Mt. Hope A.M.E. Zion Church Members; Like lambs Being Led To Their Unpleasant End!

Mt. Hope A.M.E. Zion Church Members; Like lambs Being Led To Their Unpleasant End!

Well isn't it just fine and dandy. Other than a handful of members, the vast majority of the members did not want Pastor Maddox back as our leader. And it has nothing to do with disliking him as a person (although a good deal of his behavior is extremely troublesome), but it is simply about the lack of effectiveness as a minister.

Why would the average member want someone to return each and every year when we see so much negative impact on the church during the period that he has been in charge; particularily over the last 3 to 4 years - now members you know this is the truth! Yet still we are treated like people who have no ability to think for ourselves and with absolutely no impact over how the decisions are made. For a change we need someone to take our desires into account. The members have been disrespected for far too long based upon any objective measures that you choose to use.

The decision makers have no regard for the welfare of our church, especially when one of the major duties of any minister is to grow the church membership and allow the church to prosper (check your discipline for the duties and responsibilties of a minister to confirm this). With this in mind, how would this have been the proper decision in any of the last 3 to 4 years in particular? The only thing the decision makers respect from the members is the monetary givings that are received - and only if it is in amounts that are sufficient to support the compensation of the presiding elders, bishops and others that the A.M.E. Zion budget supports. If ever there was a case of "taxation without representation", this is a prime example. And I don't want anyone to say "what is he talking about mentioning taxes" but you understand that it is simply an analogy - but completely valid!

After saying all of this, if we don't want to simply be stupid little members who think that there is nothing that we can do; I have a perfect solution for us all. It does not involve posting on this site, writing to the presiding elder or bishop, but simply taking a stance once and for all by simply staying away from Mt. Hope A.M.E. Zion Church for the entire month of July (and even longer if we have to). The Bishop must afford some respect to our wishes in this matter. You know a church can not function if the members don't attend and pay their monies! Maybe the pastor, presiding elder and bishop can financially support Mt Hope in our absence. There is nothing more powerful and at the same time non-confrontational. So for all of you that don't want to "make waves", all you have to do is stay home and voice your disapproval over the return of Pastor Maddox in that manner; you don't have to utter a single word.

Do you think you have the guts to do that; finally take a stand and be heard? You think that the Bishop might be forced to come and have a much needed meeting with us as members for a change? No decision is set in stone; especially when it is the wrong decision! We shall see starting Sunday July 1st. Incidently, Mt Hope is not the only place where we can serve GOD for now.

One final thought; the Pastor, the Presiding Elder and the Presiding Bishop all are supposed to serve the members not the nmembers serve them!!! Again, this is per our A.M.E. Zion Discipline.

Glover Davis (fed up with the lack of concern for our church and its needs)

The Mt. Hope Church/Pastor Maddox Affair II

Nothing really to report in terms of new developments with Mt. Hope Church. It seems that it's business as usual; how very sad. Looks like the final unwanted step will have to be taken.

As a matter of interest, there is a posting on the site by a Deacon Scott who used to be a member of St. Catherine A.M.E. Zion Church in New Rochelle. He makes comments about what happened to him there and why he is no longer a member of that church. Please take a peek at his comments under the original posting "Mt. Hope A.M.E. Zion Church and The Pastor Maddox Affair" from a few days ago. That particular posing had 8 comments as of Friday, June 22nd. He also offered some very much on the point observations about Mt. Hope Church.

I found them to be very honest comments by someone who understands how unfair things can be in our A.M.E. Zion Church structure. How power is sometimes apparently used without human passion and understanding being involved. I don't know all the facts but he appears to be honest and sincere.

Well I guess the next posting will take place on Monday; it might be very interesting.

Glover Davis

The Book of Discipline of The A.M.E. Zion Church

Just so you will know, I received a letter from Rev. Dr. Odinga Lawrence Maddox,I on Saturday stating that he has removed me from the church's membership role, effective June 10, 2007. There were other commentary in the letter and I will scan the letter into this site for all to see if there isn't a retraction by Friday June 22, 2007. I will give you as members of Mt. Hope Church the opportunity to talk some sense into the pastor, otherwise I will proceed with that, plus another extremely strong action that will absolutely be devastating. It's up to you'll, the pastor, the presiding elder and the bishop. I am as serious as I can possibly be!

Now for the good part, The Book Of Discipline of The A.M.E. Zion Church clearly states on page 120 (CHAPTER VII - General Directions Concerning Trials), paragraph 323 and also pages 110 through 112 (in the 1996 edition) that "No member can be deprived of his Membership without due trial by a Committee, and proper process of law". None of this has happened, so no removal of my membership can take place. Also refer to pages 120 through 123 of the discipline for more points on membership rights and etc. In addition, check page 31 of the discipline.

This is the book of rules that the pastor always cites and that he must be guided by at all times, lest he be put on trial himself. I wonder why he didn't let himself be guided by the discipline before he wrote the letter? Maybe he feels that he is above the discipline. But he is sadly mistaken. Let us see how Bishop George H. Battle, Jr.
handles this breach of the church rules and regulations, which are not subject to interpretation by anyone in Zion.

The letter was e-mailed to the Bishop on Monday. Let's see how this plays itself out. You know the courts are always there to sue for mistreatment, bias, discrimination, cruelty and mental anguish, among other things. I am the wrong person to try and use discretionary powers with and I think all of you know why. People need to be extremely careful here; I think they have a tiger by the tail. You know if you grab a tiger by the tail, you can never let go, less you be devoured by the tiger!

Please check out the comments after each of my postings on the site, click on "comments" and they will open up. Some of them are very interesting and the objective of unknown parties is to attack me personally rather that refute the information that I have provided. They obviously are part of the pastor's inner circle of defense; although no defense can be provided against facts.

Glover Davis

Mt. Hope A.M.E. Zion Church and The Pastor Maddox Affair

Rev. Dr. Odinga Lawrence Maddox,I must think that he is a dictator with all power over every aspect of Mt. Hope Church members. The last time I checked, this was still the United States of America and every person has the right of free speech. Who gave him the authority to determine when a church member can speak while in attendance at a church meeting, when that person has not done anything "wrong". I understand that there is a discipline that the A.M.E. Zion Denomination adheres to in terms of practices and procedures. However, the discipline is not arbitrary and no pastor is able to use descretionary power to punish a church member simply because the pastor does not like what that member has done. If church members know, first hand that wrong-doing has and is taking place in a church, I believe that it is that member's christian and moral duty to do his/her best to have the situation stopped. Since we are supposed to be serving GOD; I believe that this is what our Lord & Savior would most certainly want. One shouldn't keep silent since he/she then becomes a culprit the same as the wrong-doer; whether it is the Pastor or anyone else in the church!

The reason for this post is to inform you that I, Glover Davis, Jr., received a letter from the Mt. Hope Church office. The letter was from the Rev. Dr. Odinga Lawrence Maddox,I (the pastor of Mt Hope Church). I will not transcript the wording per se at this time but will simply give you the most relavent quotes: "I, herewith, by the power invested in me as pastor of Mount Hope remove your name from the membership roll and along with all the rights and priviledges of a member forthwith. You are being asked to return any and all property, e.g., keys and/or records to Mount Hope immediately".

Sincerely,

Odinga Lawrence Maddox,I
Pastor

cc: Dr. Cynthia Willis Stewart
Presiding Elder, Westchester District

Brother John Williams, Chairman, Steward Board

Sister Marie Baxter, Pastor's Steward


This is the end of Pastor Maddox's letter



The full text of the letter will be scanned into this site by tomorrow so that you may see for yourself the pityfull, non-sensical and untrue rationale that he came up with. For those of you who might be in this site for the first time, you will need to read the previous postings by me, as well as the comments to the various postings, to get a partial idea of what this vengance campaign is about by this "man of GOD". Under no circumstances would one of GOD's chosen behave as he has behaved over the past 3 to 4 year. If this kind of behavior is what GOD would have for his preachers of the gospel and those who minister to his flock, then some of us must be worshipping and serving the "wrong god".

I don't believe this to be the case, so I will pursue a course of justice that will seek to right this igregous wrong that the pastor is trying to perpetrate. Unfortunately, the Presiding Elder, Dr. Cynthia Willis Stewart, has done absolutely nothing to correct the sorry situation that has prevailed at Mt. Hope Church for way to long. Exactly what is the role of presiding elders and bishops? I always believed that they were the people who would look out for the welfare of the churches under their charge and to monitor and supervise the effectiveness of the ministers and the presiding elders (in the case of the bishops).

I will not include Bishop George W. Battle in this yet as I am not sure that he has been made aware of the total situation, even at this point. I don't know him at all but I find it impossible to believe that he would know about the situation at Mt. Hope Church and choose to do absolutely nothing about it. I truly don't believe that he is a callous person who wouldn't take his position in the church's heirarchy extremely serious. GOD I pray that i'm correct, otherwise heaven help Mt. Hope A.M.E. Zion Church.

As a note of interest, please check Sunday's edition of the journal News - main section, page 10A at the bottom of the page. This is a plea for all to take note of the plight of Mt. Hope Church and keep themselves abreast of developments as they occur.

I pray that GOD will continue to give me courage to do what I know in my heart is right(I am not alone in this belief as numerous others are also; they just are not willing to put themselves out the way that I do - God bless each and everyone of them that at least have had the right thought about the situation).

Glover Davis - 40-year member of Mt. Hope A.M.E. Zion Church.

The Count Down To Mt. Hope Church's Chance For A New Beginning.

Only four (4) more days for the decision which will determine Mt. Hope A.M.E. Zion Church's fate. Will the Church be allowed to correct its destructive current path or will June 24, 2007 (late afternoon) bring an opportunity for a reversal of fortune?

I sincerely look forward to a new beginning where our Church can start on the path to hope and ubridled spirituality.

What are the odds that this feeling of anticipation will be realized? Hopefully the odds will be 100 to 1.

A Matter of Perspective On Mt. Hope A.M.E. Zion Church

This is an extremely critical point in the life of Mt. Hope African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. Based upon the event that will take place on Wednesday June 20th through Sunday June 24, 2007 in Tarrytown at the Marriott Hotel, there exist a perfect opportunity to make the decision to give one of the Lord's churches a chance to do what is pleasing in his eyes and maybe start to flourish again. If those who will be making the important decisions decide to do the right thing for the members of this suffering church; all of us know exactly what that decison will be. However. if the powers to be decide to abdicate as usual, then the carnage at Mt. Hope Church will continue. If one thinks that the membership is very low now, just imagine what it might be like if the decision is to maintain the status quo for the next conference year. For the sake of the church, and for that matter all of the churches, we hope that they make the one and only decision that is warranted. The church needs a leader that will lead, is creative, has good wisdom and can motivate the members so that it can escape the unbearable situation that it has fallen into over the past 3 or four years. Let us all as members evaluate what will take place and see if the members interest is put in front of a sub-par pastor for a change. We need to find a way to hold those responsible for awful decisions, afterall we are not like the rats stupidily following the Pied Piper to the river to be drowned. We want joy and spirit back. If that happens the membership will increase and the financial worries will be greatly minimized. At this point today (June 15th) at least we have some hope; let's see if that hope is dahed late Sunday afternoon!

Chaos At Mt. Hope A.M.E. Zion Church........

When one sits back and analyzes the conditions at Mt. Hope A.M.E. Zion church, 65 Lake Street, White Plains, NY, you are forced to wonder about the state of mind of its members. Are they so beaten down and in a state of denial or are they simply not able to think rationally any longer. I believe that there is a condition that the members suffer from that is akin to being a slave for so long that you become an emotional slave; you can't think independently any longer and you actually sympathize with the slave master. There actually is a feeling that the slavemaster is a good person and is only looking out for the slaves' best interest. The truth of the matter is the slavemaster is only looking out for his own best interests. I believe that the Mt. Hope members; to a large extent feel pity for the pastor (Rev. Dr. Odinga Lawrence Maddox) because he is a truly pathetic individual. Any minister that can drive a more-than-self-sufficient community pillar of a church, which Mt. Hope was when he arrived in August of 1992, into the ground and make it a house of shame as oppossed to a house of worship is a sorry human being. Mt. Hope Church had approximately 425 members when Rev. Maddox arrived and each year the membership has declined to the point where there are approximately 75 - 90 semi-active members currently. Instead of sitting back and analyzing what he is doing wrong, he has consistently taken the view that it's the members fault why there are not more members there. His only solution is to make heavy-handed appeals to the few members to dig deeper in their pockets and make pledges & etc to try and make up for the financial shortfalls that everyday dogs the church. Officers of the church who don't pledge hefty sums of money in addition to their tithes & offerings are removed from the particular boards, such as the Trustee Board. Basic things like retail space property taxes remain unpaid, utility bills go unpaid and there is a monthly struggle to pay the mortgage. Meanwhile a portion (very vocal) of the members still support this destructive situation and the pastor. Sometimes I think it goes back to the old times when people were not very educated and they automatically thought that the pastor was always right about everything. They don't realize that Mt. Hope A.M.E. Zion Church is dying a slow and extremely painful death; everything is over except the funeral!

On last evening (Tuesday June 12, 2007) there was a church meeting held to evaluate a major project that is being proposed. I was in attendance and listened to the presentation by the applicable parties. After the presentation, the presenters opened up the meeting for questions and several members asked their questions. After they were finished, I raised my hand and was recognized to put forth my question. At that point Pastor Maddox interrupted and said I was not eligible to ask questions, that I had been silenced and that I wasn't a member "in good standing". I said I didn't understand that because I had met the conditions of any other member of the church; I have paid all of my General Claims & District Quarterly assessments, which according to the A.M.E. Zion Discipline gives me the right to have a voice in churh matters. In addition, I have paid all Women's Day, Men's Day & Church Anniversary assessments plus other organization dues and made some offerings. How would I not be a member with rights to speak? Well it all comes down to a personal matter: I wrote a letter to the Presiding Elder - Cynthia Willis-Stewart in June of 2004 when the evidence of Mt. Hope Church's failure was there for all to see. I asked the Presiding Elder to reccomend to the Bishop that Pastor Maddox not be returned to Mt. Hope Church during the Annual Conference that was being held during the following week. I gave her information regarding wrong-doing and just basic incompetence on the part of the Pastor. I told her that if Pastor Maddox was returned that Mt. Hope would surely end up a failed church. Given the current situation, I rest my case. Well Pastor Maddox suspended me from The Trustee Board of the church and has remained punitive, vindictive and vicious in his behavior ever since. I stand by what I said and did because everything was true and most of the members knew that to be the case, except that they were afraid to stand up and say so. I neglected to mention that Pastor Maddox also demanded that I leave the meeting, I stated emphatically that I would not and he tried to demand that members of the Trustee Board escort me out of the church. Luckily, the trustees present had better sense than the "tyrant" (Pastor Maddox) and refused to move. There was an outcry also from most of the members for the Pastor to leave the situation alone and go on with the meeting.

So this is the expalnation for him trying to silence me, while acting in a very un-religious manner at most times. I wonder if this is what our Lord & Savior would want from "a man of the cloth". Everything that I know says otherwise and he will surely be made to pay for such hypocritical behaviour. No wonder most of the members have left the church and such a heavy financial burden has been placed on the few that remain. If you believe that i'm not being truthful, simply come and visit our "big empty church" on any Sunday at 10:15 a.m. and see for yourself. It might be more powerful if you were to attend any first Sunday.

This is as much as I have to say at this time; stay tuned for other updates as they occur.

Oh The Hypocrisy of It All....

Sometimes even when you go where you don't really want to be, for whatever reasons, it is good to be there to experience things for yourself. On Sunday, June 10, 2007, I attended the Children's Day service at Mt. Hope A.M.E. Zion Church and it was a very inspirational service. The children conducted the entire worship service and they were very good and showed a lot of enthusiam and spirit. They enjoyed doing and the congregation enjoyed what the children did.
Everything was going along fine until I was reminded of something that Pastor Maddox had said over two years ago: "we will not allow any financial presentations to be made by anyone during the worship service - it distracts from the service and the Pastor will know what is given and we don't need to do any of that anymore". Well to my amazement (I don't know why I should be amazed any longer) there was a call for Pastor Maddox to come forward. He came forward and the names of two organizations or groups were called to make presentations for proceeds received from two functions that were held during the past two months. The presentations were made and all parties involved made their remarks. Everything was fine except this was no longer permitted to take place during the worship service - how could this be? Maybe there was a change in church policy or maybe this was just another example of the hypocrisy of this pastor who allows certain things depending on who is involved. It is never about principles or standards; it is simply about him doing what he feels like doing! How does the members tolerate this kind of thoughtless action and always changing discretionary behavior on his part? Do we have no rights or input in these matters. See I know this first hand since it was Pastor Maddox himself that said no when I wanted to make a presentation to the Christian Education department for some proceeds from a fundraiser that was held during the 4th of July celebration in 2005. When I asked the pastor's permission to do the presentation, he told me no and that he was making an announcement to the congregation that this would no longer be permitted. He then made the announcement during that morning's service. Fine, I said we would all live with that and then the discretionary permissions started and Sunday was the big punch to the gut. This is just great, thanks Pastor Maddox for being soo fair and consistent(yea sure). We desparately need a new broom to make a clean sweep!!!!

Absolutely Nothing Has Been Accomplished.....

The dreadful saga at Mt. Hope A.M.E. Zion Church continues. Please take the time to read and follow the discourse in the following summary of information e-mailed between myself and Presiding Elder Cynthia Willis-Stewart from the beginning to May 25, 2007 when I decided to end it and move on to the next stage. It is simply mind-numbing to receive a final so-called response of this nature from her. I know it is her duty to followup and obtain a resolution to the issues but she has washed her hands of the situation; how sad for Mt. Hope A.M.E. Zion Church.

Note the following:

MT. HOPE A.M.E. ZION CHURCH UPDATES

SUMMARY OF E-MAIL EXCHANGES BETWEEN GLOVER DAVIS AND THE
PRESIDING ELDER – CYNTHIA WILLIS-STEWART
FOR THE PERIOD FROM APRIL 29TH THROUGH MAY 25, 2007


April 29th : Glover to Presiding Elder

Sent letter to Presiding Elder with more specifics for the letter to all Mt. Hope Church members (this letter is posted on the site – please read it) asking her for a response within two weeks. Also sent copy of letter to all Mt. Hope Church members.


May 1st : Presiding Elder’s initial response was as follows: “ I received your e-mail this morning and am paying careful attention to its contents. Did you send a copy of this e-mail to Rev Maddox”?


May 1st : Glover to Presiding Elder: “Yes I did; I mailed him a copy on yesterday but I think I will e-mail him the information today. Thank you for your response”.


May 7th : Glover to Presiding Elder: “Are you still in the evaluation stage regarding the (“factual”) matters contained in my correspondence? For the sake of Mt. Hope Church and A.M.E. Zion, I hope it is just taking more time than I thought. Also , has Bishop Battle been supplied with the information or will I need to do that myself? This is as serious as it gets and I hope we are not dealing with a stalling tactic or someone believes that I’m bluffing. If so, it will be a truly bad decision on the part of the church’s hierarchy – and really regrettable”.



May 11th : Presiding Elder’s response: “I am looking into the issues raised in your letter and need more time to make an informed decision. You can be sure that I have absolutely no reason to deal “with a stalling tactic” and if you are unable to wait for a few more weeks, then you may take whatever action you want”. “It may be interesting to note that up to this time, the Reverend Dr. Odinga Lawrence Maddox has not received any correspondence from you”.


May 11th : Glover to Presiding Elder: “in reference to your e-mail, I only sent the previous e-mail because I didn’t have any idea of a timeframe for your response. I do understand that certain parts may take longer to give you time to secure solid information and that was expected. However, the aspect of whether the Trustee
(Glover’s response continued)

Report at the last quarterly conference was invalid should be easy to respond to since this is something that you would know automatically based upon your knowledge of the protocol and the discipline. Also, the cell phone aspect should be very clear since this is an IRS rule. I am willing to give more time and certainly don’t want the church to suffer needlessly if it can be prevented. However, I would like some kind of feedback relative to these two items as some kind of good faith”.



May 25th : Glover’s additional follow-up: “Regarding the issues with the church and Pastor Maddox, it seems that nothing is happening in spite of what you had said about needing time to verify information and etc. I have not spoken to one person that you have had contact with about the issues and they certainly are the people that would need to be contacted. It would not make any sense to ask those who are part of the problem and could not be objective about the situations. Well I will have to inform the member that there has been no action taken by our Presiding Elder regarding these serious issues. I believe this is a careless position to take on your part but it is your decision. On next Tuesday I will send a second letter to all of the members and Pastor Maddox (who seems to have a problem receiving the mail and e-mails also) advising them that I will be finalizing a website that I will post all of the information about Mt. Hope Church as it develops and also post the letters that were sent to the members and you previously. I will also post your response and lack of responses also. For such serious matters, this is an unacceptable position for you to take. Many members have been in touch with me and said that they can’t believe that you have not called for a conference at Mt. Hope Church to address these extremely serious issues that have been brought up. I will also have an open letter placed in the local paper (The Journal News) advising them of the website address where they can see updates about the awful situation at Mt. Hope Church. The apparent arrogance on the part of our religious leaders up to and including the Bishops is appalling and cannot be tolerated. If this is what I’m forced to do, I certainly will. As I said, the website is being developed as I write this e-mail; this is serious! I need a response from you a.s.a.p. but certainly before Monday, May 28th”.


May 25th : Presiding Elder’s response: “I have reviewed all your e-mails and have looked at the evidence made available to me concerning your many allegations of discord with Mount Hope African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. I have concluded that all the issues therein can be resolved with a spirit of cooperation and compromise and mutual respect for each other if you meet with the pastor, Rev. Dr. Odinga Lawrence Maddox and lay bare the contentious issues. Perhaps an uninterested third party can mediate this dispute. I pray for a resolution”.

May 25th : Glover’s response: “Do you believe that my letters are about “discord” with Mount Hope African Methodist Episcopal Church? And what issues can be resolved with the spirit of cooperation, compromise and mutual respect for each other? These are issues of wrongdoing that involves every member of this church; they are not my personal issues except for the one whereby I have no respect for Pastor Maddox. This is truly a disappointing response that is not based upon facts or investigation and is just sad. This is supposed to be some kind of resolution on your part – I think not and you know that it will take more than you are suggesting to resolve these serious issues! It seems that you must be kidding me and that you should probably revisit the issues to determine what they are really about and just how serious they are; with all due respect! Thank you for your response, at least that is something, although it does not address any one of the issues”!

Mt. Hope Other Happenings

As promised earlier, the following are the backgroung communications that I referred to. They are the letters to the members and the letter to the Presiding Elder. The e-mail responses by me to the Presiding Elder and hers to me will be posted at a later date.



All Mount Hope A.M.E. Zion Church Members

April 19, 2007

Re: The state of affairs at our once glorious church.

Dear fellow member(s):

I would like for you to take out your dictionaries and look up the meaning of the following two (2) words: TRUTH and INTEGRITY

After you read the following you will be able to determine for yourself why I’m asking you to do this, but more importantly, you will be able to arrive at the correct conclusion for yourself.for background purposes, I went to Mt. Hope A.M.E. Zion Church on Monday night April 16, 2007 to attend the 4th quarterly conference of the Westchester District, New York Annual Conference. When Pastor Maddox (who was filling in for Presiding Elder, Cynthia Willis-Stewart) called the quarterly conference to order, he then in a very loud voice called out my name and asked me to see him in his office. I proceeded to the office and he asked me to leave the quarterly conference. When I asked why, he told me I was not eligible to attend because I had not been attending Mt. Hope Church regularly and was not supporting the church (which are both true). However, I informed him that my General Claims and my District Quarterly dues had been paid and according to the discipline, this allowed any member of the church to attend the quarterly conference and have a voice. He said no and again insisted that I leave. I told Pastor Maddox at that time that he was taking an inappropriate action for which he would regret dearly. He said do what you have to do but you can’t stay in the quarterly conference. So I gathered my items and left the church.

Before I go into some specifics about why Pastor Maddox is unfit to serve the Mt. Hope membership, let me provide some current and alarming information:

a) Mt. Hope A.M.E. Zion Church is a “FAILED” church. It is so behind financially that it cannot possibly sustain itself any longer! You want proof of this – simply reflect back to December, 2006 when there was an appeal to raise $30,000.00 because the church had no money and was past-due with the mortgage, Con Edison bill and etc. The amounts in arrears totaled more than $24,000.00 and the next mortgage payment would soon be due. All of this, mind you, less than a month after the Women’s Day annual celebration. Several years ago the monies raised by the women’s day celebration would help to carry the church through December, January & February until the Men’s Day annual celebration in March; which would then carry the church through to the Church Anniversary Day celebration which would provide funds through the annual conference at the end of June. It’s sad to say but this is just not going to happen this year. I know that there is a horrible financial situation that will cause the Financial Committee to come back to you any day now to ask for probably another $30,000.00 and the situation will repeat itself throughout the foreseeable future – the same situation will occur again during the summer! I hope you have planned to keep giving your pledges until the church raises enough money to pay the monthly operating costs.
What a pleasant scenario to look forward to. Members you cannot save Mt. Hope; it’s to far gone and that is a fact. Let’s seek the conference’s financial help now!

b) However, at the most recent quarterly conference on Monday, April 16, 2007 a so-called “Trustee Board” report was read that covered financial results of the church and the financial position of the church as of February 28, 2007. In the report given by Pastor Maddox, it was stated that there was a balance in the Mt. Hope combined Operating Account and the Organizations & Clubs account in excess of $30,000.00. Just think, the Men’s Day money raised for its annual day was not even included in this total. Conservatively projecting, the church must have close to $35,000.00 to $40,000.00 in its treasury as of March 31, 2007 (less than 20 days ago). With this rosy picture, there should not be a need to ask any member for special pledges anytime until October or November of this year. And by that time Women’s day should have kicked in and then there would absolutely be no need to ask the fine members for anymore special pledges through the end of 2007! The one note of caution here is that the “Trustee Report” was not even prepared by anyone on the Trustee Board!!! Apparently it was prepared by Pastor Maddox and a non-trustee member of the church. If I were to speculate, I would say that the amount of $30,000.00 plus was in reality a deficit and that Mt. Hope does not have any money!!! What would make me come up with such speculation; well how about the property tax bill for the retail space not yet being paid and it was due by January 1, 2007. To make matters worse, there is a second property tax bill due on April 30, 2007. Between the two bills the amount is over $6,000.00. If you don’t believe this, simply go to White Plains city hall and inquire about the status of Mt. Hope’s property tax status. Additionally, there are overdue amounts to Con Edison of God knows how much but certainly more than $5,000.00! And who knows what the status of the mortgage is. If it has indeed been paid, I’m sure that they had to scrape the bottom of the treasury barrel to make the payment.
c) Why is Mt. Hope all of a sudden experiencing such horrific financial problems? Perhaps it is because for selfish reasons a large part of the funds raised from the tithes & offerings and special programs are being used to take to the checkup meeting – the last one being on March 30 or 31, 2007! Why do you think that Mt. Hope Church bills are being sacrificed to pay General Claims and District Quarterly assessments? Could it be that the great pastor would be up the creek without a paddle if these excessive assessments were not paid for the conference year. As a matter of illustration, the total General Claims and other conference assessments are in excess of $35,000.00 for this conference year which ends on June 30, 2007. So doing simple math (which does not lie), the amount of $185.00 ($150.00 for general claims and $35.00 for district quarterly) per active member would total approximately $16,650.00 only – assuming that 90 members paid the $185.00 for this conference year. Therefore a shortage of some $18,350.00 would result. Now how would such a shortage be made up? How about taking money from the Mt. Hope Operating funds to pay to the conference leaving the church unable to pay its property taxes, Con Edison, mortgage and a host of other bills that are seriously past-due. Now you may begin to understand why you have been requested to pay twice for general claims, district quarterly, women’s day, men’s day and church anniversary assessments. One has to be pretty desperate to make such a request. But of course there was more than $30,000.00 in the Mt. Hope church treasury at February 28, 2007! This brings to question where all the money has gone in about a month and a half (and the Men’s Day annual day money was not even counted in that total since that didn’t occur until March 18, 2007)!!! Perhaps it’s time for the membership to demand an audit of the books and records of the church since something is drastically wrong with the numbers that are reported. Hopefully there is no inappropriate use of church funds. Since this is one of my fields of expertise, I would do the membership a favor and conduct such an audit during the last part of May and the first part of June at no cost to the church to assess what has occurred to put the church at risk all of a sudden (but its not so sudden since I predicted this in my June, 2004 letter to Presiding Elder Cynthia Willis-Stewart). When the Presiding Elder asked our church delegate –Sister Marie Baxter if anything I was saying was possibly true, Sister Baxter used the following terms to answer the question: “I can assure you presiding elder that none of what Brother Davis stated is true”. I have wondered to this day how Sister Baxter, who has nothing to do with the church’s financial records and transactions such as check writing, reviewing bank statements and etc., could make such a statement of assurance to the presiding elder. If you need to refresh your memories, simply asked to see the delegate’s report that was read to the church membership in August or September of 2004 after the annual conference had take place. This report was prepared and read by Sister Marie Baxter!
d) In reference to item (b) above regarding the “Trustee’s Report”, that report should not have been voted on by the members of the quarterly conference since it was neither prepared by the trustees or presented to the quarterly conference by any trustee. If you will check your A.M.E. Zion church discipline you should find out that the Trustee’s are responsible for the financial status of the church and they are to be accountable to the members for preparing and presenting the information!! How could the pastor, who is always talking about the discipline, not be aware of such a fact? I suspect that he is and just chose to ignore it since he knew that no-one in the quarterly conference would have the courage to object! How hypocritical is that. But this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to hypocrisy or worse – not being truthful when it is convenient for him like stating at each quarterly conference that Mt. Hope Church has in excess of 270 members (has anyone taken a count of the members on any given Sunday)? You would have to count each person at least four (4) times to arrive at over 270 members. I guess this is the “new math” that he is using! Other examples: When the church anniversary celebration took place in May of 2005 and the pastor stood in the pulpit and stated that he thought the anniversary was being held on a different date, the facts of the matter show otherwise and I have copies of the e-mails to prove it since I was in touch with him constantly throughout January thru the 2nd week of May advising him of what we were planning to do each Sunday in May leading up to anniversary day on May 23, 2005. Not only that, other persons in the church know this to be true and that his trip came up suddenly; it had not been planned until early May! His trip date was in conflict with the anniversary and he simply decided to go to Europe and not be honest about it with members (I’m purposely not using the “L” word but you can draw your own conclusions about what is the truth). There was another pulpit non-truth when the Mercedes Benz that was donated to Mt. Hope Church by Sister Mamie Yates was being sold via a Mt. Hope Church auction process and some unsavory strings were being pulled. One of our beloved members, who has since passed on, wrote a letter to Bishop Walker and outlined the insane behavior that was taking place. Pastor Maddox when he returned from his trip stood in the pulpit and stated that a member of the church had written “a terrible and nasty letter to the Bishop and said a lot of awful things about the pastor and the church”. He stated, from the pulpit again, that he didn’t know who the person was nor had he seen the letter when in fact he had discussed the letter with the writer, In fact I had a copy of the letter and so did most of the trustees. It was a perfectly mild letter that simply stated the facts – THERE WAS NO NASTINESS OR AWFUL THINGS SAID IN THE LETTER!! There is much more but I’m getting tired.
e) These are my most serious points: 1)Payment of a pastor’s cell phone bill is against the IRS rules and the church can lose its Tax-Exempt Status if this is brought to light. This practice must end immediately and you members must demand it. 2) The Mount Hope Rising Daycare program is against IRS rules and will also cause the church to lose its Tax-Exempt status if discovered by the IRS. The problem is that you cannot have a for-profit entity using a church’s facilities without paying an agreed upon monthly rent that is fair for the area and the rental payments must be made consistently each month. Also there must be a bona-fide lease agreement with all the terms spelled out. Church we have a gigantic problem since practically all of the money from the program is going to Ms. Herriot and Mt. Hope was even paying the utility bills! I think the members should demand that this free use of our facility stop immediately! In both instances, the cell phone expenses must be reimbursed to the church going back to the beginning which was around 1999/2000 and we should seek rental reimbursement from the daycare operator. The Daycare is not a Mt. Hope Church Program – if it was we would have collected the monies and paid the operator a fee for running the program. Also where is the signed agreement that authorized this program.
f) The members have been taken advantage of extensively over the past 5 to 6 years and no-one other than myself has had the courage to try and do anything about it. Where has the dysfunctional trustee board been all this time – it is unconscious- able what they have permitted to happen to this church!!! Frank Eller nor Joe Smalls would have permitted this to happen under their watch as chairpersons. I know that Rev. Gullette is turning over in his grave over this nightmarish situation.
g) Finally, to ascertain what is the current bank balance is, one would only need to review the March 31st bank statement balances for the Operating Account with Sound Federal Bank (which has now been bought out by another bank) and the Organizations & Clubs Account with JPMorgan Chase Bank (formerly The Bank of New York). Add the two balances and that is approximately our treasury balance. There should be a Financial Committee presentation to the members of this simple process so that the truth can be known and faced once and for all. It’s time to stop the deceit, lies and exaggerations; the Mt. Hope Membership deserves to know the truth.


In closing, I would like to inform the membership of my reasons for not attending the church I love so much and has done so much for in the past. Simply put, I have -0- (zero) level of respect for Pastor Maddox. He is a mean-spirited, vicious, vindictive and selfish man who lacks integrity (I could tell you about this in great factual detail) but I will forego that at this time. I cannot have a person like this preach to me on Sunday when I know what he is about. I also don’t have any respect for the trustee board whose responsibility it is to look out for the welfare of the members – they have failed miserably due to lack of leadership and a lack of moral courage. If they took their positions seriously, they would have found a way to minimize this terrible position that the church finds itself in. I even wrote each trustee a letter back in 2004 and asked them to standup and put a stop to the insanity; they chose to do nothing and in fact only one trustee bothered to come to me and say I know that you are right in what you have said. I don’t have to name him because he knows who he is. The glorious past for Mt. Hope Church is over and we need to step-up immediately to the task of trying to turn this church around under new and capable leadership! Like I said before, it’s too late for the membership to save Mt Hope Church; we need to bring our plight to the attention of the bishop and request serious financial assistance from the conference! The church is in financial quicksand and someone has to throw us a rope. I urge each one of you to question me on anything I have stated here because it is the truth and I can back it up.

Flash!!! The church needs a new roof for which the cost will probably exceed $100,000.00. Where will these funds come from with the present situation?

*** Integrity and moral courage is greatly lacking in Mt. Hope Church, let’s change that!

Sincerely,


Brother Glover Davis

Note: Sister Patricia Dale Gilman and Brother Larry Nathaniel Carter – for success in your ministry you only need take one lesson from the pastor: study and know the bible.
For Sister Norman, she has been in this fight for a long time and knows what it takes.

* By the way, if the church were to lose its tax-exempt status it would be required to pay income taxes on tithes, offerings and other funds raised and you will not be able to deduct your gifts as charitable contributions on your income tax returns!


Rev. Dr. Cynthia Willis Stewart
Presiding Elder, Westchester District
1129 Pembroke Street
Uniondale, N.Y. 11553

April 29, 2007

Re: Mt. Hope A.M.E. Zion Church current status.

Dear Presiding Elder Willis-Stewart:

God knows you don’t need anymore burdens but this situation is one that demands your and Bishop Battle’s attention immediately. It is extremely serious and Mt. Hope Church is at great risk in terms of its survival. I wrote you the attached letter in June of 2004 and asked that you talk to Bishop Walker and let him know of the dire situation at the church. I know it put you in a difficult situation and your hands were probably tied. This resulted in your inquiry of the church delegate, Mrs. Marie Baxter. Unfortunately Mrs. Baxter had no awareness of the poor financial situation and she was simply too close to Pastor Maddox to be objective in any way. Instead of her assuring you that none of what I said was true; she should have simply said she was not in a position to know! This is the problem with a lot of the churches, people speak on matters they know nothing about because they like the pastor and want to protect them. This is such an ill-conceived point of view and it ends up hurting the churches dearly.

There are four (4) extremely serious matters that must be addressed immediately and they will be one way or the other. This is not a threat but simply a statement of what will be done if they are not immediately addressed:

1) The pastor has a personal cell phone that the church is paying for each month. He obtained it without any authorization from the Trustee Board (which simply would not have given such authorization). The Internal Revenue Service rules are clear – a church is prohibited from paying for a pastor’s cell phone and the penalty is a loss of the church’s tax-exempt status plus penalties and fines on the Trustee Board members and the pastor. This practice must end immediately and the pastor must either reimburse the church for all of the payments since he got the phone in 1998/1999 or the church must issue him a 1099-MISC income form for the amount of all payments and he will have to file amended income tax returns for the IRS and New York State for all of his tax years since 1998!
2) Regarding the so-called “Mt Hope Rising Daycare” that was supposed to be a joint venture between Mt. Hope Church and Mrs. Herriot – the operator of the program; this to is clearly against the Internal Revenue Service code. The code states that there cannot be any use of a church’s facilities by a for-profit entity without the receipt of consistent monthly rental payments that are fair to the particular area and in line with other like facilities. Since the daycare area is approximately the same as the street-level retail area, the church had to receive approximately $3,000.00 to $3, 300.00 rental payments per month from its beginning in August 2001 through the present. It is a fact that Mt Hope Church has only received approximately $5,200.00 during the entire time. This is about $205,000.00 less that the church would have received if only $3,000.00 per month had been paid from July, 2001 throughout April, 2007 – totaling $210,000.00! The other issue that is just as important is the idea of this being a joint collaboration between the church and the operator (Mrs. Herriot). This is not permissible because the church is tax-exempt and she runs an entity that is for profit! At the last four quarterly conferences that I attended, I tried to pursue this farce of a program and people were so blinded by the rhetoric put forth by Brother William Brown, Pastor Maddox and even yourself that the discussion was shutdown each time. I knew it was bogus and no one else would speak up and help to have the situation resolved. Now this situation is in a heightened state of crisis since a child has been injured on the premises and the operation is being investigated. Additionally, the daycare has been closed down since the incident! Mount Hope Church is clearly in the line of fire on this one. To make matters worse, the Mt. Hope Church name is on the program and it has not been administered even one day by the church. To have been a Mt Hope Church program, the church would have had to run the program, collect all participation fees and pay the operator and her staff! Not only did this not happen but the church didn’t even receive any financial reports at the quarterly conferences; what a farce to have this perpetrated on the members of this church. This is clearly a lack of leadership on the part of the pastor and others! This must be stopped immediately and Mt. Hope Church’s name must be removed from the program. This will also cause Mt. Hope to lose its tax-exempt status with the IRS. The operator of the daycare, Pastor Maddox and Brother Brown should be forced to pay the fair rental fees for this period to Mt. Hope Church!!
3) Losing the tax-exempt status would mean that the church must pay taxes on it tithes, offerings and other program revenues to the IRS and NY State plus the members would no longer be able to deduct their gifts as charitable contributions!
This would be the final kiss of death for the church
4) The final item is the “Trustee Report” to the 4th quarterly conference that took
place on Monday April 16, 2007. This is an invalid report for the simple reason
reason that it was prepared by Pastor Maddox and another non-trustee member of
the church. I believe that the report is required to be prepared and reported on at
the quarterly conference by the Trustees, who are responsible for the upkeep of
the assets of the church (property) and for their fiduciary duties involving the
church’s finances. No other person or body can perform this function as long as
as there are any trustees on the board. If this premise is incorrect, please provide
me with the section of the discipline that makes this incorrect and I will gladly
retract this charge. Otherwise, I am demanding that the report be declared null and
void and it must be properly prepared and presented at another special quarterly
conference of the church. You in your position must require this to be stated and
done.
Finally, the report stated that there was in excess of $30,000.00 in the church’s treasury at on February 28, 2007. It is a fact that the annual men’s day celebration had not taken place until March 18, 2007 and additional funds would have been available. If this is so, why is there no money to pay the property taxes on the retail space, to pay for the Con Edison bills and why is the mortgage payment just barely able to be paid. There are numerous other bills that are past-due. The money is not there and someone must be made to account for how it has been spent. We must have an audit of the church’s books and records very soon! Please refer to my letter to the members of the church dated April 19, 2007 – a copy of which is being e-mailed to you in a second e-mail.

I demand that this information be brought to the bishop’s attention and that Pastor Maddox not be sent back to Mt. Hope Church as the church is no longer self-sustaining. I warned of this disaster in my June 2004 letter and for that I was suspended from the trustee board and I have no desire to ever serve again with the current board members.

I need a response from you and bishop Battle within the next two weeks advising what your actions will be. If a response is not received, I will bring the matters to the attention of the IRS and many other suspect activities will be revealed. If this is what you and bishop Battle want, that is what you will get. This situation has gone on much to long and Mt Hope members have paid a high cost. I am surprised that Bishop Battle has not visited Mt Hope Church since he has been put into his current charge. We need him to carry out his responsibility to our church.

Mt. Hope Church is a “Failed” church financially and the members cannot save it this time; the denomination must step in to help the church go forward. This is not a request, it is what is absolutely necessary at this time!!!

Sincerely,


Brother Glover Davis,Mt Hope Church member – but not currently attending due to the chaotic situation.