Readers of the 21 February 1953 edition of the weekly Elim Evangel:
would have seen a small notice (p. 89) of an Elim Pioneer Campaign to be held in Oxford, England, commencing Sunday 29 March that year at the Town Hall on Sundays and the Union Hall in St. Michael’s Street on weekday evenings. It was to be led by Percy Brewster, who has been provocatively described as ‘Elim’s greatest evangelist’ by the Elim historian Maldwyn Jones. The evangelist Willard Cantelon was to minister alongside him (as he had (p. 210) in the successful 1952 Bristol campaign):
The day before it started, an editorial (p. 148) in the Elim Evangel professed high expectations for the Oxford campaign:
Readers were exhorted to Pray, Give, and Go:
An updated notice (p. 153) showed that there were to be two meetings in the Town Hall on Sundays, at 6:30 and 8:00 pm:
The Elim Evangel reported in its editorial of 11 April (p. 172) that more than 700 people attended the first meeting in the Town Hall on 29 March. About 200 responded to Brewster’s appeal:
Pastor Alexander Tee stated, in another account (p. 200) of that first meeting, that 150 people walked out to the front of the building where they were asked to offer the repentant sinner’s prayer for forgiveness of sins and the new birth:
Tee appealed for more prayer, describing Oxford as a hard city, which needed ‘smashing right open’ to the ‘pentecostal message’:
In yet another account (p. 233), that first service was described as unforgettable with ‘so many lives’ being surrendered to God:
It seems possible that there was a decline in attendance on the second Sunday 5 April, since an S.O.S. was issued for much more prayer on behalf of the campaign. The dates show that the appeal must have been made at the beginning of the second week, rather than, as stated here (p. 485) by Alan Dennison, after it:
The 6th of April was Easter Monday, and both Percy Brewster and Willard Cantelon were ministering (p. 147) in the Royal Albert Hall:
before presumably returning to Oxford for the weekday meetings in the Union Hall.
The healing of Edwin Griffiths
I have found nine sources of information for the healing of Edwin Griffiths, as follows:
- A report in the Oxford Mail, Saturday 11 April 1953;
- A ‘Late News‘ item in the Elim Evangel, Saturday 18 April 1953 (p. 188);
- A report in the Elim Evangel of Saturday 2 May 1953 (p. 207) by Welsh evangelist Idris Davies of a testimony given by Griffiths in Oxford Town Hall on a Sunday evening (11, 18 or 25 April 1953);
- A testimony by Griffiths’ daughter Joyce Griffiths in the Elim Evangel, 2 May 1953 (p. 207);
- A testimony by Griffiths’ son Edwin Griffiths in the Elim Evangel, 2 May 1953 (p. 207);
- A photograph of Griffiths in the Elim Evangel, 16 May 1953 (p. 233);
- A mention of the healing in an article about the Oxford Campaign by Alan Dennison, Elim Evangel, 10 October 1953 (p. 485);
- A short account by Ernest Scrivens, the pastor of the Oxford Elim congregation, as recorded in the Oxford Mail of 11 January 1954;
- A report by Jack Hywel Davies in the Elim Evangel of 8 May 1954 of a testimony given by Griffiths in the Royal Albert Hall on 19 April 1954 (pp. 222-3).
Identification
He is identified by the Oxford Mail as ‘Mr Edwin Griffiths of 21, Wolsey Road, Oxford’:
He had moved to Oxford in 1939:
and was 47 years old:
In the Elim Evangel, he is referred to as Dr. Griffiths [18 April 53 and subsequently] and described [2 May 53, also 18 April 53, ] as a ‘doctor of literature’:
suggesting that he held a D.Litt. But that degree is awarded on the basis of ‘a long record of publication’, and I have not so far found evidence of a scholar of that name and era. He had a respectable appearance (p. 233):
Previous condition
According to the Oxford Mail, Griffiths had ‘a spinal disability’, wore a spine brace, used crutches, had never been able to walk properly, and had lived an invalid’s life:
His daughter said (p. 207) that he had been an invalid for nearly seven years, with a crooked and diseased spine, stomach trouble, and poor eyesight, blind in his left eye:
His son said he had been an invalid for over seven years, bed-ridden and in pain:
and that he, now apparently 23 years old, had never known his father to be able to walk properly:
Griffiths reportedly (p. 207) told the Town Hall congregation that he had suffered from a spinal disease all his life, could not walk, and lived the life of an invalid:
A year later, he reportedly (p. 233) told the Royal Albert Hall congregation that he had been a dying man, with perforated kidneys, a duodenal ulcer, very poor eyesight, and a rigid spine, with useless left arm and leg:
Date and time of healing
The Final Edition of the Oxford Mail, Saturday 11 April, refers to the healing as having taken place the day before:
but Idris Davies reports (p. 207) the day of the healing as a Thursday:
Griffiths’ son Edwin recalled his father being already healed on the afternoon of Thursday April 9th:
If the weekday meetings in the Union Society Hall were held only in the evenings, then this would put the date of healing back to Wednesday 8th April or before. However it may be noted that an advert in the Oxford Mail for the Town Hall meetings of Sunday 26th April shows a dedicated healing meeting at 3pm in the afternoon:
Conceivably, an afternoon healing meeting could have begun in the Union Society Hall in the second week of the campaign. The Oxford Mail records an attendance of only 50 on the occasion of Griffiths’ healing, which could be consistent with an afternoon meeting:
Also, the Elim Evangel of 18 April 1953 reported that after his healing, Griffiths brought 20 people ‘at night’, suggesting perhaps an evening meeting on the same day as the healing:
Hearing about the meeting
According to the Oxford Mail, Griffiths heard about the healing meetings in that same paper:
The Mail had indeed carried at least four advertisements for the campaign, as follows:
The first two advertised a ‘Great Public Revival and Divine Healing Campaign’. The first and last announced that the sick would be anointed and prayed for during the services. The third boldly announced ‘Miraculous healing through prayer’. Whichever advert or adverts he saw, Edwin Griffiths would have been in no doubt that he could receive prayer for healing if he attended the meetings.
Similarly, Idrin Davies reported (p. 207) that Griffiths had heard about the campaign through the press:
Jack Hywel Davies, on the other hand, reported (p. 223) that Griffiths had told the 1954 Royal Albert Hall congregation that his daughter had placed a campaign leaflet on his bed:
The two accounts are by no means incompatible since, for example, Griffiths could have seen an advert in the Mail, and expressed an interest in going to his daughter, who had then brought him a leaflet.
Getting to the meeting
According to the Oxford Mail, Griffiths went to the service by taxi, helped by his wife and daughter and probably with the assistance of crutches:
Idris Davies adds (p. 207) that the journey was made with great difficulty:
His daughter said that it had been terrible to see him suffer and that, having entered the Union Society hall, he had dropped into the nearest seat:
His son said that he could not understand how his father had been able to get to the meeting:
Griffiths reportedly (p. 223) told the Royal Albert Hall congregation that it had been a painful journey, that he had been dressed for the first time in seven years, and that in addition to the crutches, he was wearing a spinal jacket and had black glasses for his blind eye:
The healing
According to the Oxford Mail, about 20 people had come on to the platform to receive healing prayer. The evangelist, Willard Cantelon, saw that Edwin Griffiths was unable to join them, and so went to him instead, and laid both hands on his head:
The Mail then quotes Griffiths as saying that Cantelon told him twice to stand, and then to put his feet out. He put out his right foot and the movement was painless and free:
It is not clear to me whether he did stand when asked, leaning on his crutches, or whether he remained sitting until he put out his right foot.
The ‘Late News’ item in the Elim Evangel records (p. 188) that a ‘Doctor of Literature’ was healed and threw away his crutches:
As in the Mail account, Griffiths’s daughter recounts that Cantelon came to Griffiths where he was and laid hands on his head:
Upon Cantelon’s prompting, Griffiths confessed his love of Jesus:
then sat straight up, and tried to stand. Cantelon told him to take two steps forward and he did so. Then he told him to walk, and it seems that Griffiths said that he could not only walk but run, and did so, to her amazement and the cries of the congregation:
It seems that someone gave him his crutches, and that he took them but threw them away, and then walked uprightly to the platform, and gave glory to God:
Idris Davies also reports that Cantelon laid hands on Griffiths, and adds that he (Cantelon) claimed healing in the Name of the Lord:
Griffiths stood and ran up and down the hall, throwing away his crutches:
In the Royal Albert Hall in 1954, Griffiths reportedly (p. 223) said that power came down from the roof, and that the pain drained out of his body from his head downwards. He went from a lying position to standing straight up, straighter than he had ever stood in his life before:
Like his daughter, he remembered ‘the pastor’, that is the evangelist Willard Cantelon, telling him to take two steps forward, but in his account he said ‘No’ to this command. Cantelon then told him to take three steps ‘in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost’, and he did so:
With very similar words to those found in his daughter’s account, he said to Cantelon that he could not only walk but run. And he ran:
I would imagine that Griffith’s experience of power coming down and the pain draining from his head down occurred when Cantelon laid hands on his head. It is easy to suppose that Griffiths’ daughter forgot that he initially declined to advance two steps, but did respond when told to advance three steps. With regard to the Mail’s account of him stretching out his right foot, I imagine this was before taking any steps, and may have been either while still lying slumped on his chair, or while supporting himself semi upright on crutches.
Condition after his healing
Griffith’s son Edwin was bewildered to see his father jump out of the taxi on the Thursday afternoon, and then demonstrate his ability even to run:
Griffiths had no fear of a relapse, according to the Oxford Mail. He felt ‘different and alive’ and had ‘a new sense of vigour and vitality’. He ran up the stairs (presumably of his home) to demonstrate his new mobility to the reporter:
Idris Davies reported that Griffiths ran up and down the stairs in the Oxford Town Hall when giving his testimony there:
At the Royal Albert Hall the next year, he ran up and down the platform:
Ernest Scrivens, the pastor of the Oxford Elim congregation, told the Oxford Mail in January 1954, that the sight in Griffiths’ left eye had been restored, and a curvature of the spine corrected. He had received a ‘complete cure’, and was now ‘a perfect specimen of health’:
To God be all the glory!
A turning point in the campaign?
Alan Dennison, in his colourful account (p. 485) of October 1953, saw the healing of Edwin Griffiths as the turning point in the campaign, coming a few days after the appeal for much more prayer:
A notice that appeared in the Oxford Mail of Saturday 25 April 1953 stated that there had already been 900 conversions to Christ. It advertised four services the following day:
Sunday 26 April was the fifth Sunday of the campaign, and the notice advertised another week of meetings in the Union Hall, suggesting that the total duration was at least five weeks rather than four as stated by Dennison. This would be consistent with the total number of conversions increasing from 900 to Dennison’s 1200. The Elim Evangel of 9 May 1953 reports the campaign as concluded and gave (p. 226) the same number of decisions for Christ:
The Oxford Elim pastor, Ernest Scrivens stated in the next issue of the Evangel (p. 233) that the campaign concluded in the Town Hall:
This was therefore a Sunday, almost certainly Sunday 3 May 1953.
A church planted
Remarkably, after the conclusion of the campaign, the Oxford Elim church was opened (p. 485) in the Union Hall, apparently (since this is where the busts are) in the debating chamber:
The church removed from there to a tent:
where 65 people were baptised:
The caption reveals that Alan Dennison was a pastor alongside Ernest Scrivens:
The tent was pitched somewhere in Headington (Oxford):
By October 1953 (p. 481), the church had acquired the former Railway Mission Hall at 84 Botley Road, Oxford:
and by 9 January 1954 a new balcony seating a hundred people had been constructed and dedicated (photo, p. 75):
Church membership now stood at 250, with many others reportedly attending the Sunday services:
nine months to the day since Edwin Griffiths was healed to the glory of God.
