Mother Mary P. Patterson, Who Preserved Church of God in Christ History, Dies at 83

Mother Mary P. Patterson, the widow of a Church of God in Christ presiding bishop, died last Monday (June 24). She was known for her efforts to preserve the history of the historically Black Pentecostal denomination. In a Wednesday (June 26) announcement on the Church of God in Christ’s Facebook page, the denomination called her “a tireless crusader for preserving the Church Of God In Christ Heritage and that of Pentecostal-Holiness around the world.” The post added: “Our History is much richer because of her life’s work. May we never forget.”

Darrin Rodgers, director of the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center in Springfield, Missouri, said Patterson had been diagnosed with cancer and had been under hospice care. In 2012, she presented the papers of her late husband, Bishop J.O. Patterson Sr., the first elected COGIC presiding bishop, to the center. The center is located at the national offices of the Assemblies of God and is the world’s largest Pentecostal archive.

A retired real estate agent who also headed her own travel agency, Patterson founded the Pentecostal Heritage Connection to plant historical markers honoring COGIC leaders across the South. In 2021, a ceremony in Little Rock, Arkansas, unveiled an 8-foot aluminum sign on a corner marking the spot where Bishop Charles H. Mason, the denomination’s founder, said he was inspired by God to name it the Church of God in Christ. Regional religious leaders, a representative of the governor and scholars who traveled to the state attended the event. Patterson also helped secure state-designated historical markers in Mississippi and Arkansas, enhanced the telling of COGIC history in Memphis museums, organized summits on COGIC heritage, and worked to have a bust of Mason placed outside Mason Temple, the denomination’s world headquarters.

Rodgers said Patterson placed high value on building bridges. “She did not want to have something narrowly white or narrowly Black or narrowly COGIC,” he said. “She said that this history belongs to everybody.” This emphasis on shared history, a life lesson in unity (Psalm 133:1), also shaped her work with people outside the denomination.

Patterson was an unsuccessful candidate for vice chairman of the COGIC General Assembly in 1999. In a campaign brochure, she wrote: “I believe that as a woman of God, I am especially capable of fulfilling these requirements. God created woman, first of all, to help and to assist man. Therefore, my efforts have biblical support.” The source notes that COGIC traditionally recognizes only men as ordained ministers or bishops. Patterson said she decided to form her own ministry for her historical work. She told Religion News Service in 2021: “It shows other young women that you don’t have to be behind the pulpit in order to do a work for the Lord.”

Pastor Calvin Robinson, leader of a COGIC church in Quincy, Florida, and the denomination’s historian for western Florida, said Patterson cared more about the bust being completed than about having her name attached to it. “With her, her satisfaction was just it was done,” he said, recalling her words: “As long as it’s being done, God gets the glory for it.”

David Daniels, a professor of the history of Christianity at McCormick Theological Seminary and a COGIC bishop, said Patterson focused on reaching people outside the denomination, including scholars, to expand knowledge of a church she had belonged to all her life. “She wanted to be able to do her work outside of the denomination, because she wanted to be able to reach people who don’t necessarily belong to the Church of God in Christ,” he said. “And she saw it as a badge of honor.”

Source: Read the original report