Georgia-Cumberland Conference of Seventh-day Adventists
Encyclopedia
| Georgia-Cumberland Conference of Seventh-Day Adventist | |
| Religious Affiliation: | Seventh-day Adventist Seventh-day Adventist Church The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a Protestant Christian denomination distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the original seventh day of the Judeo-Christian week, as the Sabbath, and by its emphasis on the imminent second coming of Jesus Christ... |
|---|---|
| Union: | Southern Union Southern Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists The Southern Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, often abbreviated to the Southern Union, is a sub-entity of the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists, which is part of the worldwide Seventh-day Adventist Church... |
| Division: | North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists The Seventh-day Adventist Church in the United States, Canada, and Bermuda is officially organized as the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists... |
| Headquarters: | Calhoun, Georgia Calhoun, Georgia Calhoun is a city in Gordon County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 15,650. The city is the county seat of Gordon County.-Geography:Calhoun is located at , along the Oostanaula River.... |
| Established: | 1932 |
| Country: | USA |
| Geographical Area: | Georgia, Tennessee Tennessee Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area... , and Cherokee County, North Carolina Cherokee County, North Carolina - Transportation :Cherokee County is well known in North Carolina as the westernmost of the state's 100 counties. Several US and state highways serve the county, linking it with other regions of North Carolina, along with the neighboring states of Georgia and Tennessee.US 64 - the longest highway... |
| President: | Ed Wright |
The Georgia-Cumberland Conference of Seventh-day Adventists is the organizational body of the Seventh-day Adventist Church
Seventh-day Adventist Church
The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a Protestant Christian denomination distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the original seventh day of the Judeo-Christian week, as the Sabbath, and by its emphasis on the imminent second coming of Jesus Christ...
for Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
, East Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
, and Cherokee County
Cherokee County, North Carolina
- Transportation :Cherokee County is well known in North Carolina as the westernmost of the state's 100 counties. Several US and state highways serve the county, linking it with other regions of North Carolina, along with the neighboring states of Georgia and Tennessee.US 64 - the longest highway...
, North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It is based in Calhoun
Calhoun, Georgia
Calhoun is a city in Gordon County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 15,650. The city is the county seat of Gordon County.-Geography:Calhoun is located at , along the Oostanaula River....
, Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
.
It is a subdivision of the Southern Union
Southern Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists
The Southern Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, often abbreviated to the Southern Union, is a sub-entity of the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists, which is part of the worldwide Seventh-day Adventist Church...
, which in turn is part of the North American Division
North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists
The Seventh-day Adventist Church in the United States, Canada, and Bermuda is officially organized as the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists...
, one of the 13 worldwide organizational "Divisions" of the church.
The Conference oversees more than 150 churches and 50 elementary and high schools. There are also four Adventist hospitals, nine Adventist Community Services Centers, and one Adventist university, Southern Adventist University
Southern Adventist University
Southern Adventist University is a college in Collegedale, Tennessee, owned and operated by the Southern Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. U.S. News & World Report categorizes it as a Southern Regional College, and the magazine has consistently ranked it as one of the top-tier schools in...
.
History
Seventh-day Adventist publications penetrated the territory of the present Georgia-Cumberland Conference in 1872, four years before the first Seventh-day Adventist workers arrived, resulting in the conversion of J. A. Killingworth and his family of Griffin, Georgia. Rufus Eugene Seagraves learned about the Seventh-day Adventist health principles from a Dr. Irwin in 1875 and was baptized three years later by C.O. Taylor, the first denominational worker in Georgia. Taylor came to the South Georgia town of Quitman in the autumn of 1876. Knowing of no other Seventh-day Adventists in the state, he engaged in personal evangelism. The next spring he learned of the Killingworths through the Review and Herald.In 1876, the same year that Taylor arrived in Georgia, a church was organized in the present Georgia-Cumberland Conference territory in Tennessee as a result of the work of Orlando Soule, who came to visit a Seventh-day Adventist friend named Wetherby, who had moved from Michigan to Sparta, Tennessee, on the edge of the Cumberland Plateau. Asked to lecture there, Soule remained to preach in several places, was ordained by D. M. Canright
D. M. Canright
Dudley Marvin Canright was a pastor in the Seventh-day Adventist Church for 22 years, who later left the church and became one of its severest critics...
in May, and built up the first church in the conference area, the Mount Gilead church, not many miles from Sparta. He organized the church in the autumn, with Patrick D. Moyers, his first convert, as elder. Moyers, one of the earliest Southern-born Seventh-day Adventist preachers, was a strong pillar at Mount Gilead and later at Graysville, Tennessee.
The Cumberland Conference was combined with the Georgia Conference in March 1932, forming the Georgia-Cumberland Conference, with H.E. Lysinger as president, and with headquarters at 547 Cherokee Ave., SE., Atlanta, Georgia. The 24 churches in the Cumberland Conference and the 23 in Georgia made 47 churches, with a total membership of 2, 490. In 1938, there were 49 white churches with 2,781 members and 9 African-American churches with 772 members. When on January 1, 1946, the African-American churches of Tennessee were taken into the South Central Conference, and the African-American churches of Georgia and the Carolinas and all of Florida, except that portion lying west of the Apalochicola River, were taken into the South Atlantic Conference, there were 61 churches left to the Georgia-Cumberland Conference, with 3,000 members and 18 ordained ministers.
Presidents
Georgia Conference Presidents- C.A. Hall, 1901-1903
- R.M. Kilgore, 1903-1906
- George W. Wells, 1906-1910
- C.B. Stephenson, 1910-1912
- L.T. Crisler, 1912-1913
- N.V. Willess, 1913-1916
- B.J. White, 1916-1917
- B.W. Brown, 1917-1918
- W.F. McMahen, 1918-1919
- B.W. Spire, 1919-1922
- A.S. Booth, 1922-1926
- B.F. Kneeland, 1926-1932
Cumberland Conference Presidents
- Smith Sharp, 1900-1903
- O.C. Godsmark, 1903-1905
- W.W. Williams, 1905-1907
- J.F. Pogue, 1907-1910
- P.G. Stanley, 1910-1913
- W.H. Branson, 1913-1915
- R.W. Parmele, 1916-1917
- J.L. Shuler, 1917-1919
- A.W. Coon, 1919-1921
- B.F. Kneeland 1921-1926
- R.I. Keate, 1926-1932
Georgia-Cumberland Conference Presidents
- H.E. Lysinger, 1932, 1937
- R.I. Keate, 1937-1943
- I.M. Evans, 1943-1949
- G.R. Nash, 1949-1965
- A.C. Fearing, 1956-1958
- N.C. Wilson, 1958-1960
- A.C. McKee, 1960-1963
- LeRoy J. Leiske, 1963-1964
- Desmond Cummings, 1964-1980
- Gary Patterson, 1980-1985
- Bill Geary, 1985-1994
- Gordon Bietz, 1994-1997
- Larry Evans, 1997-2002
- Dave Cress, 2002-2004
- Ed Wright, 2005-Present