Regional Conferences in the Seventh-Day Adventist (SDA)

391 Pages·2016·1.31 MB·English

by  Alfonzo Greene, Jr.

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Dissertations Theses and Dissertations
2009
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Alfonzo Greene, Jr.
Loyola University Chicago
Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss
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Greene, Jr., Alfonzo, "[Black] Regional Conferences in the Seventh-Day Adventist (SDA) Church Compared
with United Methodist [Black] Central Jurisdiction/Annual Conferences with White SDA Conferences,
From 1940 - 2001" (2009). Dissertations. 160.
https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/160
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Copyright © 2009 Alfonzo Greene, Jr.
LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO

[BLACK] REGIONAL CONFERENCES IN THE SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST
CHURCH (SDA) COMPARED WITH UNITED METHODIST [BLACK]
CENTRAL JURISDICTION/ANNUAL CONFERENCES WITH WHITE S.D.A.
CONFERENCES, FROM 1940-2001

A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO

THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL

IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

PROGRAM IN HISTORY

BY
ALFONZO GREENE, JR.
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
DECEMBER 2009
Copyright by Alfonzo Greene, Jr. 2009
All rights reserved
TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................................. vi

ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................... vii

INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................1

CHAPTER I: Historical Background of Pioneers In The Black Work, and The
Progression To [Black] Regional Conferences .........................................................15
Organization and Organizational Structure of the SDA Church ..............................21
Black Millerite Preachers ..........................................................................................24
Charles Bowles and John W. Lewis ...............................................................24
William Ellis Foy ............................................................................................25
Ellen Harmon White and Her Position on Issues Impacting
The Black SDA Work .....................................................................................26
Ellen White and a Separate Work ...................................................................39
Leaders in the Black Work in the South after Slavery ..............................................41
Robert M. Kilgore ...........................................................................................43
Charles M. Kinney……………………………………………………... .......47
James Edson White .........................................................................................51
The Major Actions Leading to the Establishment of [Black]
Regional Conferences .....................................................................................56
Negro Department-Lack of Black Representation .........................................60
Schism Involving Leading Black Ministers Lewis C. Sheafe, John W. Mann,
and James K. Humphrey .................................................................................62
Lewis C. Sheafe ..............................................................................................62
John W. Manns ...............................................................................................73
Historical Overview ..................................................................................................79
James Kemuel Humphrey ...............................................................................81
Structural Changes in the SDA Church ..........................................................93
White Leaders Reject Idea of [Black] Regional Conferences ........................97
Historical Overview ..................................................................................................99
Conclusion ..............................................................................................................102
The Lucy Byard Incident ..............................................................................103
The Committee for the Advancement of a World-wide Work among
Colored Seventh-day Adventist ....................................................................104
Regional Conference – Introduced ...............................................................106

CHAPTER II: The Historical Background of Methodism in America
Methodists and Slavery and Blacks in the United Methodist Church ...............109
Historical Overview ................................................................................................116
iii
Methodism, Slavery and Blacks in the Methodist Episcopal Church .....................120
Historical Overview ................................................................................................126
The Pioneers in Ministry to Black Methodist .........................................................128
Harry Hosier .................................................................................................128
Henry Evans .................................................................................................132
John Stewart .................................................................................................134
William Capers .............................................................................................141
Historical Overview .................................................................................................146
Methodist Retreat on the Slavery Issue ........................................................150
The General Council Confronts Slavery Issue .............................................154
Historical Overview .................................................................................................159
A Period of Change in the Methodist-Episcopal Church North and South ..163
The Establishment of Black Annual Conferences ...................................................166
The Freedman Aid Society and the Women’s Home Missionary Society ...168
Historical Overview .................................................................................................169
The First Black Bishops................................................................................176
Women in Ministry .......................................................................................177
Historical Overview .................................................................................................177
Debate over Reunification of the Methodist Church ....................................183
The Establishment of the Central Jurisdiction .........................................................184
A Period of Proclamation, 1944-1956 ..........................................................188
Historical Overview ................................................................................................189
Abolition of the Central Jurisdiction ............................................................195
Historical Overview ......................................................................................197
The Creation of the United Methodist Church .............................................202
Conclusion ..............................................................................................................203

CHAPTER III: [Black] Regional SDA Conferences Compared to [Black]
Central Jurisdiction/Annual Conferences With White SDA Conferences .............207
The “Dialectical Model” ..........................................................................................211
Historical Overview ................................................................................................221
Church Growth and Development of the Membership of the [Black] Central
Jurisdiction of the Methodist Church ...........................................................224
Differences in the Perspective between the United Methodist Church
and the Seventh-day Adventist Church ........................................................231
Edward Earl Cleveland: Major Act in Church Growth and Development ...235
Historical Overview ................................................................................................239
Church Growth and Development of Membership Income and Tithe Funds .........249
Historical Overview ................................................................................................257
[Black] SDA Regional Conferences Compared With White SDA Conferences ....264
New [Black] Regional Conferences Retirement Compared with
North American Division White Conferences Retirement ...........................273

iv
A Comparison of NAD Sustentation Program and the Regional Conference
New Retirement Plan ....................................................................................275
Conclusion ...............................................................................................................277

CHAPTER IV: Black Methodist For Church Renewal Compared With The
Sixteen Point Program .............................................................................................282
Issues involved in the Organizing of Black Methodist for Church Renewal ..........283
Issues Involved In The Sixteen Points Program Adapted To The North
American Division Of Seventh-Day Adventist Church ...............................290
Historical Overview .................................................................................................300
Results of the Sixteen Points Program at the General Council and North
American Divisions Echelons from 1970-2001 ...........................................306
Results of the Sixteen Points Program in Unions of the North American
Division from 1970-2001 .............................................................................308
A Comparison of United Methodists and Seventh-day Adventist Churches .........310
Historical Overview ...............................................................................................314
The Commission on the Status and Role of Women
Compared with the SDA Church and the Sixteen Points Program ..............318
Conclusion ..............................................................................................................324

CHAPTER V: Conclusion ...............................................................................................327

BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................365

VITA ...........................................................................................................................383

v
LIST OF TABLES

Table Page

Table 1: Growth and Development of Membership……………………………………254
Table 2: Income and Tithe Funds………………………………………..……………..256
Table 3: Growth and Development of Membership……………………………………267
Table 4: Tithe Funds……………………………………………………………...…….269
Table 5: Growth and Development of Membership…………………………………....271
Table 6: Tithe Funds……………………………………………………………...…….273

vi
ABSTRACT

This study compares the historical development of [Black] Regional Conferences
in the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church with [Black] Central Jurisdiction/Black
Annual Conferences in Methodism (now known as the United Methodist Church) and
White SDA Conferences—specifically through the prism of race, religion, and to a lesser
degree gender. Secondly, emphasis is given to the salient events surrounding [Black]
Regional SDA Conferences and [Black] Methodist Central Jurisdiction/Annual
Conferences, and White SDA Conferences in order to discern the thread of historical
development that emerged in these religious entities. What were the reasons the
Methodist and Seventh-day Adventists decided it was essential to set up a separate
organization structure for Blacks in 1864, 1939, and 1944/1945? Three pivotal areas
selected for particular scrutiny in this study are church growth, financial concerns, and
self-determination. Emphasis will be given to the ways in which [Black] Regional SDA
Conferences have functioned compared with the [Black] Central Jurisdiction/Annual
Conferences and White SDA Conferences, 1940 to 2001. The hypothesis of this study is
that the cultural pluralism model is superior to the cultural assimilation model. In
addition to the comparative nature of this study, it is also heuristic and descriptive.

vii
INTRODUCTION

In their profound study, The Black Church in the African American Experience,
authors C. Eric Lincoln and Lawrence H. Mamiya dispelled the notion that Black religion
and the Black religious experience is but a duplication of the White experience. Lincoln
and Mamiya asserted that a qualitative distinction in the cultural expression of
Christianity has existed in many Black churches despite denominational affiliation.1
Religion emerged as an important component of the African American experience in
America and the intersection of race and religion continues to influence the dynamics of
Black life. This study examines race and religion by contrasting the United Methodist
Church cultural assimilation method with the Seventh-day Adventist Church cultural
pluralistic method.
Lincoln and Mamiya indicated:
The prevailing American sentiment has traditionally held that the mainline
white churches constitute the only relevant spiritual pulse in the nation, and that
whatever is outside this narrow ambit is of little if any significance to the
American religious profile. This conventional wisdom is widely reflected in
seminary curricula and denominational policies to the end that misperception is
compounded, and the religious experience of some 30 to 35 million African
Americans is clouded in consequence…. Our basic premise has been that Black
religion whatever its distinctive expressions, is significantly part and parcel of the
American experience in religion and to exclude it arbitrarily from the normative
study of religion in America run the risk of a seriously distorted picture of what
American religion is like.2

1 C. Eric Lincoln and Lawrence H. Mamiya, The Black Church in the African American Experience
(Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1990), 7.

2 Ibid., XI-XII.

1
2
Both Lincoln and Mamiya have shown the importance of widespread study of various
aspects of religions and denominations in American society. They have suggested that
whatever the distinction in expression in Black religion in America, these differences
need to be examined. Otherwise, Lincoln and Mamiya stated one would have an
erroneous perspective of American religious life.
Thus, the historical overview of the seven major Black denominations (National
Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc., the National Baptist Convention of America, the
Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc., African Methodist Episcopal Church,
African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church and
the Church of God in Christ, Inc. (Pentecostal)) indicates these seven Black
denominations comprise more than 80 percent of all Black Christians. The remaining 14-
20 percent of Black Christians is spread among smaller Black denominations and
predominant White denominations.3 The following introduction is given concerning the
Black Baptist, Methodist, and Pentecostal denominations as well as the Seventh-day
Adventists, one of the predominantly White denominations in the United States, only
with a Black membership.
Both the Baptist movement and the Methodist in the United States had its roots in
England, even though the Baptist predates the Methodist by a century. The initial
Baptists developed from a cluster of Puritans constrained to grab shelter in Holland as a
consequence of persecution in their own land. The Separatist Puritans became convinced
that only baptism of adult adherents and baptism by immersion were proper tenets. The
Separatists rubbed shoulders with the Anabaptists who provided prominence to the

3 Ibid., XII, 1.