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In the Steps of John Wesley
Two of the next ministers to be added to the International Holiness Mission had both previous connections with Star Hall, Manchester. Joseph E. Griffiths had been on the Star Hall staff from January 1st, 1910, until October 24th, 1918.96 He was appointed to the pastorate of the Holiness Church, Hull, on November 30th, 1920.97 The church flourished during the six years of his ministry, and many were led into a profession of full salvation. He vacated the pastorate on September 21st, 1926, 98 to take charge of the mission in Luton and his place was taken at Hull by Edmund Roach on October 26th, 1926.99 Roach was a previous member of the Star Hall congregation, who had entered the ministry of the Pentecostal Church of Scotland (q.v.). In the Journal for January, 1925, he was listed as a member of the International Holiness Mission ministerial staff, and until his appointment to Hull he ministered with acceptance in evangelistic campaigns throughout the movement. He returned to the Church of the Nazarene in the autumn of 1930. Roach was preceded on the ministerial list by James Bedwell, whose name appears on it in June 1922. He joined the Baptists at the age of 15 and was converted in his late teens. Shortly after, he joined the Primitive Methodists in South Cerney and became a lay preacher. He claimed the experience of entire sanctification under the ministry of Reader Harris in Liverpool. He began a League centre in Ellesmere Port about 1903, which became an independent congregation about 1907,100 and joined the International Holiness Mission in 1919. 101 A forceful preacher, Bedwell was frequently engaged in evangelistic work, but for the first fourteen months on the ministerial staff he exercised supervision in the South Wales area. 102 Dan Phillips of Manchester was the first member of the International Holiness Mission to become one of its ministers. He prepared for the ministry by a course at Cliff College, the Wesleyan Methodist college for training evangelists. 103 Phillips was a lively, evangelistic preacher and an attractive singer. He was accepted as a probationary minister at Easter, 1926,104 and was engaged in an evangelistic itinerary with considerable success until he was appointed to the pastorate at Grimsby on June 26th, 1928. 1 0 5