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 Table of Contents

Bishop Charles Harrison Mason 5

Apostolic Greeting 7

Apologia 9

The Order of Worship 10

The Service of Installation 12

The Apostolic Affirmation 14

Affirmation of Faith 15

The Hymn 16

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 Bishop Charles Harrison Mason
Bishop Charles Harrison Mason was the founder and first Senior Bishop of the Church Of God
In Christ (COGIC), presently the largest African-American Pentecostal church in the United
States.

Born to former slaves Jerry and Eliza Mason in Shelby County, Tennessee, on Sept. 8, 1864,
Mason worked with his family as a sharecropper and did not receive a formal education as a
child; but at an early age, he was influenced by his parents’ religion.

Mason joined the African-American Missionary Baptist Church when he was an adolescent
and later received his license to preach from the Mount Gale Missionary Baptist Church in
Preston, Ark. In November 1893, Mason enrolled at the Arkansas Baptist College, but withdrew
after three months to transfer to the Minister's Institute at the College; he graduated from the
Institute in 1895.

In 1895, Mason met Charles Price Jones, a popular Baptist preacher from Mississippi. Mason
and Jones soon began preaching the doctrine of holiness and sanctification in the local Baptist
churches, which led to their expulsion from the Baptist Convention.

Mason and Jones decided to form a new fellowship of churches. Mason suggested the name
Church Of God In Christ, after what he described as a vision in Little Rock, Ark., to distinguish
the church from a number of “Church Of God” groups forming at that time.

Due to disagreements in the new Pentecostal teachings, the two men split their group in 1907.
Mason won the legal rights to the Church Of God In Christ name and charter, and established
his work in Memphis.

After moving the COGIC headquarters to Memphis, Mason established additional departments
and auxiliaries, created dioceses, and appointed overseers throughout the country.

In 1945, Mason dedicated Mason Temple in Memphis as the church’s national meeting site and
the international headquarters of the Church Of God In Christ.

At the time of Mason’s death on November 17, 1961, COGIC had a member ship of more than
400,000 and more than 4,000 churches in the United States as well as congregations in
Europe, South America, Africa, and Asia.

Today, it has an estimated 6.5 million members. The church can be found in every state in the
United States and in more than 105 countries in the world.

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 Presiding Bishop J. Drew Sheard

Apostolic Greeting
April 4, 2022

Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ

At this time, after in-depth review and prayerful consideration, you have been consecrated,
and now will receive Apostolic Affirmation by the laying on of hands, to the office of
Bishop within the Church Of God In Christ, Inc. Your faith and devotion to service in
the Kingdom of God are commendable.

I Timothy 3 mandates that a bishop must be above reproach. Walk after the spirit and
pursue excellence as you perform your newly acquired responsibilities. Make sure your
deeds uplift others, and your motives are absent of selfishness and conceit. Approach the
fulfillment of your duties and obligations with maturity and anticipation of victory.

Reflect on the words of Paul from Colossians 1:9-11, "For this cause we also, since the
day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire that ye might be filled with the
knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that ye might walk worthy of
the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge
of God; strengthened with all might according to his glorious power, unto all patience and
longsuffering with joyfulness.”

Finally, pray continually and maintain your love for the saints knowing that God is faithful
to reward your labor of love.

In His Service,

† J. Drew Sheard
Presiding Bishop & Chief Apostle
Church Of God In Christ, Inc.
Eighth In Succession

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 Apologia
The General Assembly has the obligation of inaugurating and installing the leadership of the Church
Of God In Christ for holy ministerial and administrative services. Every four years the Church Of God
In Christ is afforded opportunity to express its collective discernment by selecting the leaders of our
denomination. Also, every four years the selected leadership is afforded the opportunity to express
its fidelity in our holiness – Pentecostal communion. Moreover, every four years we are provided the
opportunity to express our conviction and commitment in glorious worshipful fashion that our church
is now and forever a “Sanctified Church”.

This evening's service demonstrates before the world that we are prepared to engage society with faithful
adherence to the doctrine, constitution, and lifestyle of our Holy Church. The most dynamic expression
of such collective witness is worship. Thus, our primary purpose for gathering at this spiritual mountain
peak this evening is to worship, “worship The Lord in the beauty of holiness.”

Acts 13: 1-3 reveals how Paul and Barnabas were prayerfully brought before the council and received the
apostolic laying on of hands and were sent out. Our church continues this practice of the early church.
It is amazing how the Holy Spirit anointed our patriarch, Bishop Charles Mason. Over a century ago
Bishop Mason was graced to lead a holiness reformation movement, which established an authentic
global New Testament renewal for ages to come. This is the Church Of God In Christ!

We repeat again the mission and method of identifying persons to prayerfully send out to represent out
sacred faith in these troubled times of the last days. For millennia, the term Apologia has been selected
for believers to demonstrate and renew their fidelity to the faith and its answers for human need. It is not
the express of regret for the discomfort of another. However, it is more than doctrinal defense for the
reasonableness and credibility of our truth. The significance of the apologia is the moment for believers
to clarify ancient and present timeless Christian answers to a needy, sin-cursed, and hopeless generation.
At this celebration, we don the ancient robes, vestments, processional, sacrament and liturgy to testify
that for today and forever, this Gospel is the power of God unto salvation for every one that believeth.

In this ceremony, “Mason’s Children” testify to the time tested 125 years of irrefutable denominational
effectiveness so ably pursued in more than 110 countries around the globe. Our spiritual fathers and
mothers would laud this evening as an accomplishment of honoring the innumerable gifts and offices of
our common salvation. From street corners and storefronts to cathedrals and tree lined avenues, there is
the witness of the One gift of the Holy Ghost and the One brotherhood of baptized believers called the
Church Of God In Christ.

The Right Reverend Bishop Elijah Hosea Hankerson III, who will be inaugurated and installed tonight,
represents Christ in the continuum of service to humanity. We pray for his strength to faithfully
endure all he will encounter. We celebrate his commitment to vital services, exemplary holy living and
organizational order; “for this cause I left you in Crete, to set in order the things that are wanting…”
(Titus 1:5). And to that end we are pleased to present this ardent champion of the faith to this body of
believers. Tonight, from the highest elected office to the most unassuming pilgrim, we are all united
in the one Church of God which is in Christ (I Thessalonians 2:14). What an awesome honor to be
numbered among the sanctified.

+L.F. Thuston
B.A, M.A., M. Div. Th.D.
Chairman of the General Assembly
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 THE ORDER OF Divine WORSHIP

† Please stand where indicated

† Prelude

† Processional Bishop Dickerson L.S. Wells

Adjutant General
The Acolytes

The Holy Writ

The Chairman of the General Council of Pastors and Elders

The College of Bishops (led by its Chairman)

The Vice Chairman of the General Assembly

The National Board of Trustees

The Secretary of Finance

The General Treasurer

The General Secretary

The Chairman of the General Assembly

The General Board (in descending order)

The Adjutant Apostolic

The Presiding Bishop

The National Adjutancy

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The Call to Worship........................................................................................ The Reverend Micaiah Young Sr.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

The Anthem ..................................................................................................................................... “He’s Worthy”

C.H. Mason Memorial Choir

The Invocation.................................................................................The Right Reverend Patrick L. Wooden Sr.

Raleigh, North Carolina

The Reading of the Old Testament (Isaiah 2:1-5).......................................... Supervisor Jeanette A. Watkins
North Little Rock, Arkansas

The Reading of the Gospel (II Timothy 4:1-5) ..................................... The Right Reverend James A. Proctor
Crowley, Louisiana

The Hymn............................................... “Hold to His Hand”...................................The Choir & Congregation

The Affirmation of Faith......................................................................The Right Reverend Daniel T. Littleton

Jackson, Mississippi

The Oblations and Gifts.............................................................................. The Right Reverend Carl A. Pierce

Baltimore, Maryland

The Statement of Purpose......................................................................The Right Reverend Jerry L. Maynard

Vice Chairman, General Assembly
Nashville, Tennessee

The Presentation of the Homilist

The Hymn of Preparation..................................................................................................................... The Choir

The Homilist................................................................................................. The Reverend Dr. Herbert R. Davis

Durham, North Carolina

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 The Service of Installation

The Right Reverend Lemuel Floyd Thuston

Chairman of the General Assembly
Presiding

The General Secretary Addresses the Chairman:

“Brother Chairman, As General Secretary and the official custodian of records for the Church Of
God In Christ, I affirm that the Right Reverend Elijah Hosea Hankerson III, was duly elected by the General
Assembly in December 2021, to serve our Church as a member of the General Board of the Church Of
God In Christ. I therefore present him unto you for Inauguration to the General Board and he shall be
numbered with the Apostles of this Church.”

The Chairman of the College of Bishops Shall Then Address the Chairman As Follows:
“Brother Chairman: The Bishops, clergy, and the people of this Church, trusting in the guidance of
the Holy Spirit, support the election of the Right Reverend Elijah Hosea Hankerson III, as a member of the
General Board, having been elected in December 2021.”

The Chairman of the General Assembly Says the Following and asks The Response of the People:
“Brothers and Sisters in Christ Jesus, you have heard the testimony given that The Right Reverend
Elijah Hosea Hankerson III has been duly and lawfully elected to be an Apostle of the Church Of God In
Christ and to serve this body of Christian believers as a member of the General Board in particular. You
have been assured of his suitability; nevertheless, if any of you know of any reason why we should not
proceed, let it be made known.”

If no objection is made, the Chairman continues, addressing the Assembly:

“It is your will that we inaugurate Elijah Hosea Hankerson III for service on the General Board for
the quadrennial period ending April, 2025.”

The People Respond:

“That is our will.”

The Chairman Asks:

“Will you uphold him in his Apostleship”

The People Respond:

“We will”

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While the people are seated, the Chairman then proceeds to examine the General Board Member as to his
willingness to lead the Church for the ensuing Quadrennium as follows:
“Brother Bishop: The General Assembly of the Church Of God In Christ has willed by the grace of God
that you lead our Holy Church for the Quadrennial as prescribed by the Constitution of the Church. It is there-
fore, in this spirit that we have come to seek satisfactory answers from you regarding this high and holy calling:

If you are truly persuaded that you are qualified to serve this office of General Board and if you are fully persuaded
that the Doctrine of the Church Of God In Christ is without error and are convinced that God has placed upon
you the burden for this office, the General Assembly would have you make your public declaration in their
hearing and in the presence of Almighty God this day.”

The General Board Member will then make his Declaration as follows:
“I Elijah Hosea Hankerson III, having been elected by the General Assembly of the Church Of God In
Christ to serve this office by the Grace and Will of God will do all that is within my power to obey, uphold, defend
and teach all of those who may come under my charge the Word of God as recorded in the Old and New Testa-
ments. I will make certain that it serves as my rule of faith and practice.

I further vow to obey, uphold, defend and protect the Constitution and laws of the Church Of God In
Christ against all heresy, both from within and without by the Grace of God. Amen.”

While the General Board Member turns to face the Congregation, the Chairman of the General Assembly
shall address the Standing Congregation:
“Saints of Christ, you have heard this man, whom the Lord has raised up among us, to serve the Church,
knowing full well that we must give an account of our response to leadership in The Judgement. You are now
called upon to respond to his vow.
Will you accept Elijah Hosea Hankerson III, elected by the General Assembly as a Chief Elder of the
Church Of God In Christ as provided by the Constitution of the Church?” Will you serve the church, under the
Godly direction of the General Board of which he is a member, and continue in prayer and supplication for him?”

The Congregation Responds:

“We will do so, God being our help”

Prayerfully kneeling, the General Board Member shall be vested with the Apostolic Stole by the Chairman of
the General Assembly

Acknowledgments ...............................................................................................The Right Reverend Lemuel F. Thuston

Chairman of the General Assembly

Issuance of Apostolic Credentia

The Chairman of the General Assembly, with the assistance of the General Secretary will present the Credentials
of Election to the General Board Member

The Musical Selection............................................................................................................................................ The Choir

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 The Apostolic Affirmation of Episcopates

The Most Reverend

J. Drew Sheard, Presiding Bishop & Chief Apostle
assisted by the Members of the General Board

The Episcopates shall stand, facing the alter to receive the act of Apostolic Affirmation by the laying
on of hands.

The Bishops, with Episcopal escort, shall proceed to the alter.

After the Bishops shall have kneeled, the Presiding Bishop, assisted by the members of the General
Board, shall proceed to lay hands upon the heads of each of these consecrated Bishops in the Lord’s
Church.

Exhortation & Prayer of Affirmation

The Most Reverend J. Drew Sheard
Presiding Bishop & Chief Apostle
“The Eighth in Succession”

The Chant..................................................................................................................................... The Choir

The Issuance of Credentia....................................................... The Right Reverend Joel Harley Lyles, Jr.
General Secretary
Baltimore, Maryland

The Prayer of Benediction ...................................................The Right Reverend Lawrence M. Wooten

Second Assistant Presiding Bishop
St. Louis, Missouri

The Recessional

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 The Affirmation of Faith
We affirm our faith in the Bible.
Congregation: We believe the Bible to be the inspired and only infallible
written word of God.

We affirm our faith in God.

Congregation: We believe that there is one God eternally existent in three persons,
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

We affirm our faith in the Blessed Hope.

Congregation: We believe in the blessed Hope, which is the rapture of the Church
of God, which is in Christ, at His return.

We affirm our faith in Repentance and Salvation.

Congregation: We believe that the only means of being cleansed from sin is
through repentance and faith in the precious blood of Jesus Christ. We believe
that regeneration by the Holy Ghost is absolutely essential for personal salvation.

We affirm our faith in Jesus Christ.

Congregation: We believe that the redemptive work of Christ on the cross pro-
vides healing for the human body in answer to believing prayer.

We affirm our faith in the Holy Ghost.

Congregation: We believe that the baptism in the Holy Ghost, according to Acts
2:4, is given to believers who ask for it.

We affirm our faith in Sanctification.

Congregation: We believe in the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit, by whose
indwelling, the Christian is enabled to live a holy and separated life in this present
world.

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 "Hold to His Hand"

Time is filled with swift transition, Naught of earth unmoved can stand,
Build your hopes on things eternal, Hold to God’s unchanging hand.

Refrain:
Hold to God’s unchanging hand,
Hold to God’s unchanging hand;
Build your hopes on things eternal,
Hold to God’s unchanging hand.

Trust in Him who will not leave you, Whatsoever years may bring,
If by earthly friends forsaken Still more closely to Him cling.

Refrain:
Hold to God’s unchanging hand,
Hold to God’s unchanging hand;
Build your hopes on things eternal,
Hold to God’s unchanging hand.

Covet not this world’s vain riches, that so rapidly decay,

Seek to gain the heav’nly treasures, They will never pass away.
When your journey is completed, If to God you have been true,
Fair and bright the home in glory Your enraptured soul will view.

Refrain:
Hold to God’s unchanging hand,
Hold to God’s unchanging hand;
Build your hopes on things eternal,
Hold to God’s unchanging hand.

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 These are the men, whom the Lord
delighteth to Honor

Bishop Charles G. Nauden Episcopal Assignment California Southern Second

Bishop Clarence L. Sexton Jr. Episcopal Assignment New York Eastern Fourth
Bishop Oscar Benton Jurisdictional Prelate India Sixth
Bishop Willie L. Bonner Jr. Jurisdictional Prelate Tennessee Eastern Second
Bishop Marcus L. Collins Jurisdictional Prelate Montana
Bishop Lucky C. Donuwe Jurisdictional Prelate Nigeria West Africa Miracle
Bishop Muhangenu H. Ghilain Jurisdictional Prelate Democratic Republic of the Congo First
Bishop Nate' M. Jefferson Jurisdictional Prelate Portugal
Bishop Alvin C. Moore, Sr. Jurisdictional Prelate Washington State
Bishop Alan G. Porter Jurisdictional Prelate St. Croix
Bishop Kenneth E. Preston Jurisdictional Prelate Mississippi Southern Second
Bishop William A. Prioleau Jurisdictional Prelate South Carolina
Bishop Marcus R. Ways, Sr. Jurisdictional Prelate Michigan Southwest First
Bishop Edward A. Coles Auxiliary Bishop District of Columbia
Bishop Cornelius H. Evans Auxiliary Bishop New Jersey New Garden State
Bishop Lester T. Evans Auxiliary Bishop Michigan Great Lakes First
Bishop Joseph Fisher Auxiliary Bishop Tennessee Central
Bishop J.C. Forrest Auxiliary Bishop New York Eastern Fifth
Bishop Joseph Jackson Auxiliary Bishop Texas Northeast Metropolitan
Bishop James I. Johnson, Jr. Auxiliary Bishop Virginia Third
Bishop Mitchell L. Jones Auxiliary Bishop Ohio Northwest
Bishop Christopher E. Martin, Sr. Auxiliary Bishop Michigan North Central
Bishop George A. Martin, Sr. Auxiliary Bishop California Southern Third
Bishop Shadrach D. Martin Auxiliary Bishop Missouri Midwest
Bishop Harold D. Reed, Sr. Auxiliary Bishop Arkansas Second
Bishop Bernard Reese Auxiliary Bishop New Hampshire Greater
Bishop Dennis Riley, Jr. Auxiliary Bishop Oklahoma Southeast
Bishop David A. Sanders Auxiliary Bishop New York Eastern Third
Bishop Clarence L. Sellers, Jr. Auxiliary Bishop Virginia Fifth
Bishop David T. Whittley Auxiliary Bishop Illinois First

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