From the earliest days as the Mission to the Kabyles, to today being part of the Pioneers global family, we remember the faithfulness of God and the many men and women that He has used powerfully to bring the gospel to the nations. As we press forward in ministry, we want to celebrate their lives. In this series we will tell their stories.
Advocate and Overseer
He initially felt a call to Algeria as a young man through reading a newspaper article on the import of Algerian goods into London. He realised that business opportunities might provide a platform for ministry in that country.
Edward was friends with Fanny Guinness and asked her for advice. She recommended that he spoke to George Pearse, who was an old friend of his father, and who by this time was making enquiries about ministry in Algeria. And so, when the Pearses travelled to Algeria in 1881, Edward would be part of that small team.
Although businesses would form part of the mission later, it was discovered that the location of the mission station in Djemaa Sahridj was unsuitable for the sort of ministry that Edward wanted to set up, and so he returned to England to represent the mission there. When its council was set up in 1883, he became a founding member and Honorary Secretary.
Edward’s house in Barking, London served as the headquarters of the mission and he steered it through its first few decades. His wife, Mary, was known as a significant figure in the mission also, hosting missionaries on home assignment and looking after their children when on their holidays from boarding school.
Although he was known as a large and athletic man, unfortunately, Edward had several severe bouts of illness in which at times left him unable to run the mission. He fell seriously ill in 1902 and remained unwell for three years and had another period of ill health in 1914. Eventually his health declined further and he resigned from his position in 1924 and stepped down from the Council in 1925, dying the following year.
Such was his influence on ministry that it was said at his funeral that what Hudson Taylor was to China, Edward Glenny was to North Africa.
