Rev. Stanley W. Chambers

Stanley W. Chambers was born July 20, 1915, in Columbus, Ohio. He was born again of the water and the Spirit at the church pastored by W. T. Witherspoon. It was in New York, while working in the church pastored by Andrew Urshan, that he received his call into the ministry. It was also in New York that he met his life’s companion, Catherine Strepka. Four children came from this union: Jean Catherine (Cowell), Judith Mae (Bentley), the late Lawrence Stanley, and Jerolyn Marie (Kelley).

Stanley Chambers began his full time ministry pastoring the church in Hazelton, Pennsylvania. In addition to this responsibility, he conducted a radio program and started a new congregation in Sunbury, Pennsylvania. He was also chosen to serve as the secretary of the eastern district of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Jesus Christ, to which he belonged.

In 1945, he and wife Catherine traveled to St. Louis to attend the conference in which the United Pentecostal Church was formed by the merging of the Pentecostal Church Incorporated (PCI) and the Pentecostal Assemblies of Jesus Christ (PAJC). In this merger, it was decided that Brother Howard Goss of the PCI would be the superintendent of the new organization and Brother Witherspoon would be the assistant superintendent.

A secretary was needed for the new organization. Stanley Chambers was thirty years old at the time and had only held ministerial license for three years. It was required in the organizations by-laws that a man must hold ministerial credentials for five years before he could fill this office. The brethren voted to waive this ruling, and thus Stanley Chambers became the youngest man to ever hold high office in the United Pentecostal Church.

Brother Chambers served efficiently and faithfully in this position for twenty-two years, under the leadership of Howard Goss and Arthur Morgan. Brother Morgan died as he was addressing a board meeting at the 1967 General Conference in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Brother Chambers was elected to serve as the new general superintendent.

Under Brother Chambers’s leadership, a new headquarters was built and paid for in Hazelwood, Missouri. For the first time the UPC published its own Sunday school curriculum entitled Word Aflame. He served in this position until he chose to step down in 1977.

He was chosen to serve as district superintendent of his home state of Missouri in 1983. He served for ten years and then chose to step down from his position as state superintendent.

Brother Chambers continued preaching worldwide during the years that followed. One highlight of those years was the opportunity to serve as pastor of the church in Vienna, Austria, for an extended period of time. He continued to serve on committees and boards connected with the official work of the United Pentecostal Church. He was a long time member of the board of Tupelo Children’s Mansion.

He passed from this life on June 2, 2004.