Tributes have been paid to the former head of the Evangelical Alliance, Joel Edwards, who passed away from cancer on Wednesday morning.Edwards was a British immigrant from Jamaica and started out as a probation officer, a role he held for 14 years.In a rich and varied career, he served as senior pastor of Mile End New Testament Church of God and was an honorary Canon of St Paul’s Cathedral.But he spent the best part of his career as a figurehead for evangelicals, joining the African and Caribbean Evangelical Alliance in 1988, and then going on to lead the UK Evangelical Alliance as General Director from 1997 until 2009.