January Pentecostal Anniversaries: 2 Catherine Price


Last time, I wrote about Agnes Ozman. But it wasn't only in America that Pentecostalism began in January. In England it got a January New Year start as well. (I say England, because things had already been going on in Wales for a good while by the time the English caught up.)

Very early in the New Year of 1907, in a house on Akerman Road in Brixton in London, Mrs Catherine Price was kneeling down in prayer, quietly worshipping the Lord. And while she was adoring her Saviour, she had a vision in which she was taken to Calvary. She tried to open her mouth to worship the Lamb of God whom she saw there on the Cross, but when she did, she discovered that she wasn't speaking English. She was worshipping the Crucified Christ in some other language. 

The next evening she went to church, and felt a great burden to pass on to the people there what was filling her heart. But, yet again, when she opened her mouth it wasn't English that came out. The minister asked her if she knew the language she was speaking. When she said she didn't, he told her that, if it was from the Holy Spirit, He would give the interpretation if she asked for it. So she did; and He did. And the result, Catherine tells us, was 'conviction, confession, and wholehearted yieldedness to the Lord Jesus all over the hall.'

A bit later that year, Catherine Price would open up her house for prayer meetings, which really became the first Pentecostal meetings in London. 

So, in England as in America, Pentecostalism began in January with a woman who spoke in tongues. And like Agnes Ozman, Catherine Price was a woman who loved Jesus and whose eyes were on Jesus. Catherine wasn't seeking the gift of tongues; she was worshipping the Lord. She wasn't looking for a dramatic sign; her eyes were fixed on the Cross.

And if we're going to be true to our British Pentecostal roots, we should keep our eyes fixed on Christ and His Cross too. There's nothing wrong with quietly worshipping Jesus and rejoicing in the Cross. It's a very Pentecostal thing indeed; after all, that's exactly how Pentecostalism in England was born.