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16 May 2018

Learn Fascinating Facts On Bishop Charles Harrison Mason

By Donna Reed


COGIC or the church of god in Christ, is a highly well known and well established religious community that is notable for being comprised of men and women that are primarily African American in ethnicity that was established in 1897. At present day, the entire community has about 6.5 million members and 12 branches within the United States alone. Due to this, it has been dubbed as the 5th biggest religious community and denomination. This makes sense since it is based in more than 83 nations across the globe.

However, not many members and non members of this religious community are aware of the man responsible for its initial conception and subsequent creation on that year. Born and raised in Shelby County, Tennessee, Charles was the son of two former slave workers named Eliza and Jerry Mason, who primarily made their living out of sharecropping, which their son helped to sustain. To learn more about this boy and his fate, continue reading the subsequent paragraphs to learn some fascinating facts on bishop Charles Harrison Mason Sr.

Since Mason had to work hard since he was a young boy to help his struggling family survive, he never had time to go to a real school while he was growing up. However, he was deeply influenced and inspired by the religious upbringing his parents had enforced, which lead to him joining the local missionary Baptist community at 15 years of age. Although he voiced his desire to become a lay member instead of a clergyman, he became baptized at this time in his life.

When he came to be fourteen nonetheless, he had actually gotten consumption while duration when the yellow high temperature epidemic had started to spread out throughout the nation and considering that there were no clinical facilities or available clinical assistance in their location, his papa passed away because of it. This lead the family members to move completely to Preston in Arkansas where Charles appeared to wear away additional and came to be seriously ill. This just additional strengthened his belief, because he made an incredible healing complying with the countless petitions supplied to him by his mom and brother or sisters, in addition to the regional that wished his healing.

This subsequently opened his eyes to the local church and only served to strengthen his faith in their god and their religious practices. Once he fully recovered from the disease, he decided to join the local ministry of parishioners that prayed over his recovery, which was the Mount Gale Missionary Baptist church. This decision stemmed from his belief that god himself decided to heal him and allow him to live another day in order to alert him of his spiritual duty. This belief was something he acknowledged all throughout his teenage years until he became a young adult, until such time he started to work full time within the community.

In 1893, Mason was only 27 years old when he started his ministerial career after obtaining his official license from Mt Gale. At this point, he decided to enroll at Arkansas Baptist College, although he dropped out from his education after only three months, claiming that their practices and beliefs were too modern for his taste. According to Charles, the college focused more on liberal and modern practices, instead of focusing their attention on the word of their lord and savior.

This did not discourage him however, because in 1895 he met Price Jones, another influential and prominent religious figure at that time. Because they had a shared interest and passion in Baptist teachings, it led them to work together as a team in spreading the word of their lord and the eventual conceptualization of COGIC. Mason stated that he got the name after experiencing a vision whilst at Little Rock, Arkansas.

After many trials and tribulations, he was finally able to win and gain ownership of the legal rights to COGIC and became the founder and leader of said organization. He did this by enlisting and commissioning traveling evangelists to spread their message to others and through working in partnership with other prominent and influential religious leaders at that time. The organization stood out however, for its interest and emphasis in targeting African American communities in the northern areas of the United States, during the time wherein the great migration was happening.

With Mason remaining as the leader, the organization had continued success and thrived largely. Then in 1945 he made the history books again by erecting the Mason Temple based in Memphis. In 1952 he arranged his successors and the line of leaders to take over his position when he died. Doing this has helped the COGIC remain afloat nowadays, after he died peacefully on the seventeenth of November in 1961 when he was already 97 years old.




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