Bishop J. O. Patterson Sr.; Led Black Church

MEMPHIS —  Bishop J. O. (James Oglethorpe) Patterson Sr., presiding bishop since 1968 of the Church of God in Christ, the largest black Pentecostal denomination in the United States, has died here after an eight-month bout with cancer. He was 77.

In April, Patterson was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer but refused therapy, saying he was open to God’s healing and God’s will. He died Dec. 29.

Under Patterson, the church outgrew all other Pentecostal churches. In 1982, it had 3.7 million members, 10 times as many as it had in 1961 when founder and Bishop Charles Harrison Mason died.

The Church of God in Christ is an offshoot of the tongues-speaking Pentecostal revival of 1906 at the Azusa Street Mission in Los Angeles. Patterson was the son-in-law of Mason, a one-time Baptist preacher who gave the denomination its Pentecostal characteristics after visiting Los Angeles.

The denomination has about 10,000 local churches but has shed its “storefront” image in recent years. Many of its churches have upward of 1,000 members.