The People of The CME Church
Featured Announcements and News
Thank You For Supporting the 7th C.M.E. Unity Summit!
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The Phillips School of Theology will convene the Twenty-Fourth Pastors' Conference & Seventy-Sixth Founders' Celebration on Monday, January 6 through Thursday, January 9, 2020 at the Crowne Plaza Atlanta Airport located at 1325 Virginia Avenue in East Point, GA.
The registration fee for the Pastors' Conference & Founders' Celebration is $100. Online registration is available on this Web page or you may download a registration form.
The room rate at the Crowne Plaza Atlanta Airport is $132.00 per night. A one night’s deposit is required for hotel registration. The deadline date to reserve a room is December 7, 2018. You may reserve your hotel room after registering online.
For additional information, please visit the Pastors' Conference and Founders' Celebration online, or call 404-527-7768.
We look forward to your presence at the Pastors' Conference and Founders' Day Celebration! Please pray for the success of these events.
In the Service of the Lord,
Dr. Paul L. Brown, Sr., President-Dean
Phillips School of Theology at ITC
The Connectional Youth and Young Adult Conference (CYYAC20)
June 29 - July 3, 2020
Register Today!
CYYAC20 will be held at the Sheraton Greensboro at Four Seasons Hotel located at 3121 W Gate City Blvd, Greensboro, NC 27407. The theme is P.R.E.S.S. (Passionate Relevant Essential Sincere Service).
The discounted registration fee for CYYAC20 is $150 now through December 31, 2019. The registration fee includes the Concert! The online registration portal is open to single and group reservations for up to 50 persons by credit/debit card and check! For additional information and to register, visit here. Upon completion of your payment, you will receive a registration confirmation notice and the link to reserve your hotel room.
Souvenir Journal
We invite graduates, individuals, local churches and ministries to be a part of CYYAC20 by submitting an ad to appear in the CYYAC20 Souvenir Journal. Create an ad for graduates or the conference! The ad may be submitted here and paid by credit/debit card or check.
Hurricane Dorian Emergency Relief
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Generosity Pays beyond What We SeeBy Senior Bishop Lawrence Reddick |
Generosity is an important part of a genuine Christian spirit. It’s also an important part of CME culture. What I’ve learned is that CMEs respond to emergencies with great generosity. I believe that generosity will show itself again as we respond to the needs of people who have suffered through Hurricane Dorian. I’m grateful to Bishop Sylvester Williams, Sr., and the members of the Committee on Emergency Relief, who have already sent out the “help” notice through CME Communications, asking all of our congregations to take offerings, write the checks to the Department of Finance, and send the checks to the offices of our presiding bishops. Thinking about “sowing generously,” I went to Ecclesiastes 11 to see one of my favorite verses (v. 6). I was gripped by how differently in read in The Message Version. I was accustomed to the rhythm and the agricultural imagery of the King James Version, but The Message Bible had a different clarity that would not be refused. In the process of looking up verse 6, I went up to the verse 1 of Ecclesiastes 11 and saw these words in The Message translation: Be generous. Invest in acts of charity. Charity yields high returns. Don’t hoard your goods; spread them around. Be a blessing to others. This could be your last night. When I hear the words of The Message, I remember that its translator, Eugene Peterson, translated as a pastor and biblical language scholar who was trying to make the Scriptures speak directly to 20th Century American people of no small means whom he was pastoring. That is, at least, the image I have from his writings in the book, The Pastor. But I raise that image to say that people such as myself who grew up hearing the Bible from its agrarian perspectives may find its expressions more relatable by contemporary minds who know little of rural life or agrarian life. When I went to verse 6, I was accustomed to hearing and thinking its King James Version words: “In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand; for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.” That’s agrarian – that’s the “farm” mind. But The Message read: Go to work in the morning. and stick to it until evening without watching the clock. You never know from moment to moment how your work will turn out in the end. A very different way of seeing and hearing God’s message, indeed! Yet, the message is the same: Don’t stop being generous! Don’t stop doing what you have committed to do! Do it without measuring what it will mean … because you cannot foresee what all of it will mean! You cannot see all its good effects that will continue way into the future! So … as you consider aid for victims of this emergency – Hurricane Dorian – and for every emergency and for every investment you make in the lives of people … be generous, for your investments go farther than you can see! +Lawrence L. Reddick III |
STATEMENT ON THE FOCUS & STRATEGIC PLANNING OF THE CHRISTIAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH
From the CME College of Bishops
August 17, 2019
In 2018, the CME Church began work on a strategic plan for the denomination. The Bishops and General Officers met together with a facilitator to begin the visioning process in September 2018. In December 2018, members of the Church were invited to submit their thoughts and recommendations through a survey. In January 2019, approximately 75 representatives from the clergy, laity and young adults from each Episcopal District – along with the Bishops and General Officers - met in Atlanta for a session of strategic thinking with the assistance of consulting firm. At our meeting in August 2019, the College of Bishops continued the process by meeting again with facilitators to develop a timeline for moving forward. The College of Bishops wants the Church to know that we are committed to the strategic planning process and to including the voice and participation of all levels of the Church. We will keep our members and congregations informed through the various official communication methods of the Church.
In the meantime, the College of Bishops feel that it is of importance and immediacy that we as a denomination address the critical needs of our church’s vitality. The legacy of our church includes a firm and clear commitment to intergenerational and multi-generational ministry. We pride ourselves in being a church that has served the spiritual needs of all ages. We celebrate that even today we are blessed to have strong leadership of seniors, middle adults, young adults, and youth in our local churches and at the district and regional level. However, we currently grieve that we continue to see a trend of decreasing participation of children, youth and young adults in the overall life of the church. We are further grieved by the cycles of poverty, gun violence, mass incarceration, educational cuts, and immigration and other policies and practices that harm children.
As the College of Bishops, during this quadrennium and in keeping with our theme of “Back to Basics”, we are commissioning the programmatic General Officers of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church to be intentional about the inclusion of children, youth and young adults in their plans and projects. We further commission our Presiding Elders and Pastors to also be intentional in recruiting, training and including children, youth and young adults as leaders, officers, and participants in the ministry and activities of the Church. We commission our congregations and members to welcome the children, youth and young adults as Jesus did and commanded us in the Gospels (Matthew 19: 14, Mark 10:14 and Luke 18:16).
We understand this mandate to mean ALL children, youth and young adults, not just those who are members of our churches. We have a mandate from the Lord to reach out to our neighbors and to strangers who need aid, assistance and love. We envision our local churches as safe and welcoming spaces in both traditional and non-traditional ways. We lift up the World Council of Churches’ resources on Child-Friendly Churches as a resource to you in doing this vital ministry (https://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/wcc-programmes/public-witness/rights-of-children/child-friendly-churches). We reaffirm our support of our colleges and schools and its students who are striving to prepare themselves for the future as productive citizens and leaders. This emphasis is especially important as we prepare for the Connectional Youth and Young Adult Conference in 2020 and the need to keep those attendees engaged with the Church once the conference is over. Read more here.
Highlights of the
Women's Missionary Council
19th Quadrennial Assembly
June 21-29, 2019 Hilton Shreveport Shreveport, LA
Quadrennial Theme for 2019-2023
Missionaries Embracing a New Era of Innovation
for Greater Service
New Officers of the Women's Missionary Council - 2019-2023
President Jacqueline I. Scott
Executive Committee
L-R: President: Jacqueline I. Scott, Vice President: Calandra Hunter; Recording Secretary: Theresa Duhart; Assistant Secretary: Deborah Luster Dickenson; Treasurer: Nellie King; Editor. The Missionary Messenger: Geraldine Taylor-Winslett
The list of officers and additional news from the Quadrennial Assembly is here.
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The Christian Methodist Episcopal Church
Welcome to the official Web site of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, administered by the Communication & Information Technology (CIT) Connectional Department.
The Christian Methodist Episcopal Church Church, familiarly known as the CME Church, has a glorious and rich history! The CME Church was organized December 16, 1870 in Jackson, Tennessee by 41 former slave members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The CME Church is a branch of Wesleyan Methodism founded and organized by John Wesley in England in 1844 and established in America as the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1784.
The CME Church celebrated its 148th anniversary on December 16, 2018.
The CME Church has more than 1.2 million members across the United States, and has missions and sister churches in Haiti, Jamaica and fourteen African nations.
The mission of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church is to be disciples of Jesus the Christ by serving individuals, communities and the world as the representative, loving presence of God and as witnesses to God’s salvation and grace.
The vision of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church is to be a transforming church for Jesus the Christ within a changing world.
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Monthly Evangelism & Missions Message From General Secretary Rev. Leon C. Moore, Jr.
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