383 Bergen Ave, Jersey City · Sunday Worship 11:00 AM
383 Bergen Ave, Jersey City · Sunday Worship 11:00 AM
The pastor who led our congregation to its Bergen Avenue home, and whose name our church carries.
From a May 20, 1974 tribute honoring 55 years of service to God and his fellow man.
In 1941, Bishop Charles H. Cotton was appointed pastor of the Union Street Church, then known as Gospel Tabernacle Church of God in Christ.
Under his anointed leadership the church continued to flourish and grow, and it soon became clear that the congregation was outgrowing the Union Street location. Bishop Cotton sought God’s direction and moved forward toward a better and larger church home.
God honored his prayers. In September 1970 the church marched “victoriously” into its present building on Bergen Avenue, which in later years was renamed Cotton Temple COGIC.
In honor of his dedication and many years of service, Pastor Embria Sconiers worked with Elder Mario Moody, the late Evangelist Juanita Pough and Jersey City officials to rename the side street beside the church, Boyd Avenue, as Bishop Charles H. Cotton Plaza.
1941
Union Street Church, Jersey City
1970
The move to Bergen Avenue
Bishop Charles H. Cotton Plaza
Formerly Boyd Avenue, beside the church
Cotton Temple is part of the Church of God in Christ, founded by Bishop Charles Harrison Mason, its first senior bishop.
Born in 1864 to formerly enslaved parents in Tennessee, Mason embraced and taught holiness and sanctification. In 1907 he secured the legal rights to the Church of God in Christ and established its headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee.
By his death in 1961 the church had grown to more than 400,000 members, and it has since become the largest African-American Pentecostal denomination in the United States, with millions of members worldwide.
