Wednesday, January 2, 2013

The Florence Question

There is some type of joke or overused pun running around regarding the name of Florence of Pentecostal fame. There was the Florence L. Crawford who was a close associate of William Seymour at Azusa Street in Los Angeles who absconded with the mailing list and removed the popular newspaper, "Apostolic Faith," north to Portland, Oregon, which some attribute as partial cause of the fading of the Azusa Street success. And blitzing through Google search we find that there was also the Florence Gloria Crawford who authored two books, "The Faith That Demonstrates" and "The Christ Ideal for World Peace," and was the founder of "The Comforter League of Light," which also published the long defunct and so far unavailable magazines, "The Comforter" and "Everybody's Partner." There is almost no information available about this person, just clues that some may be attributing the appearance of "New Age" thinking to Florence and her league of "Light." Although the word "Comforter" would make one think that this is a Pentecostal organization, it appears that the league is just all about Florence and whatever visions are flashing through her head. I cannot find much information to suggest that Florence ever attended a Pentecostal church or paid tithes to one so there is no reason to suggest that Florence deserves any special mention in terms of Pentecostal history.