a contextual missiology of the spirit - eTheses Repository ...

elieves that the Khasi Revival had a connection with the 1904 Welsh Revival as
Christianity in the Khasi Hills had its root in Welsh Presbyterian mission. 165
It is reported that another revival took place in Calcutta in 1907 with the coming
of western Pentecostal missionaries Alfred and Lilian Garr. Alfred Goodrich Garr
was the pastor of the Metropolitan Holiness Church in Los Angeles. He and his
wife Lilian were among the first Azusa Street missionaries to travel overseas.
After their Spirit baptism, and being motivated by their missionary tongues
theology, as discussed earlier, they came to Calcutta in December 1906. 166 In
January 1907, they were invited by Pastor C.H. Hook to share about the Azusa
Street Revival, and also to hold services at William Carey’s former Baptist church
in Lal Bazar, Calcutta. They continued their meetings in a large house at Creek
Row, rented by Moorhead, who at the time was Presbyterian secretary of the
YMCA in Ceylon, Sri Lanka. Lilian Garr informed the Azusa Street Mission
about the revival in March 1907 and reported that thirteen or fourteen
missionaries and other workers had received Spirit baptism. 167 Moorhead was one
of them, and soon he became an independent Pentecostal missionary. McGee’s
study reveals that the revival manifestations included a deep sense of conviction
of sin, public confession of sin, falling to the floor, howling, shrieking, groaning,
praising, holy laughter and singing in tongues. 168 Although Garr insisted on the
doctrine of missionary tongues and tongues as the initial evidence of Spirit
165
Snaitang, ‘Indigenous Pentecostal Movement,’ 7.
166
While Anderson states that the Garrs arrived India in 1906, Bergunder states this was in 1907.
See Anderson, Spreading Fires, 89; Bergunder, South Indian Pentecostal, 24. For more discussion
on how the Garrs were directed by their tongue theology to come to Asia, see Estrelda Alexander,
The Women of Azusa Street (Cleveland: The Pilgrim Press, 2005), 89-92.
167
Anderson, Spreading Fires, 89.
168
McGee, ‘Calcutta Revival,’ 128-29.
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