Structure
The leadership of the PAW consists of a Presiding Bishop and a Board of Bishops. The board also includes lay-directors from various regions of the United States and emeritus bishops who once served but are either semi or fully retired.
Under the oversight of the Board of Bishops are geographical units called councils, or dioceses. Councils correspond to state or national boundaries and each council is headed by a diocesan bishop, who is appointed by the Board of Bishops. A diocesan bishop can have as many as three assistants, called suffragan bishops. These suffragan bishops hold only the authority given them by the diocesan bishop. Typically they will have authority over a region or part of a state. Reporting under the suffragan bishop are district elders, who oversee and assist the elders (pastors and their churches) in his district. A district can contain as few as three churches and with typically no more than 25.
In 1998, the number of PAW churches in the US was 1,750 served by 4,500 clergy.
The following is a list of Presiding Bishops:
- Garfield Thomas Haywood (1925–1931)
- Samuel Joshua Grimes (1932–1967)
- Ross Perry Paddock (1967–1974)
- Francis L. Smith (1974–1980)
- Lawrence E. Brisbin (1980–1986)
- James Archie Johnson (1986–1992)
- Paul A. Bowers (1992–1998)
- Norman L. Wagner (1998–2004)
- Horace E. Smith, M.D. (2004–2010)
- Charles H. Ellis III (2010–Present)
Read more about this topic: Pentecostal Assemblies Of The World
Famous quotes containing the word structure:
“Vashtar: So it’s finished. A structure to house one man and the greatest treasure of all time.
Senta: And a structure that will last for all time.
Vashtar: Only history will tell that.
Senta: Sire, will he not be remembered?
Vashtar: Yes, he’ll be remembered. The pyramid’ll keep his memory alive. In that he built better than he knew.”
—William Faulkner (1897–1962)
“Agnosticism is a perfectly respectable and tenable philosophical position; it is not dogmatic and makes no pronouncements about the ultimate truths of the universe. It remains open to evidence and persuasion; lacking faith, it nevertheless does not deride faith. Atheism, on the other hand, is as unyielding and dogmatic about religious belief as true believers are about heathens. It tries to use reason to demolish a structure that is not built upon reason.”
—Sydney J. Harris (1917–1986)
“There is no such thing as a language, not if a language is anything like what many philosophers and linguists have supposed. There is therefore no such thing to be learned, mastered, or born with. We must give up the idea of a clearly defined shared structure which language-users acquire and then apply to cases.”
—Donald Davidson (b. 1917)