The Episcopal Renewal
Dennis Bennett
At nine o'clock in the morning on a November day in 1959, Dennis Bennett, rector of St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Van Nuys, California, knelt in the home of some friends and began to pray in tongues. Unknown to Bennett, this experience of being baptized in the Holy Spirit was destined to change his life forever. Furthermore, the major churches of Christendom were to be strangely affected in the years to come as a result of this event.1
In a way, Bennett was at the opposite pole of the people called Pentecostals who championed the experience they called baptism in the Holy Spirit. For them this was often a cataclysmic baptism evidenced by glossolalia, or speaking in tongues. Most surveys of American opinion placed Episcopalians at the top of the list of respectable Christians, while the lowly Pentecostals usually occupied the bottom rung on the social ladder.2
dennis bennett's baptism in the holy spirit We were sitting in their front room, our host and hostess on the davenport under the window, I in an overstuffed chair across the room, and the other clergyman to my right. The California autumn sun was shining bright and hot outside, and the neighborhood was fairly quiet for a Saturday, the silence broken only by an occasional car going by. I was self-conscious, and determined not to lose my dignity! "What do I do?" I asked them again. "Ask Jesus to baptize you in the Holy Spirit," said John. "We'll pray with you, and you just pray and praise the Lord." I said: "Now remember, I want this nearness to God you have, that's all; I'm not interested in speaking with tongues!" "Well," they said, "all we can tell you about that is that it came with the package!" John came across the room and laid his hands first on my head, and then on my friend's. He began to pray, very quietly, and I recognized the same thing as when Bud had prayed with me a few days before: he was speaking a language that I did not understand, and speaking it very fluently. He wasn't a bit "worked up" about it, either. Then he prayed in English, asking Jesus to baptize me in the Holy Spirit. I began to pray, as he told me, and I prayed very quietly, too. I was not about to get even a little bit excited! I was simply following instructions. I suppose I must have prayed out loud for about twenty minutes—at least it seemed to be a long time—and was just about to give up when a very strange thing happened. My tongue tripped, just as it might when you are trying to recite a tongue twister, and I began to speak in a new language! Right away I recognized several things: first, it wasn't some kind of psychological trick or compulsion. There was nothing compulsive about it. I was allowing these new words to come to my lips and was speaking them out of my own volition, without in any way being forced to do it. I wasn't "carried away" in any sense of the word, but was fully in possession of my wits and my willpower. I spoke the new language because it was interesting to speak a language I had never learned, even though I didn't know what I was saying. I had taken quite a while to learn a small amount of German and French, but here was a language "for free." Secondly, it was a real language, not some kind of "baby talk." It had grammar and syntax; it had inflection and expression—and it was rather beautiful. I went on allowing these new words to come to my lips for about five minutes, then said to my friends: "Well! That must be what you mean by 'speaking in tongues'—but what is it all about? I don't feel anything!" They said joyfully: "Praise the Lord!" This seemed a bit irrelevant and was a little strong for my constitution. It bordered on the fanatical for such a thing to be said by Episcopalians on a fine Saturday afternoon sitting right in the front room of their home! With much to think about, I gathered up my friend, and we took our leave. ■ —Dennis Bennett |
The aftermath of Bennett's experience was remarkable in that many members of his parish also received the Pentecostal experience and saw their lives and spiritual devotion completely changed. In April 1960, Bennett shared his experience with the members of his wealthy parish. What followed was almost a riot of rejection. "We are Episcopalians, not a bunch of wild-eyed hillbillies," shouted a speaker from a chair used as a soapbox. "Throw out the damned tongues-speakers," yelled another.3
To make a long story short, Bennett did resign shortly, but not before the newspapers as well as Time and Newsweek magazines gave such national publicity to the event that Bennett became a controversial figure overnight. He also became the leader of a new force in the traditional denominations, which was called the Neo-Pentecostal movement. Time magazine reported that "now glossolalia seems to be on its way back in U.S. churches—not only in the uninhibited Pentecostal sects, but even among the Episcopalians, who have been called 'God's frozen people.' "4
Although Bennett's case was striking and made headlines around the world, he was not the first clergyman in his church to speak in tongues and remain in the ministry. With varying degrees of success, at least two of his colleagues had preceded him in experiencing Pentecostal phenomena.
In 1907, after the Azusa Street revival had awakened the world to the gifts of the Spirit, Alexander Boddy, vicar of All Souls Anglican Church in Sunderland, England, had fostered a Pentecostal revival in his church. For several years the annual Sunderland conventions became centers for church renewal in England, Europe, and the United States. This "renewal that failed" was ended mainly because of World War I and a lack of able leadership. As Boddy's many followers, among them Methodists, Baptists, Plymouth Brethren, and the Salvation Army, saw that Pentecostalism seemed unlikely to change the British mainline churches, they departed to form new Pentecostal denominations in Britain, notably the Assemblies of God and the Elim Pentecostal Church.
Michael Harper speaks of Boddy as a "prophet few listened to, and most forgot." The first Anglican Pentecostal, Boddy moved from Sunderland in 1922 to become vicar of Pittington, which was located in the same diocese. He remained there until his death in 1929, a man clearly ahead of his time.5
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