March 4, 1906: William Seymour is expelled from the Santa Fe Mission

On March 4, 1906, Seymour preached during the morning service at the Santa Fe Mission that speaking in tongues is the biblical evidence of baptism in the Holy Spirit. When he returned for the evening service, he found the church doors locked by Julia Hutchins. After consulting the leadership of the Southern California Holiness Association, to which the Santa Fe Mission belonged, Hutchins informed Seymour that she did not accept speaking in tongues (glossolalia) as part of the doctrine of holiness. One of the elders’ arguments was that Seymour himself had not been baptized in the Holy Spirit and had not experienced what he preached.

However, Seymour was not the first to make the connection between speaking in tongues and baptism in the Holy Spirit. Even his teacher, Charles Parham, who systematized the theological link between biblical sanctification and Spirit baptism, was an heir to a rich tradition of preachers and churches that accepted speaking in tongues as the sign of the baptism in the Holy Spirit within the holiness doctrine.

1905 – Lucy Farrow, who introduced Seymour to Parham and later helped him receive the invitation to pastor the Santa Fe Mission in Los Angeles, was baptized in the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues. She was the niece of Frederick Douglass and pastor of a Holiness church in Houston. Lucy Farrow received the baptism in the Holy Spirit while working in the home of Charles Parham. At a prayer meeting in Houston in early 1906, she prayed for 25 people, all of whom were baptized in the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues simultaneously. Shortly afterward, she traveled to Los Angeles, and when Seymour was expelled, it was Lucy Farrow who prayed for the first believers to receive Spirit baptism during the home prayer meetings that began on Bonnie Brae Street in April 1906.

1896 – During the revival meetings known as the “Shearer Schoolhouse Revival,” more than 100 men, women, and children were baptized in the Holy Spirit. They were part of a mountain community in North Carolina called the “Christian Union,” from which the Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee) would later emerge.

1887 – In the revival meetings of Maria Etter, under the power of the Holy Spirit, believers (mainly Quakers and Methodists) fell into trances and spoke in unknown tongues, leading the secular press to call her a “voodoo priestess.”

1880 – The “Pentecostal Holiness Church Movement” documented Holy Spirit baptisms among its members.

1889 – Jethro Walthall of Arkansas was baptized in the Holy Spirit along with many others during a prayer meeting.

1875 – E. B. Swan testified that the so-called “Gift People” in Rhode Island practiced speaking in tongues.

1874 – Similar testimonies came from healing meetings in New York State, where many were baptized in the Spirit and spoke in tongues.

1855 – William Dowie spoke in unknown tongues during meetings of Frank W. Sandford in Shiloh, Maine. Later, Dowie founded the “Gift People” movement, and Sandford started a Bible school called “The Holy Spirit and Us” as part of his church. Ambrose J. Tomlinson, who in 1907 would organize the Church of God, also visited Shiloh in October 1901. Even Charles Parham stayed at the school for six weeks during the summer of 1900 to listen to Sandford’s lectures. It was there that Parham first heard speaking in tongues among the students in the school’s old prayer towers.

In 1906, the participants in the Azusa Street Revival sought the same experience of speaking in tongues that had occurred in the early hours of January 1, 1901, at Charles Parham’s school in Topeka, Kansas. Interestingly, a publication from January 6, 1900, reported that at Sandford’s school in Shiloh, many had been baptized in the Holy Spirit and spoke in unknown tongues following a prayer meeting that began on New Year’s Eve and lasted about ten days.

1854 – W. P. Simons and Robert Boyd separately testified about speaking in unknown tongues during evangelistic meetings led by D. L. Moody, attended by followers of the Scottish preacher Edward Irving.

Bulgarian Socialist Leader Expelled

With over 100 votes at today’s meeting of the National Council of the BSP, they expelled the resigned leader of the party, Kornelia Ninova. She was at the head of the formation for eight years. The decision was supported by 105 votes “for”, 16 “against” and four abstained.

Along with Ninova, Georgi Svilenski, Ivan Chenchev and Krum Donchev were excluded from the left formation. There are seven reasons for the release of Ninova and her three party members. Among the main reasons for their exclusion is non-compliance with the decision from which constituency Ninova and Svilenski should run for parliament.

„ Legally, we are in absolute precedent – a chairman who is expelled from the party but is chairman by court order. Give us time to think about the situation. Our efforts must be aimed at the BSP’s appearance in the elections,” said the resigned leader Ninova. She added that they refused to vote by roll call at the plenum.

Gheorgi Svilenski said that the agenda of the National Council of the party consisted of two points – about the current situation and about the domestic political order. “For the second point, the reasons for imposing punishments on the four should have been read – to Cornelia Ninova, to me, to Ivan Chenchev and to Krum Donchev. There were no reasons for this decision and Zafirov’s answer to Donchev was: “In principle”. Donchev is excluded “in principle”. This decision was made between 65 and 70 people, and people who are not members of the National Council were also present in the hall, Svilenski said, adding that he had asked the presenter Christian Vigenin three times to check the quorum, but he had refused.

In his words, the procedure for Ninova’s exclusion is not the same as the steps for the release of other party members. “She was elected chairman of the party by 57,000 socialists”, he added.

Ninova explained that on the one hand she wants to leave the leadership post, on the other hand her fellow party members want her resignation. “This can only be done in Congress, they refused to call Congress, they refused to let me in. They will keep me here as a hostage to legitimize their iniquities. I have given a power of attorney to Georgi Svilenski and Ivan Chenchev, they will participate in the registration of the lists, she added.