In recognition of Black History Month, we would like to honour the contribution of black men and women in advancing the gospel

William J Seymour (May 2, 1870 – September 28, 1922)

Seymour is synonymous with the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles, where God used him to help bring about the Pentecostal movement. He was from Louisiana, baptised Catholic and grew up attending a Baptist church. He received modest training in the Holiness tradition but in Los Angeles the church leadership rejected Seymour’s emphasis on speaking in tongues. He began a Bible study that would become the Azusa Street Revival.  On April 9, 1906 the Holy Spirit fell on this small group of men and women with fire, tongues, and other signs. This event, greatly helped by apocalyptic thoughts prompted by the San Francisco Earthquake which happened soon after, sparked a powerful religious revival driven by the three doctrines of salvation, sanctification and baptism in the Spirit, and in which the gifts of the Spirit and healings were seen on a large scale. Over 13,000 people are said to have spoken in tongues in the first year.  From the beginning, the movement was racially egalitarian; people of all colours worshiped together, against the normal segregation rules of the day.  Seymour said that the Holy Spirit was bringing people together across all social lines and boundaries to the revival.   This revival helped bring about the rise of Pentecostalism in the twentieth century.