Historical Statement

In 1898 J. O. McClurkan, a Cumberland Presbyterian evangelist, led in forming the Pentecostal Alliance at Nashville, which brought together holiness people from Tennessee and adjacent states. This body was very missionary in spirit and sent pastors and teachers to Cuba, Guatemala, India, and Mexico. McClurkan died in 1914. The next year his group, known then as the Pentecostal Mission, united with the Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene.

In 1906 George Sharpe, of Parkhead Congregational Church, Glasgow, was evicted from his pulpit for preaching the Wesleyan doctrine of Christian holiness. Eighty members who left with him immediately formed Parkhead Pentecostal Church. Other congregations were organized, and in 1909 the Pentecostal Church of Scotland was formed. That body united with the Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene in November 1915.

The Laymen’s Holiness Association was formed under S. A. Danford in 1917 at Jamestown, North Dakota, to serve the cause of Wesleyan-holiness revivalism in the Dakotas, Minnesota, and Montana. This group published a paper, The Holiness Layman. J. G. Morrison was elected president in 1919 and led an organization with over 25 other evangelists and workers. In 1922 Morrison, together with most of the workers and more than 1,000 of the members, united with the Church of the Nazarene.

This missionary body, centered in Tabor, Iowa, organized in 1893 by Elder George Weavers, subsequently sent over 80 workers to more than a half dozen countries. Around 1950 the work at Tabor, the South African mission, and other parts of the organization united with the Church of the Nazarene.

David Thomas, businessman and lay preacher, founded The Holiness Mission in London in 1907. Extensive missionary work developed in southern Africa under the leadership of David Jones, and the church was renamed the International Holiness Mission in 1917. It united with the Church of the Nazarene on October 29, 1952, with 28 churches and more than 1,000 constituents in England under the superintendency of J. B. Maclagan, and work led by 36 missionaries in Africa.

In 1934 Maynard James and Jack Ford, who had led itinerant evangelism (or “trekking”) in the International Holiness Mission, formed the Calvary Holiness Church. On June 11, 1955, union took place with the Church of the Nazarene, bringing about 22 churches and more than 600 members into the denomination. The accession of the International Holiness Mission and the Calvary Holiness Church came about largely through the vision and efforts of Nazarene District Superintendent George Frame.

Organized by Frank Goff in Ontario in 1918, this church arose from an earlier group called the Holiness Workers. It united with the Church of the Nazarene on September 7, 1958, adding five churches and about 200 members to the Canada Central District.

In the 1940s a Wesleyan-holiness church was organized in Nigeria under indigenous leadership. It adopted the name Church of the Nazarene, deriving its doctrinal beliefs and name in part from a Manual of the International Church of the Nazarene. Under the leadership of Jeremiah U. Ekaidem, it united with the latter on April 3, 1988. A new district with 39 churches and 6,500 members was created.