Greetings COCHUSA Members,
Praise GOD for his goodness and his wonderful works to the children of man!
This is to remind you of our annual commemoration of Founder’s Month in honor of Bishop Charles Price Jones, the founder of our denomination. His birthday is December 9th. In addition, this is also the 126th Year Anniversary of the founding of our church (1897 – 2023). We encourage our pastors, ministers, and members to make this month special as we all celebrate our outstanding heritage.
Again, we suggest that each local congregation to find some significant ways to recognize, honor, and celebrate our founder. Let’s continue to pass on this wonderful legacy to our children and our children’s children.
“Give ear , O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.”……”We will not hide them from their children, showing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that h hath done.” Psalms 78:1 & 4
Founder: Bishop Charles Price Jones, D.D., LL.D.
Birth: 9 Dec 1865 Floyd County, GA, USA
Death: 19 Jan 1949 (aged 83) Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, CA
Burial: Evergreen Cemetery, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Biography: Minister and composer, the founding leader of what came to be known as the Church of Christ (Holiness) USA. Bishop Jones was born in Georgia in December of 1865 and grew up in Kingston, Georgia (between Rome and Atlanta). In 1895, he became pastor of the Mount Helm Baptist Church in Jackson, Mississippi. It was while here that Bishop Jones and others formed the Church of Christ (Holiness) USA in 1897. He later went on to serve as our denomination’s Senior Bishop until his death in Los Angeles, CA, on January 19, 1949. Bishop Jones was also the composer of over 1,000 Gospel hymns, mostly between 1895-1905. They included “I’m Happy With Jesus Alone,” “All I Need” (1906), “Come Unto Me,” “Death Hath No Terrors” (1901), and “Where Shall I Be When the Last Trumpet Sounds.”
This Is Who We Are
The founder of the Church of Christ (Holiness) USA, Bishop Charles Price Jones was not satisfied with a faith that brought no or little spiritual fruit or else fruit of so poor quality spiritually. Bishop Jones was not satisfied with a religion that had none of the signs spoken in the Bible and began to seek the blessedness and usefulness of real Bible religion. He believed that God was calling people to holy living. Bishop Jones challenged believers to “not be satisfied with the attitude that holiness is right, to get the experience, and to get saved…”
In 1897, the first “holiness convention” was held in Jackson, Mississippi. At this convention, believers were called to live a holy, sanctified life. From this convention, the Church of Christ (Holiness) USA was born. Bishop Jones, while residing in Jackson, MS, became well known as a composer and publisher of holiness hymns. Doctrinally, the COCHUSA is very close to the Church of the Nazarene. It follows the Methodist Articles of Religion and stresses the second blessing as part of the holiness credo. Our church is Episcopal in structure with a senior bishop as the highest office. There are eight dioceses. Mission work is sponsored in West Africa, the Dominican Republic, and Honduras. There is one school, Christ Missionary and Industrial College, located in Jackson. In 2021, we reported 12,080 members, 133 churches and 205 ordained ministers.
We are a church that believes in One God who is triune, being revealed as the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. We further believe that Jesus is the Son of God and manifested in the flesh, died and rose again for our salvation. We believe that the Holy Bible is the eternal inerrant word of God and it contains all necessary truth pertaining to salvation and to Christian living. We believe and are fully persuaded that “without holiness no man shall see the Lord.”
In His Service,
Bishop Vernon E. Kennebrew, COCHUSA Senior Bishop
Bishop Lindsay Jones, D.B.S., COCHUSA President
