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”!