William Joseph Seymour

Apostolic Faith Movement

"Azusa Street Revival" 

1870~1922

William J. Seymour was born in Centerville, Louisiana on May 2, 1870 to former slaves, Simon and Phyllis Seymour. Raised as a Baptist, William was given to dreams and visions as a young man. Although little is recorded about hus early life, it is known that he migrated to Indianapolis, Indiana in 1895. While in Indianapolis he joined a local black Methodist Episcopal Church.

From 1900 to 1902 William lived in Cincinnati, Ohio where he came in contact with the Holiness Movement. Accepting the Holiness emphasis on entite sanctification, William joined the Church of God Reformation Movement, also known as the "Evening Light Saints".

While in Indianapolis, William Seymour contracted smallpox, which left him without the use of his left eye. While reflecting on his illness, he accepted the call to preach. In a short time he was licensed and ordained as a minister of the "Evening Light Saints" movement.

In 1903, Seymour moved to Houston, Texas in search of his family. He began to attend a Holiness Church pastored by Lucy Farrow. When pastor Farrow accompaned Charles Parham back to Galena, Kansas in 1905 to work as a governess in his home, Seymour was asked to become the pastor of the church.

In October 1905, Farrow retuened to Houston with a new experience of speaking in tongues, which she had accepted under Parham's influence. By December 1905, Parham moved his Bible school to Houston, where he taught that the "initial" evidence of receiving the baptism of the Holy Ghost was speaking in other tongues.

Ever hungry for biblical training, Seymour enrolled in Parham's school, despite the prevailing system of racial segregation in the South. To satisfy Southern law, Seymour would have to sit in the hall where he could only hear the lessons through the doorway, and not inneract with the other students. However, according to Sarah Parham, her husbands great love for Bro. Seymour over-rode the segregational laws by giving him his rightful place in the class-room with the other students to learn the things of God. Under Parham's teaching, Seymour accepted the promise, that speaking in tongues was a present day sign of the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

While in Houston, Seymour was visited by a young woman named Neely Terry from a Holiness Church in Los Angeles, California. She invited him to visit her California congregation with the possibility of becoming the pastor. Charles Parham had hoped that Seymour would stay in houston and reach the black community with the Apostolic message. However, Parham gathered enough money, andpaid for Seymour's rail fare to Los Angeles.

In his first sermon in Los Angeles, Seymour preached Acts 2:4 and to the dismay of the pastor, he announced the necessity of speaking in other tongues as evidence of the Pentecostal experience. Because of opposition from the Holiness Association, the church doors were locked, barring Seymour from entering, therefore, he was forced to find refuge in the home of Richard and Ruth Asberry on Bonnie Brae Street.

After several weeks of prayer meetings in the Asberry home, Seymour and others received thebaptism of the Holy Ghost with the evidence. The event sparked an intense revival. For a time services were held on the front porch where Seymour preached to large crowds gathered in the street. As the numbers increased, larger facilities were needed if the services were to continue. A search of the downtown area of Los Angeles produced an old building at 312 Azusa Street, that had formerly been an African Methodist Church, but had recently been used as a stable and warehouse.

On April 14, 1906 Seymour held his first service in the Azusa Street mission. On April 18, the day of the San Francisco earthquake, the first report of the Los Angeles Times spoke of a "Weird babble of tongues" amid "Weird scenes" in the mission. By May, more than 1000 people were trying to enter the small 40 by 60 foot mission, to witness the scenes that had rivaled those of Cane Ridge only a century earlier.

The central feature of Azusa Street however, was speaking in tongues, which electrified the services and attracted many to the altars to receive the baptism. By the end of 1906, Seymour officially incorporated his ministry as the Pacific Apostolic Faith Movement.

Soon, visitors from around the nation, and from foreign lands journyed  to Los Angeles to receive their own Pentecostal experience. The unity of Seymour's Azusa Street Revival was remarkable in that people of practically every nationality, race, and culture attended the services. It seemed that the color line had been washed away by the blood of Jesus.

When Seymour died on September 28, 1922 his wife continued as pastor of the Azusa Street Mission. Practically every early Pentecostal movement can trace its origins directly or indirectly to Seymour's Azusa Street Mission. William Joseph Seymour was inducted into the Apostolic Ministerial Hall of Fame in 2005.

Frank J. Ewart

United Pentecostal Church International

1876 ~ 1947

Frank J. Ewart was born in 1876 in Australia. He was a Pentecostal preacher and author. Frank began his ministry in the Baptist church as a bush missionary. In 1903 he immagrated to Canada, and served as the pastor of a Baptist church. After he received the baptism of the Holy Ghost in 1908, Frank was dismissed by the Baptist organization. In 1911, he became the assistant pastor to William H. Durham in Los Angeles, and when Durham died in 1912, Ewart became the pastor.

In 1913 he heard R.E. McAlister preach at the Arroyo Seco, camp meeting in Los Angeles on water baptism in the name of Jesus Christ. The following year he openly began preaching the shorter formula, and began rebaptizing Pentecostals in jesus' Name.

Brother Ewart was one of the first Pentecostal ministers to teach the Oneness of God, rather than the doctrine of the trinity. He spread the Oneness message throughout the Pentecostal movement through his periodical, "Meat In Due Season".

In 1919 he founded a successful church in Belvedere, California, and continued to pastor this church until his death in 1947. Frank Ewart became an ordained minister in the United Pentecostal Church International. Frank J. Ewart was inducted into the Apostolic Ministerial Hall of Fame in 2005.

Nathaniel Andrew Urshan

United Pentecostal Church International

1920 ~ 2005

Nathaniel Andrew Urshan was born August 29, 1920 in St. Paul, Minnesota where his father, Andrew David Urshan was pastor at Midway Tabernacle. Nathaniel was the second of four children, and the first son born into the family. Soon after the birth of Nathaniel, the Urshan family moved to Chicago, Illinois. For several years, Andrew Urshan used Chicago as a base of operations for his evangelistic ministry. In 1932 the Urshan family moved to New York City. The following year A.D. Urshan assumed the pastorate of Apostolic Faith Christian Church in that city. After graduation from high school Nathaniel enrolled at Columbia University, where he majored in premedical studies and sports. Nathaniel was drafted by the Chicago White Sox and played baseball in their minor league farm system.

Although nathaniel grew up in a home where prayer and faith were greatly stressed, he did not become serious about serving God until he was in college. Late one night when he returned home with alchol on his breath, his father marched him to the church and demanded that he kneel at the altar. The desperate prayer of his father that night so startled young Nathaniel that he was moved to begin seeking the Lord. Soon afterward, he was filled with the Holy Ghost. A short time later he received his call to the ministry.

Nathaniel met Jean Habig in 1938, when she accompanied Raymond Hoekstra and his wife, who had traveled from Indianapolis to preach a series of meetings in New York City. After a romance that included singing and praying together in revivals, Nathaniel and Jean were married on October 1, 1941, at Calvary Tabernacle in Indianapolis, Indiana. To this union were born four children: Sharon Sue, Annette Ruth, Nathaniel Paul, and Andrew David. I December of 1941, the newlyweds began holding revivals that took them into Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia, Kentucky, Arkansas, Missouri, and Idaho.

In February 1943, nathaniel Urshan became associate pastor to C.C. Kirby in Royal Oaks, Michigan, where the family stayed for two and a half years before resuming evangelistic work. For a short time he assisted Raymond Hoekstra  at Calvary Tabernacle in Indianapolis. He then returned to New York City to assist his father. In July 1949, nathanile Urshan was asked by Pastor Hoekstra to consider the pastorate of Calvary tabernacle. By a strong vote the church concurred with this decision, and thus began a successful pastorate in the city of Indianapolis that lasted for thirty years. Nathaniel Urshan has served in a number of official capacities in the Oneness Pentecostal movement. From 1942 to 1943 he held the posotion of national youth president for the Assemblies of Jesus Christ. From 1959 to 1977 he served as a district presbyter for the Indiana District of the United Pentecostal Church International. He was a member of the Board of Christian Education from 1955 to 1971.

From 1961 to 1978 and again from 1983 until the time of his retirment, he was a speaker for the Harvestime radio program. From 1971 to 1978 he served as Assistant General Superintendent for the Eastern Zone of the UPCI. In 1977 he was elected to the position of General  Superintendent of the United Pentecostal Church International, a position he held until he retired in 2002. On March 11, 2005, Nathaniel Andrew Urshan was gathered into the arms of God. He was 84 years of age. Bishop Urshan was inducted into the Apostolic Ministerial Hall of Fame in 2005. Audio and Video recordings of Nathaniel A. Urshan are available in the audio/video library of the Apostolic Archives International.