Category: YMCA + Christian Praxis

YMCA and Gerard Manley Hopkins

YMCA and Gerard Manley Hopkins ::: an unlikely and unique connection between the genius of George Williams and the British poet Hopkins – a rare exploration of the convulsive context in which the Y was founded and the poetry created – both a testament to their personal and transformative experiences of God’s salvation and calling upon their life.

The Y and Hopkins were born the same year, in 1844; both British in birth and embodiment of the diverse Christianity that grounded their culture.

June 6, 1844 is the founding of the Y; Hopkins is born July 28, 1844 and would die still a young man at age 44 on June 8, 1889.

  • George Williams
  • Gerard Manley Hopkins

This past Sunday I wrote about Williams founding the Y, today on Hopkins death-day I want to remember him and the cultural context he shared with the Y, and what it could contribute to an ecumenical Christian emphasis today.

There are very few articles on the internet that make this kind of unique connection; this one published by JSRT of Gonzaga University titled Romantic Critiques of Industrial Technology is illuminating.

A bit more about the context in which the Y was founded:

The Young Men’s Christian Association was founded on June 6, 1844 by 23 year old George Williams and eleven Christian friends.

Williams was involved in the drapery or clothing industry, and would become very successful and prosperous in it.

His conscience was pricked by the complex societal difficulties and suffering of urban families, especially the young men leaving the family farms for factory work.

This cultural upheaval was experienced as one caught in the roiling surf, almost caught by a riptide but almost to tired to take the extended hand of the lifeguard in the boat.

The YMCA was started for multiple intertwined reasons: to save the souls of young men in the city who had left their parish behind; to save the minds of these young men from the grinding and filthy monotony of the factories; to save their bodies from the base temptations afflicting their neighborhoods.

The wider cultural changes included resentment and resistance to the calculated rationale of the Enlightenment and its mechanistic interpretation of the world which fed the appetites of industrialists but destroyed families.

Movements emerged which sought to re-humanize the world, to lift up the heart and value personal experiences; this was reflected in part by the birth of evangelical revivals which stressed individual conversion marked by emotional and dynamic evidences.

Poets, artists, novelists, philosophers and theologians all added their talent and energy to this movement.

The YMCA was not the only Christian organization to emerge in this time to rescue young men from the de-humanizing industrialization of the community and create space for them to have a transformational inward spiritual awakening and calling.

It seems so simplistic now, but it was a radical act of hospitality to open up housing for these young men that was safe, sanitary, secure, but also spiritually alive.

Bible studies, prayer sessions, worship gatherings were all forms of protest against state-supported or traditional churches that rigidly clung to form of transformation, logic over emotion, correctness over inspiration, hierarchy over brotherhood.

Inspired by the dark and grueling context in which Williams founded the YMCA, what are the depressing and gross circumstances that young people need rescued from today?

What kind of housing and hospitality, safety and spiritual vitality can the Y offer in these dangerous days?

A bit about Hopkins and his context in 1844:

Gerard Manley Hopkins converted from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism, inspired by the writings of Cardinal John Henry Newman, much to the sorrow and grief of his devoutly religious family.

As a young man he was caught up in continual conflict, complicated loyalties, frustrated talents, and isolated friendships.

His deep love for nature and people put him at odds with the rational industrialized culture which prioritized technology and production over people.

As a poet he had a roiled soul, drawn to love and serve God, inspired by the stunning Creation, but personally struggling with depression, loneliness, and meaninglessness.

Like the YMCA, he spent his life with young men, seeking to build them up in spirit, mind and body.

Though the YMCA was a evangelical Protestant Christian organization, and Hopkins a Jesuit Roman Catholic, they both valued the inner heart of an individual, striving to bring discipline and freedom to their soul, instructing and guiding others to be one with God and be His faithful servant in a fallen, corrupted, industrialized world.

The YMCA and Hopkins are both unique in their Christian contribution to God’s work in the world; both are still a force for good and an inspiration to Christians these many years later.

They both inspired many other people to experience renewal and attempt their own creative projects.

The Y has been a source of original contributions to the world: ESL, camping, basketball and volleyball, group exercise and swim lessons, etc.

Hopkins invented a fresh and engaging form of poetry, putting together new words and rhythms that compel attention and spur fresh insights into Creation.

At their heart, the Y and Hopkins strive to see the world as it really is, to see men and women as they really are, to see humanity in truth and grace.

They know darkness and the light, joy and suffering, friendship and abandonment, success and failure.

For Y leaders wanting a fresh perspective on seeing the world, try taking up some of Hopkins eclectic and intriguing poems.

For Christians wanting to remember the real context for the founding of the Y in all its complexity and genius, getting to know the real George Williams and Gerard Manley Hopkins can ground you as well as inspire you.

Here are a few of my favorite poems by Hopkins that attempt to help us see the complex spirit of humanity, the faithful Spirit of God, and how we can participate in the reconciliation and restoration of all things as ones loved and transformed inwardly by Christ Jesus.

Gerard Manley Hopkins – 1844-1889

God’s Grandeur

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs–
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

Sunrise over Jerusalem

Pied Beauty

Glory be to God for dappled things—
   For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
       For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
   Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;
       And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise Him.

Silver Bay YMCA on Lake George, NY

As kingfishers catch fire

As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies dráw fláme;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’s
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves — goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
Crying Whát I dó is me: for that I came.

Í say móre: the just man justices;
Kéeps grace: thát keeps all his goings graces;
Acts in God’s eye what in God’s eye he is —
Chríst — for Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men’s faces.

Kingfisher

An Ecumenical “C” in the YMCA?

An Ecumenical “C” in the YMCA ::: Faith is a dynamic dimension of diversity in the Y. Religion’s existential power includes its comprehensive influence on individuals and the families and tribes they are born into. The Christian religion of the YMCA will never go away – so what are ways followers of Christ can live out their faith in the Y that builds up a healthy spirit, mind and body for all? In this article I try to make the case for why the Y should intentionally resurrect their ecumenical Christian emphasis, as embodied by our founder George Williams and our most famous ambassador of the 19th and 20th century John Mott.

When we talk about the “C” in the YMCA, what are we talking about?

Is it a “thin C” or a “thick C”, a “narrow C” or a “wide C” – a “C” with complex dimensions and cultures or a simple “C” that perfectly aligns with whatever you happen to passionately believe?

With the founding of the YMCA on June 6 1844 by George Williams and eleven of his young Christian business friends, a complex “C” was already at work in the association.

Sir George Williams

Williams grew up in a nominal rural British Anglican home in the 1820’s and 30’s, but had a born-again evangelical Christian experience when he came to London looking for work as a young man.

He aligned with the Dissenting church in London, heavily involved in evangelization all the days of his Christian life, yet would join the Church of England later in life as a very prosperous and respected businessman. (For more on this see Clyde Binfield’s George Williams and the Y.M.C.A.: a Study in Victorian Social Attitudes)

Early on the YMCA had a complex relationship with “the church” – since the twelve founders of the Y had a variety of Christian traditions in their background.

This kept the Y from early on being co-opted by one church tradition, and helped it focus on being an ally of the church and partner in its evangelism and discipleship efforts for young men in the urban centers.

As the concept of the YMCA spread across Europe and the world, the variety of Christian traditions, cultures and church denominations increased within the Y movement.

The Paris Basis of 1855 is an early document of the YMCA that seeks to guide different kinds of Christians from different kinds of churches and cultures for joining together with Jesus Christ for doing kingdom work in the world.

a draft document of the original Paris Basis

Within thirty years the dynamic and influential YMCA leader John Mott would be building on this Paris Basis legacy and spirit, not only strengthening the Y movement across American college campuses, but eventually with Y students across the world.

In reading through his biography written by C.H. Hopkins, it recounts from Mott’s diary and correspondence the strong Christian faith that empowered his growing commitment to ecumenical Christianity.

The Y is about getting work done, about overcoming differences in order to better serve people; that means when it comes to religion, we focus on what unites, not divides.

This works to a certain point; the pragmatism of the YMCA and this kind of cooperation is successful when you stay on the surface.

But, when you spend enough time together, it gets complex and at some point you need the tools to dig below the surface to deal with the spirit, mind and heart of people.

John Mott’s focus on Christian mission is what led him to fully embrace an ecumenical Christianity. Can you imagine Christians on the mission-field denouncing other denominations?

Missionaries learned that the more closely they partnered in an ecumenical spirit, the more likely they could embody the prayer of Jesus in John 17 and more faithfully proclaim the good news.

Long story short, John Mott was a key Christian leader in the YMCA movement and global missionary movement, as well as the world ecumenical movement.

In a way, they were all intertwined: Mott helped support the successful 1910 Edinburgh Mission Council, which was a unique effort to unite Protestant Christian church denominations in their world missionary work.

This event was a key catalyst in global missionary partnerships and guidelines, as well as strengthening ecumenical relationships.

There is a direct line of relationship between John Mott of the YMCA and the founding of the World Council of Churches, which exists today to support and strengthen ecumenical efforts across the whole globe, in every continent, with every Christian denomination willing to participate.

Today the Global Christian Forum is a partnership between the WCC, the Roman Catholic Church, the World Evangelical Alliance, and the Pentecostal World Fellowship, through which almost every major Christian denomination and tradition has a voice and a relationship for faithfully embodying Jesus prayer “that all may be one.”

For the YMCA’s interested in Christian emphasis and Christian mission in the USA, it is imperative that we recover our connection with our ecumenical Christian heritage.

It is my observation that it will be harmful for our Y movement if we insist on a stronger “C” if we don’t build up our diverse, inclusive and global Christian relationships – like what was the case for the Paris Basis.

I grew up in a conservative evangelical fundamentalist Christian culture, and read about the dangers of the World Council of Churches in Europe, the corruption of the National Council of Churches here in America, and the liberal poison of ecumenical efforts.

For me, I’ve had to detox from this kind of religious slander and fearmongering.

As I see it, with the USA and the world becoming more globalized, more complex and cross-pressured, more connected religiously and culturally in ways that both amplify friendships and gross misunderstandings, it is imperative for American Christians to engage in ecumenical work as part of their mission work.

There is a rich ecumenical Christian tradition within the YMCA, as embodied by John Mott and his many associates and friends in the Y movement who served with him and extended his influence for decades after his death in 1955.

The “C” in the YMCA from our founding has always been ecumenical.

If we are going to strengthen the presence of Christ in our Y’s, and if we are going to be inspired by his prayer in John 17, then we must engage with the ecumenical work that diverse and global Christians have been doing for over a hundred years, including our own John Mott.

What would it look like for YMCAs in the USA to engage diverse and global Christian members in an inclusive way?

Here are a few steps Christians in the YMCA could take for moving forward:

One: do some demographic research of the many different kinds of Christian denominations in your region; spend time investigating the many independent ethnic and minority churches in your communities.

Two: you find what you are looking for – so start looking to meet the diverse and global Christians who are already part of your YMCA; prayerfully be present to the willingness of the Holy Spirit to connect you with Christians different than you.

Three: consider the different kinds of Christians you already know, examine your heart in regard to “those Christians” which you are suspicious of or consider to be CINO (Christians in name only); prayerfully submit to the Holy Spirit your attitude and perspective, and be open to how you might gain a healthier understanding of their relationship with Christ.

Four: pay attention to your cultural context in regard to different kinds of Christians in your Y and life – odds are the obstacles to unity are less about race and ethnicity and more about ideology; are the divisive distinctions being drawn around labels like: conservative vs liberal, traditional vs progressive, evangelical vs ecumenical, charismatic vs liturgical, pro-life vs pro-choice, pro-straight marriage vs pro-gay marriage, pro-capitalism vs pro-socialism, etc.?

Five: accept that being a Christian in our world is complex, that trying to live out your faith in your community is complicated, that relationships are messy, and that it is not easy to intertwine the application of grace and truth to every situation; accept that we make lots of mistakes along the way and thus it’s okay to apologize when confronted and strive to make amends in faith, hope, and love.

There are many reasons why it’s a struggle to talk about the “C” in the YMCA.

For my part, I’d like to do what I can to help forge a way for more of us in the Y to strengthen an inclusive “C” as part of our mission and cause as we seek to love, care and serve our diverse and global communities.

This means taking the “C” more seriously, learning to talk about the complex “C” in ways that are generous, empathetic in listening and learning, and honest.

Religion is not going away in the world, it is a powerful lens for participating in reality; either the YMCA fully and authentically embraces its religious heritage and seeks to let it flourish for all, or we live in denial of our founding and our foundations, to the detriment of our future.

For more on global religion’s resurgence and potential for our human flourishing, read more by Miroslav Volf of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture at Yale Divinity School.

For more on this theme read Is The YMCA Still Religious? Still Christian?

The YMCA & Forgiveness For All

The YMCA & Forgiveness For All :: June 6 is YMCA Founders Day, when we remember Sir George Williams and his 11 Christian friends who prayerfully and courageously started the Y in 1844. We celebrate all who have inspired the Y to be for all, empowered by the life and love of Christ Jesus. In these difficult times, we need the Y more than ever to support and train our members on how to do forgiveness for all. This will deepen our inclusive equity work in our communities. Read for more on this proposal.

The emphasis on inclusion in the YMCA is admirable and crucial.

For Christians in the Y we see inclusion as central to our original purpose, which is why we highlighted the prayer of Jesus “that we all may be one” in our early logo (John 17:21).

The adapting logos of the YMCA since 1881

The religious and social motivations for initiating the Young Men’s Association are an example of what radical inclusion looked like in 1844 industrial London.

On Founders Day, June 6, YMCA’s pause to remember Sir George Williams and his 11 Christian friends who prayerfully launched the Y in order to save young men in spirit, mind and body.

Sir George Williams, London

Here we are, almost 180 years later, benefiting from their religiously and socially inclusive work, still striving to keep living out our mission; remarkable really.

Inclusion in the YMCA and our world has gotten more difficult and complicated, for many reasons which include globalization, technological and proliferation of social media, and cross-cultural human migration.

More diverse people are more uprooted from their traditions and tribes, are more scattered across the globe, and thus more kinds of different people must interact with each other.

It doesn’t always go well.

Which is why the Y is so wise to emphasize inclusion the way it does.

However, one element I have rarely ever seen taught in the YMCA regarding inclusion is the practice of forgiveness.

What happens when people are bigoted and exclusionary? Is this just a misunderstanding? Is it just lack of understanding? Is it at least a character flaw? An area for improvement? Is prejudice wrong or just unpreferred?

Can we call bigotry “sin” in the Young Men’s Christian Association?

If we can, then we open up opportunities to really nurture a transformation in the spirit, mind and body of our fellow members that hold on to ugly stereotypes and bigoted habits.

To be honest, every single Y member has some kind of prejudice that they have to work on. If bigotry and prejudice foment hate and violence, we need a strong word and concept to describe it: sin.

Within the Christian tradition of the Y there are beautiful examples and practices for people to be transformed from sin-full exclusive bigots to grace-full inclusive neighbors.

One example is the life and teachings of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. His Christian faith was undeniably central and crucial to his accomplishments for civil rights and a just peace.

When MLK taught about inclusion, it required teaching about and modeling forgiveness.

The Y is at a place in our inclusion work where we need to recover the teaching and practice of forgiveness. Without it we will have slogans with no spirit, policies to embody but no way to recover from hurt hearts and broken promises.

Social responsibility and being for all includes the practice of forgiveness – this is what enables there to be any kind of diverse social cohesion and survive the chronic misunderstandings and human foibles.

If the Y is as serious as we say we are about our inclusive mission, we must utilize our Christian heritage, in particular its tradition on forgiveness.

The brokenness and violence in our communities is more than just poverty of jobs and resources, it’s the sinful spirit of us all without recourse for letting go of grudges and making amends.

If nothing else, for the majority of Y members that identify with a Christian tradition, the Y ought to resurrect specifically Christian teachings on forgiveness so that Christian Y members who are racist or bigoted or holding on to grudges have proximity in the Y to the Jesus of John 17:21.

When it comes to forgiveness for all, where to start for resources and models?

For the many Christians in the Y, we start with Jesus Christ and what he taught and modeled on forgiveness. The Y ought to explicitly endorse and encourage Christian Y members to be more like Christ Jesus. It’s needed, no?

It’d be worth remembering and reflecting on the Christian sermons of Rev. Martin Luther King, especially the collected in the edition Strength To Love in particular his writings on forgiveness for all.

For a fresh and startling Christian perspective on forgiveness for all, I strongly recommend these provocative reflections by Soren Kierkegaard, a Danish Christian who wrote extensively around the time that George Williams was forming the YMCA. Kierkegaard was also a deeply formative influence on MLK. And me, for what it matters.

Take these Christian comments on forgiveness for all by Kierkegaard and reflect on them with a humble, inclusive spirit and mind.

I think they could be a powerful catalyst for Christians in the YMCA to reawaken as a powerful force for radical inclusion and reconciliation, healing and just mercy, inspired by the truth and grace of Christ Jesus.

That Jesus Christ died for my sins certainly shows how great his grace is, but it also shows how great my sins are.

Christ abandoned ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,’ and turned the relationship around. He introduced a different like-for-like: as you relate yourself to others, so God relates himself to you. Forgiveness is to forgive.

To forgive sins is divine not only in the sense that no one is able to do it except God, but also because no one can do it without God.

It is God’s joy to forgive sins. Just as God is almighty in creating out of nothing, so he is almighty in uncreating something; for to forget is to uncreate something.

When I hate someone or deny that God is their Father, it is not they who lose, it is I. It is I who then have no Father. With unforgiveness there is always the reversed echo.

The anguished conscience alone understands Christ.

Is this the test: to love Christ more dearly than mother and father, than gold and goods, than honor and reputation? No, the test is this: to love the Savior more than your sin.

God created out of nothing – marvelous you say. Yes of course but he does something more marvelous- he creates saints out of sinners.

You will get a deep insight into the state of Christianity in each age by seeing how it treats Judas.

Father in heaven! Hold not our sins up against us but hold us up against our sins, so that the thought of you when it wakens in our soul, and each times it wakens, should not remind us of what we have committed but of what you forgave, not of how we went astray, but of how you saved us!

The need for forgiveness is a sign that one loves God. But both parts correspond to one another – when a person does not comprehend what a great sinner he is, he cannot love God; and when he does not love God, he cannot comprehend how great a sinner he is. The consciousness of sin is the very passion of love. Truly the law makes one a sinner, but love makes one a far greater sinner! It is true that the person who fears God and trembles feels himself to be a sinner, but the person who in truth loves feels himself to be an even greater sinner.

You may think that the sin remains just as great whether it is forgiven or not, since forgiveness neither adds nor subtracts. But this is not so. Rather, when you refuse to forgive you increase the sin. Does not your hardness of heart become yet one more sin? Ought not this be brought into the reckoning as well?

All Kierkegaard quotes in this article taken from Provocations, pgs 283-287
For more YMCA resources on forgiveness for all, try out this devotion series called Living Stones developed by Y leaders.