A. W. (Aiden Wilson) Tozer is perhaps the most widely-known and influential member of the Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA). He was born on 21 April 1897 in La Jose (now Newburg) Pa., and died in Toronto, Ont. on 13 May 1963. He was ordained as a minister in the C&MA in 1920 and served pastorates in Toledo, Oh. (1921-23); Indianapolis, Ind. (1923-1928); Chicago, Ill (1928-1959); and Toronto, Ont. (1959-1963). He also served as vice-president of the C&MA (1946-1950) and, most significantly, as editor of the denomination’s official organ The Alliance Weekly (1950-1957) and its successor The Alliance Witness (1958-1963).

Tozer was a convinced evangelical and a staunch supporter of the ideals of the C&MA. His first book, Wingspread: Albert B. Simpson, a Study in Spiritual Altitude (Harrisburg, Ps.: Christian Publications, 1943) was a spiritual biography of the founder of the Alliance. Although loyal to the Alliance, Tozer had an ecumenical spirit. He felt a sense of spiritual community with all true Christians, regardless of their denominational affiliation.

Regarded by many of his admirers as a prophet, Tozer exerted an influence that extended beyond evangelicalism and beyond North America through his insightful books and editorials on the spiritual life. His writings reveal a mystical approach to the Christian life that was founded on his love of the Christian spiritual classics. He was in great demand as a speaker, and during the 1950’s many of his sermons were broadcast over Chicago’s WMBI radio. Tozer wrote nine books during his lifetime, the most influential of which were The Pursuit of God (1948) and The Knowledge of the Holy (1961). An additional twenty volumes of his sermons and editorials have been published since his death. For further biographical information see Fant, David J. A. W. Tozer: A Twentieth Century Prophet (Harrisburg, Pa.: Christian Publications, 1964).

Marion Hull was born in December 1901 in New Westminster, British Columbia. She was actively involved in the church from a young age and later moved with her family to Edmonton. She played for the Edmonton Commercial Graduates (known as “The Grads”) women’s basketball team for one year while in high school. She worked as a secretary in Edmonton and then enrolled at Prairie Bible Institute in Three Hills, Alberta in the early 1930s.

Marguerite Railton was born in Smithville, Ontario in 1904 to a family of five children. She also came from a Christian background. After completing high school, she took teacher’s training at Toronto Normal School in 1922-1923. After two years of teaching in a three-roomed schoolhouse in rural Ontario, she decided to return to school, and completed one year of nurse’s training. She later moved to Edmonton, where her sister Mabel and brother-in-law Gordon Skitch were ministering, and she became actively involved in their church. She later enrolled in the Prairie Bible Institute, where she became Marion Hull’s roommate.

Marion and Marguerite became good friends at Prairie Bible Institute and both felt a call to the ministry during their final year. The district superintendent from the Christian and Missionary Alliance did not wish to send them out to rural areas on their own; however, once it was agreed that they would go together, their “selfless service” began. Over 36 years, they served in five rural communities: Denzil, Saskatchewan (1935-1941); Hythe, Alberta (1941-1949); Daysland, Alberta (1950-1960); Lamont, Alberta (1960-1967); and Mirror, Alberta (1967-1971). Although the Christian and Missionary Alliance did not ordain them, they were regarded as pastors/evangelists, and they actively led Sunday church services and prayer meetings. They also did home visitations and participated in Bible camps and other recruitment activities. They were well-liked in their communities, highly regarded by the Christian and Missionary Alliance, and very successful in nurturing the growth and development of the Alliance churches in the various areas in which they served.

After retiring from Mirror in 1971, Marion and Marguerite moved to Red Deer, Alberta, where they were active members of the Red Deer Alliance Church for 20 years. They moved to Calgary, Alberta in 1991 because of health concerns and to be closer to family. Marion passed away in 1994, and Marguerite passed away in 1998.

Myrtle Amelia hall was born on 3 April 1905 in Colchester North, Essex County, Ontario. After graduating from normal school, she taught high school in Comber and Dorchester. In 1928, she met Jean Funé in Quebec City, where he was pastoring. He left to serve as a missionary to Vietnam that same year, and they began corresponding. Meanwhile, Myrtle enrolled at the Missionary Training Institute in Nyack, NY, to prepare for missionary service. She and Jean were married in 1935, after which she joined him in Vietnam.

Rev. Jean Émile Roger Funé (1902-2000) served as a missionary and pastor in the Christian & Missionary Alliance (C&MA) for nearly 50 years. He was born on 18 May 1902, in Ville Favard, France to Eugène & Rachel (Gargot) Funé. Jean Funé spent 42 years in Vietnam and Cambodia as a C&MA missionary and five years in Quebec as a missionary and pastor before retiring in 1975.

From 1922 to 1925, Jean Funé attended the Nogent Bible School in France. While at Nogent, he received a call to become a missionary to French Indochina. With this in mind, he enrolled at Nyack (N.Y.) Missionary College in 1925. He graduated in 1927 and began his service in Vietnam the following year. Funé used his French citizenship to good advantage. For example, he was instrumental in purchasing land at Dalat, on which the C&MA later built a school for missionaries’ children, and several other strategic properties elsewhere in the country.

Jean and Myrtle had two children, George Eugène (b. 25 March 1938) and Esther Marie (b. 30 September 1942). In 1944, the Funés and their children were taken to Hanoi and then Xieng-Khouang, Laos, where they were interned for eight months by the Vichy Government. In 1966, the elder Funés left an increasingly dangerous Vietnam for Cambodia, where they served until 1970, when they began their retirement in Canada. Their retirement was short-lived, as Jean became both the coordinator of C&MA work in Quebec and the pastor of Belvedere Church in Quebec City for five years. In 1975, the Funés moved to Regina, where they worked with Vietnamese refugees. Myrtle died in Regina, Saskatchewan on 1 February 1992. Jean passed away on 5 January 2000 at his home in Hamilton, Ontario.