William Joseph Seymour:
The father of Pentecostalism
The Downfall of Seymour’s Vision
Even before the
Azusa Street Revival was over things began to fall apart for William Seymour’s
movement and would prove to discredit his legacy. Seymour’s teacher, Charles Parham, came to visit Azusa Street and
was appalled by the interracial and inter-gender worship style of the meetings.
He loudly ranted against Seymour and his revival and eventually took many
members from the congregation to a rival mission that he started in Los
Angeles. After his mission failed, Parham continued to discredit Seymour and
his movement. This devastating treason
from his own teacher was not the last incident of betrayal that Seymour would
experience.
In 1909 Seymour
lost access to his mailing list for the Apostolic Faith magazine, when Florence
Crawford and Clara Lum moved to Portland Oregon taking the mailing list with
them. It is unknown why Crawford took
the list but many believe it was in response to Seymour’s marriage to his wife
Jennie, a leader and pianist in the church. Some believe the women were upset
with the marriage because it occurred so close to the return of Christ, while
others argue that Crawford took the list in a fit of jealousy as she herself
planned for Seymour to marry her, even though she was advised that Seymour
could never marry her because the world was not ready for and interracial
marriage (Crawford was white).[16]
The final
personal betrayal that Seymour experienced occurred when he had a doctrinal
argument with Chicago leader William Durham. Durham severed his fellowship with
Seymour after Seymour locked him out of the Apostolic Mission on Azusa Street.
Durham and his followers formed the Assemblies of God movement, which grew into
a major division of the Pentecostal denomination.
The schism
between Seymour and Durham foreshadowed the future of the denomination. The Assemblies of God developed into a
predominantly white group. This schism was echoed across the country in
Pentecostalism as congregations and groups felt pressure from those outside the
religion that did not approve of the intermingling of the races in
worship. Throughout the years between
1907-1920 more schisms occurred. Including racial splits in the Pentecostal
Assemblies of the World and the Church of God in Christ to some extent. Most of
the groups, these included continued to have relations with their counterparts
of other races until the 1930s but were officially divided, generally among
racial lines by the mid-thirties.[17]
Within a short
time of the Azusa Street Revival’s beginnings, Seymour’s great vision of
harmony and tongues began to fall apart. It seems that the pressures of society
proved to be too strong for the young churches, no matter how well intentioned
the churches were. The example of unity that had been held up to the nation and
world was short lived and proved that Christians were not always unaffected by
the prejudices of the world no matter how they hard they tried to be separate.
By the time of Seymour’s death on September 28, 1922 his church on Azusa Street
and his influence on the movement was small and after Jennie Seymour’s death in
1936 the church on Azusa Street was sold and demolished.
Ü Azusa St.:
Impact Conclusions Ţ
William Joseph Seymour Homepage HIS 338 Student Websites Page
This page was created by Ashley Sample. E-mail: smaple333@hotmail.com
This page was last updated April 17, 2001