By Pastor Mark A. Clifton, Sr.

In its recent annual April Call business meetings in Memphis, Tenn., The Church of God in Christ selected Bishop C.E. Blake, the much heralded Pastor of the internationally prominent West Angeles Cathedral with more than 24.000 members, to succeed the recently deceased Bishop Gilbert Earl Patterson, as its Presiding Bishop. Patterson, who had led the church since 2000, died March 20 of heart failure at the age of 67, after previously being treated for prostate cancer.
    Bishop Blake served as First Assistant Presiding Bishop and will finish out the current term until the next Quadrennial election in 2008. Blake’s selection is historic. COGIC will celebrate its Centennial Anniversary this November. Blake is also the first Presiding Bishop from California. The Church of God in Christ is the largest primarily African-American Pentecostal denomination in the world with over four million members.
    Bishop Blake is expected to bring a heightened focus on the global efforts needed to fight the AIDS pandemic in Africa as he has successfully done through his Save Africa’s Children Now foundation which has donated millions of dollars to build health care facilities and provide medicine throughout Africa. There are over 800 Church of God in Christ congregations in California alone, which helped propel four California Bishops to COGIC’s twelveperson governing board.
    Bishop Blake and Bishop Patterson were friends for over 50 years. “Bishop Patterson was a great man of God. He was an anointed preacher, visionary leader, innovative in his organizational style and approach and he brought a season of positive vitality to the Church of God in Christ”. I am a third generation member of the Church Of God In Christ,” Blake said in a statement released by COGIC. “Standing on the excellent foundation laid by my predecessors, we aspire in the centennial year to reach unprecedented levels of service to God, and the people of the world” Blake said.