The Azusa Street Revival and Its Spiritual Atmosphere
For Seven days a week, night and day, for over Seven years, people from around the city of Los Angeles and around the world gathered together at 312 Azusa Street to experience what God was doing at that former livery stable. The people contended that there was no leader except for the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, william Seymour played a key role in what God was doing there at the Azusa Mission. Besides Brother Seymour, the ministry was very dependent on the many women who supported him in the work and who played a key role in the daily schedule there at Azusa.
Key Women Working Alongside William Seymour
Working with william Seymour at the Azusa Street revival of Los Angeles in 1906 were his wife, Jenny Evans Moore Seymour; Anna Hall, who preached among Armenians and Russians in Los Angeles; and revival leader Lucy Farrow. Many did not like the fact, however, that God was using African-Americans and women in this fresh move of the Spirit. All the same, God kept calling both into the work of the ministry, and women continued to play a strategic role in what was happening in the revival, as well as spreading its message to the rest of the world.
Lucy Farrow and the Invitation to Los Angeles
The pastor of william Seymour’s church in Houston, before he began attending Charles Parham’s Bible School in 1905, was a woman named Lucy Farrow. She was also later associated with Seymour at Azusa Street and conducted her own preaching campaigns in Virginia, Liberia, and other places. Lucy Farrow was described as an “anointed handmaiden” whose ministry included laying on of hands through which seekers received the Pentecostal experience. It was also a woman, Neely Terry, who invited Seymour to Los Angeles in 1906, where he founded the Azusa Street mission.
Women Leaders Surrounding Seymour’s Journey
On his way from Texas to California, Seymour stayed in the headquarters of the Pillar of Fire denomination in Denver which was headed by a woman, Alma white, and Julia W. Hutchins was pastor of the church to which Seymour was first invited in Los Angeles. Women in leadership roles at Azusa would eventually include Jenny Evans Moore (who married Seymour in 1908), Mrs. G.W. Evans, Phoebe Sargent, Lucy Farrow, Ophelia wiley, Clara Lum, and Florence Crawford. Six of the twelve elders at the Azusa Street mission who were in charge of examining potential missionaries and evangelists for ordination were women.
Women’s Ministry Roles at Azusa Street
Women also led the singing and sometimes preached to the congregation at Azusa. And when Seymour died in 1922, his wife, Jenny, continued as pastor of the Azusa Mission. Large numbers of women preachers went out from Azusa or, after visiting Azusa, went back to various parts of the world to preach. These included Ivey Campbell, who preached in Ohio; Mabel Smith who “preached nightly to overflowing crowds” in Chicago; Rachel Sizelove in Missouri; Lucy Leatherman, who made a trip around the world; Daisy Batman and Julia Hutchins, who preached in Liberia; and Florence Crawford who carried on the Apostolic Faith Mission in Oregon.
Lasting Impact of the Women of Azusa
Although there is little information about most of these women, it wasn’t just those attending Services at Azusa who felt their impact. These women took their good works to other cities and countries as well, Spreading the word about what God did at Azusa. TO BE CONTINUED…
Tale Tuesday 033
Date: 21st March 2023
Title: The women of Azusa-Introduction
Source: The Azusa Street Revival
Author: Roberts Liardon
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