PENTECOSTAL CHURCH OF GOD OF AMERICA, INC.

Protestant denomination organized in Chicago in 1919 as the Pentecostal Assemblies of the U.S.A. by a group of ministers who had earlier refused affiliation in the General Council of the Assemblies of God (1914); the present name was adopted in 1922. Citing the Statement of Fundamental Truths issued by a subsequent Council as a regression to the conventional ecclesiasticism from which many Pentecostals had just recently emerged, the new group demonstrated its independence by establishing rather liberal policies on ordination, church membership, and the issue of divorce and remarriage of the clergy. Though not very active in the area of foreign missions, the Pentecostal Church of God has conducted an extensive ministry among the American Indians. Headquarters and a publishing house are located in Joplin, Mo.