It all started as a pure unity movement. The Azusa Street Revival, led by Wesleyan-Holiness preacher William J Seymour, took place in Los Angeles from 1906 to 1915. It is widely accepted that out of that the modern Pentecostal movement began around the world.

“Pentecostalism started in most places as an ecumenical renewal movement in the mainline churches,” said Swiss theologian Jean-Daniel Plüss today at the first day of the inaugural Europe-Asia Pentecostal Summit (EAPS) at Suntec Singapore.

Dr Plüss is the Chair of the European Pentecostal Charismatic Research Association, and President of the Swiss Global Christian Forum Foundation.

Early European Pentecostal leaders came from a variety of ecclesial backgrounds.”

Different denominations united by Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit

He went on to list them: The first leader of the Pentecostal movement in Germany was a Lutheran pastor, Jonathan Paul. The man who brought the Azusa Street Revival to Norway was a Methodist minister. In England, Alexander Buddy started a Pentecostal service in his Anglican parish in Sunderland.

Dr Plüss traced the ecumenical dialogues that have been taking place since the 1990s, noting an increasing level of agreement between Pentecostals and other denominations.

The Salvation Army in the Netherlands. The French Reformed Church. The Baptist Church in Sweden. Pentecostals from all different denominations, sharing a strong bond.

“They would meet from 1908 to 1914 at the yearly Sunderland Conventions in the Northeast of England,” Dr Plüss continued.

“They all had their faith in the same Lord Jesus, and they all had experienced an infilling of the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, they came from very different traditions.”

He stopped to show two photographs taken during one of the Sunderland Conventions. At the top was a group photo of all the men ministers present, and below that was a rarely-seen photo of all the women ministers gathered. 

One of the distinctive beliefs of Pentecostalism is that women are anointed to preach and teach just as men are.

The two images Dr Plüss showed of the Sunderland Conferences in Europe. The top featured the men, and the bottom is a rare image of women at the conference. Photo taken from presentation slide.

“So what we see is that although there was a strong sense of unity, there was also diversity in terms of particular practices and ecclesial convictions,” he emphasised.

“Would this situation enable the renewal of all Christian churches? Many understood the renewed outpouring of the Holy Spirit as a gift for everyone and lived with a vision of ‘Christian unity everywhere’.

“Unfortunately, by the 1930s, this precious bond had weakened. The Pentecostals in Europe defined their identity by their difference from other churches.

“They held the view that a baptism in the Holy Spirit set them apart from other renewal movements and evangelical denominations, not to mention the traditional churches,” explained Dr Plüss.

“If you have love one for another”

Talk of unity among denominations only started up again in the 1960s and ’70s when the charismatic renewal in the Episcopalian and Catholic churches in America took place.

“Suddenly, it was not only Pentecostals who claimed having received the gift of speaking in tongues, uttered prophetic messages or exercised the charism of prayer for healing. New realities began to emerge,” said Dr Plüss.

The first international religious dialogue involving Pentecostals began in 1972 when the Roman Catholic Church began conversations with individual Pentecostals and Charismatic leaders.

In the 1990s, Pentecostals began to dialogue with other church families like the Reformed and Lutheran Churches, the Anglican communion, Orthodox churches and a Joint Consultative Group with the World Council of Churches.

The first day of the three-day Europe-Asia Pentecostal Summit saw over a packed auditorium at Suntec Singapore. Over 1,200 people signed up for the conference.

According to Dr Plüss, these dialogues allowed the denominations to discuss openly their differences in theology and church views.

For example, “The Reformed define the faithful church as a place where the Word of God is proclaimed and the sacraments rightly administered, while the Pentecostals would see the faithful church as community where ‘Jesus Christ is lifted up, the Word of God is preached and obeyed, and where the Spirit’s gifts are manifested in the lives of believers’.

“The differences were picked up as a positive challenge,” he noted.

There has been encouraging progress between the Reformed and Pentecostals, said Dr Plüss. By the third dialogue in 2020, just before the pandemic, the dialogue document stated: “This document is a testimony to how Pentecostal and Reformed Christians respond together to God’s mission into which we have been called”.

4 lessons from three decades of dialogues

Dr Plüss listed four things that such inter-denominational dialogues with Pentecostals underscore.

1.  At every beginning there is Christ.

“Our common allegiance to Christ builds the basis of our encounters. It is not the differences between our religious traditions or church cultures.

“If there is a common starting point it will have to focus on Jesus Christ as our common Lord and Saviour. Jesus Christ being fully human and fully divine, as described in the Scripture and as the Nicene creed proclaims, needs to be our foundation. Everything else will follow from that,” he said.

2. Hard questions need to be asked.

“There are many reasons why members of certain church traditions have reservations towards others. There may be misconceptions, traditional misgivings, false characterisation of past events and other impediments to open encounter and conversation,” Dr Plüss acknowledged.

Hard questions create opportunities for clarification, and allows for steps to be taken towards mutual correction and reconciliation. 

3. Relationships need time to grow.

Friendship plays an important role in ecumenical rapprochement, he said. Humans build relationships by building trust, and building trust requires an investment of time and attention.

“Speaking as a Pentecostal I would say that it is in relationships that God can work through the Holy Spirit in creative ways,” he added.

4. We have more in common than we first assumed.

This is a comment consistently made by those who participate in the ecumenical dialogues. Dr Plüss believes it is a foundation to build on.

“If, as believers in Christ, we acknowledge that we have more in common than separates us, then there is no reason why we should not attempt to engage in common witness,” he said.

“I would even go so far as to argue that given the increasing influence of secularisation in our time, we need common witness in order to be credible in a world that is less and less concerned about God.”

At the closing prayer, attendees joined hands to pray for one another and for the unity of the Church.

About the Europe-Asia Pentecostal Summit (EAPS)

The three-day Summit, which runs until Friday (May 16) is organised by Global Pentecostal Voices and hosted by City Harvest Church. The moderators for EAPS are Professor Doug Petersen and Professor Byron Klaus, both foremost Pentecostal theologians and practitioners. 

Other presenters today were Professor Velli-Matti Kärkkäinen from Finland who spoke on “Pentecostals and the struggle of discerning the Holy Spirit among religions” and Truls Åkerland from Norway who offered “Perspectives on Pentecostal Leadership”.  

The Global Pentecostal Voices (GPV) initiative is an ongoing effort to synergise Pentecostal theological reflection from the Global South and undergird Asian Pentecostalism in particular. Through its partnership with City Harvest Church, Singapore, GPV hopes to reestablish local churches as the centre of theological reflection in the Pentecostal tradition.

EAPS moderators Professor Byron Klaus (left) and Professor Doug Petersen with Senior Pastor of CHC, Rev Kong Hee.

For this Summit, eight Pentecostal scholars from Europe offer their theological insights for discussion. Their presentations are critiqued by Asian Pentecostal scholars.

According to the organisers, Europe presents compelling challenges: “The massive secularisation of Europe has impacted the vitality of Christian faith. Where Christianity has been a state religion, faith is dying a slow death. Emerging generations are increasingly distant from any kind of meaningful Christian influence. Secularisation is not only a cultural phenomenon, but in Europe, it has also been expressed in political structures that have meant persecution for Christian believers. The story of suffering for one’s Christian faith is relevant to believers in Asia.”

EAPS is the second Summit organised by GPV. The first Global Pentecostal Summit was held in Singapore in 2023, with papers presented by scholars from America, Australia and Asia. 

To find out more about the Summit, click here.