Joel Nigel Patrick Edwards

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(1951 – 30 June 2021) was a Jamaican-born British writer, broadcaster, consultant, international speaker on a range of areas including racial justice, leadership, religious freedom and bible teaching. He made history in 1997 when he became the first Black Pentecostal to become General Director of the

Evangelical Alliance The Evangelical Alliance (EA) is a national evangelical alliance, member of the World Evangelical Alliance. Founded in 1846, the activities of the Evangelical Alliance aim to promote evangelical Christian beliefs in government, media and socie ...

from 1997 until 2009.170th Anniversary Edition for the Evangelical Alliance. Prior to taking on this role, he was working as a probation officer alongside service as a church pastor at

Mile End Mile End is a district of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in the East End of London, England, east-northeast of Charing Cross. Situated on the London-to-Colchester road, it was one of the earliest suburbs of London. It became part of the m ...

New Testament Church of God in London, and general secretary of the African & Caribbean Evangelical Alliance. He was Honorary Canon at

St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London and is a Grad ...

Work

In 2009 he became International Director for

Micah Challenge Micah (; ) is a given name. Micah is the name of several people in the Hebrew Bible ( Old Testament), and means "Who is like God?" The name is sometimes found with theophoric extensions. Suffix theophory in '' Yah'' and in ''Yahweh'' results in ...

a global Christian response to extreme poverty where he led the first global Christian response to corruption. He was also a Commissioner of the Equality and Human Rights Commission. and served on the advisory board of

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...

's Faith Foundation. He often presented on the

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

feature of

The Today programme ''Today'', colloquially known as ''the Today programme'', is a long-running British morning news and current-affairs radio programme on BBC Radio 4. Broadcast on Monday to Saturday from 6:00 am to 9:00 am, it is produced by BBC News and is the ...

Thought for the Day ''Thought for the Day'' is a daily scripted slot on the ''Today'' programme on BBC Radio 4 offering "reflections from a faith perspective on issues and people in the news", broadcast at around 7:45 each Monday to Saturday morning. Nowadays lastin ...

. In 2015, Edwards was appointed Strategic Advisor at

Christian Solidarity Worldwide Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) is a human rights organisation which specialises in religious freedom and works on behalf of those persecuted for their Christian beliefs, persecuted for other religious belief or persecuted for lack of beli ...

(CSW) working with the Strategic Leadership Team, Board and staff to explore the relationship between the persecuted Church, freedom of religion or belief and wider human rights. In 2016, he was awarded the

Langton Award for Community Service The Lambeth Awards are awarded by the Archbishop of Canterbury. In addition to the Lambeth degrees, there are a number of non-academic awards. Before 2016, these awards consisted of the Lambeth Cross, the Canterbury Cross, and the Cross of St Aug ...

by the

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...

"for his unique contribution in uniting evangelical Christians across the UK in challenging global injustice". In the 2019 New Year Honours, Edwards was appointed

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(CBE) for services to tackling poverty and injustice. On the morning of 30 June 2021, his family confirmed his death from

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

via a letter Edwards had written: ''"Dear friends, This is to say a final goodbye. First, my incredible thanks for your prayers, love and holding on with me to that fingernail miracle. Words cannot express the depth, breadth and height of my gratitude, but I have gone home. My earnest prayer is that your faith and tenacity on my behalf will not be considered a pointless religious exercise, but that it will have strengthened your faith in a God who is marvellous, mysterious and majestic in all that He does: The Faithful One. I commend my family to you. I know you will watch over them in the months and years ahead. And I commend you to God and to the word of His grace that is able to build us up and give us an inheritance among those that are being saved. I wait to welcome you…”''

References

1951 births 2021 deaths British evangelicals British people of Jamaican descent Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Deaths from cancer in the United Kingdom {{UK-activist-stub