphia)

The district became a diocese that eventually stretched from Huntington, on the Ohio-West Virginia border; to Bluefield on the southernmost tip of West Virginia bordering Virginia; to Knoxville as the district's southwestern most locale (in eastern Tennessee's Smoky Mountains).

Transitions in Leadership

The council's episcopal structure cedes ecclesiastical polity to its Diocesan Bishop, selected by the P.A.W.'s international Board of Bishops. However, the district leadership routinely elects a chairperson and staff for defined terms of service, to assist in the operation of the district.

Among its Diocesans, the legacy of Bishop Grimes remains unique as the council founder, international Presiding Bishop, and evangelist/church builder. According to Morris Golder's History of the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Grimes was the driving force in helping save the P.A.W. from extinction following the failed merger of the early 1930s.

Grimes spearheaded the organization's rebuilding and growth in the 30 years to follow, specifically establishing 13 "councils" or episcopal districts in the eastern U.S. The West Virginia & East Tennessee Council was an early one among the 13, and was one that he maintained hands-on supervision of until his health began to fail in the late 1960s.

Grimes' hand-picked protege Booker T. Jones was elevated to the office of Bishop at the P.A.W.'s 1965 Jubilee Convention in Indianapolis, along with four others that assumed parts of the eastern conglomerate of councils that Grimes had established. Bishop Jones served as Diocesan of the West Virginia & East Tennessee Council from 1967 until his passing in 1997. He served concurrently as Diocesan of the Virginia State Council until 1994, when District 23 pastor and International Foreign Missions Chairman Clarence E. Moore was selected to serve the Old Dominion churches as its Bishop. During Jones' tenure, he relocated the District 23 office headquarters to his home church in Keystone, WV.

In 1997, the pastor of Grace Temple in Johnson City, TN succeeded Jones as Bishop of the West Virginia & East Tennessee Council. Then-P.A.W. Presiding Bishop Paul Bowers of Cincinnati installed Bishop Aaron H. Redd as Diocesan in sacred ceremony that same year. Bishop Redd, upon ratification by council officials, again relocated the district offices. . . this time to eastern Tennessee. Given the council's incorporation in the state of Tennessee, Johnson City became the district office headquarters. It remained that way until he resigned his post, due to prolonged illness in 2009. Notably during Redd's tenure, he named the first female District Elder in the district's history. . . placing him among the first Bishops in the national organization to do so.

At the P.A.W.'s international convention in Minneapolis in 2010, the organization's Board of Bishops elected and consecrated Samuel R. Moore as Bishop. Named as an infant by council founder Bishop Samuel Grimes as his namesake, Moore was assigned to succeed Bishop Redd as Diocesan of the West Virginia & East Tennessee Council in Minneapolis. He was installed in that post at the district's fall meeting in Lewisburg, WV on October 14, 2010.

Structure

The West Virginia & East Tennessee Council maintains an episcopal polity, in accordance with the parent body - The Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Inc. The council diocesan is the Chief Executive in business matters and Presiding Prelate in ecclesiastical affairs. His official title is "Bishop".

The episcopal structure features several ecclesiastical positions that are appointed by the Diocesan Bishop. These officials serve under the authority of and at the discretion of the Diocesan Bishop.

Among them are: * Suffragan Bishops a term technically defined by the Encarta Dictionary as "assistant bishop." His/her duties are assigned by the Diocesan Bishop * District Elders His/her duties include acting as an advisor/consultant to the pastor of an assigned group of churches within the diocese. This position serves as a liason between those churches' pastor and the Diocesan Bishop * Pastors His/her responsibilities lie in the leadership of a local assembly within the district. * Elders This position reflects ministers that are officially ordained by the council, under the authority of the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World. Many in this position serve under the leadership of a pastor in a local assembly. * Ministers/Evangelists This position reflects clergy that are licensed by the council, under the authority of the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World; however, they are yet to be officially ordained. Most in this position serve under the leadership of a pastor in a local assembly.

Non-ecclesiastical, elected positions include:

* Chairperson * Vice Chairperson * Treasurer * Secretary * Auxiliary or Department Heads