| Main Performers | Principal George Jeffreys - speaker |
| Performance Notes | "HEALING TESTIMONY.
ALBERT HALL SCENES.
Emotional scenes were witnessed at a Four-Square Gospel Faith Healing demonstration at the Royal Albert Hall yesterday. Men and women of all ages, and even young children, knelt in the arena, and as Principal Jeffreys went among them and laid his hands on their heads some collapsed, sobbing and moaning, and several fainted.
A number of people testified to recovering from illness at other meetings through spiritual healing. One woman, who said that she had been unable to walk for over fourteen years before she attended a meeting, walked across the Albert Hall stage to-day, and eight people stated that they had recovered from cancer."
(The Daily Telegraph, 29 May 1928)
The Elim Pentecostal Church is a movement of Christian congregations in the UK and Ireland, founded in 1915 by George Jeffreys (1889-1962). From 1915-1934, Jeffreys was extremely active as a revivalist, and preached to large crowds throughout the United Kingdom. His church was brought together, first as the Elim Evangelistic Band, but this was changed to Elim Foursquare Gospel Alliance when the Deed Poll was registered in April 1934. The name 'Elim' was taken from the account in the Book of Exodus, chapter 15, verse 27, where the Israelites, leaving the bondage of Egypt under the leadership of Moses, found an oasis called Elim: "Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees; so they camped there by the waters." This represented a place of refreshing and it was thought appropriate for a revival movement at that time.
Differences of opinion over Jeffreys' open espousal of British Israelism and disputes on church governance led Jeffreys to withdraw from the Elim Pentecostal Church in 1939 and to form the Bible-Pattern Church Fellowship. The presidency of Elim then passed to George Kingston, a wealthy businessman who had founded many of the Elim congregations in Essex.
The baptism of believers by immersion and Communion are held to be ordinances by the Church. Kensington Temple in London is the largest church in the denomination. Elim missions exist in 35 countries with hospitals, orphanages, and schools. The church operates Regents Theological College in Malvern, Worcestershire, where the movement's headquarters are also based. |