Providing Christian resources from the YMCA past and present to nourish inclusive, equitable work in our diverse and global neighborhoods that build up healthy spirit, mind and body for all.
What can you do in this coming year in honor of George Williams legacy to lift up youth, to embody the grace of Christ, and enter into the challenges of our generation with courage and wisdom?
It’s a joy to remember the origins of the Y, why we got our start, who all helped make it possible, and for what ends.
When you become a member of the Y, you join a global movement created in 1844 to save young men in spirit, mind and body.
All these years later, the Christian heart of the Y has built up an organization focused on welcome and hospitality, empowerment and solidarity, justice and peace, faith and hope; but the greatest of these is love.
What can you do in this coming year in honor of George Williams legacy to lift up youth, to embody the grace of Christ, and enter into the challenges of our generation with courage and wisdom?
“For all” is a key part of our YMCA mission, and for Christians in the Y we can do our part as the welcoming hands and hospitable heart of Jesus, motivated to do our part in our decades to be ones who unite – and be part of the transformative answer to Christ’s prayer “that they may all be one.”
It’s a week where we are reflecting on the devastating impact of 9/11 on America and the world, and a sentiment that arises is the remembrance of unity that emerged from the chaos.
That moment of unity was costly, but the experience of it lingers in our national memory, the yearning still clings to our conscience.
Many of us ask the question in some form: how can we be united like that again, but without the destructive evil to prompt it?
For Christians in the USA who reflect on those moments of unity as our country came together, many of us thought of the call Christ Jesus placed upon his disciples.
The unity that America experienced for a few moments after 9/11 is a kind of unity that Jesus prays for – in particular for all who will believe in him throughout each generation in every nation.
Christians yearn for unity among one another in our local congregations, city churches, national denominations, historic branches across the globe.
Jesus prays for unity, “that they may all be one” – and it seems like we are still waiting for this prayer to get answered.
This yearning for Christian unity was desired greatly in the 1840’s during which the YMCA was formed by George Williams and his eleven friends.
The Paris Basis of the 1855 World YMCA Alliance is a practical statement striving to embody this prayer of Jesus for local YMCA’s that desire to be in harmonious relations with Y’s across their countries and the world.
This prayer of Jesus, for awhile, was included in the 1896 logo of the Y, the reference of it – John 17:21 – was printed upon an open Bible, in the middle of a triangle, behind which was a double circle and the Chi Rho symbol.
The current bylaws of many US YMCAs includes explicit commitment to the inclusive and uniting principles of Christ, with an expectation that it would not only shape individual personalities to imitate Jesus’ style of fellowship, but it would influence whole societies.
The Young Men’s Christian Association we regard as being in its essential genius a worldwide fellowship united by a common loyalty to Jesus Christ for the purpose of developing Christian personality and building a Christian society.
The present mission of the Y masterfully condenses the soul of Jesus’ prayer, the heart of the Paris Basis, and the essence of the bylaws in their mission statement: to put Christian principles into practice through programs that build healthy spirit, mind and body for all.
In the life of the Y these days there are crucial conversations around the relevance and connection of “Christian principles” to being “for all” in our mission.
For complex and sometimes ambiguous reasons there is resistance or confusion to the meaning of “Christian principles” in our mission; and others have a similar uncertain take on being “for all.”
It seems to me like it’s worth remembering honestly where we came from, to tell those stories responsibly, to respect those that made it possible in the past for the Y to be here today, and to care enough to pass it on to the next generation even better than when we came into it – that can be a helpful to build up healthy connections between “Christian principles” and being “for all.”
Again, for complex reasons, the “C” in our name has been downplayed in many of our official YMCA branding and historical accounts, a form of interpretation about our context.
Based on observation, it does seem like there is an awkwardness and uncomfortableness publicly talking about the “C” in the YMCA in our movement, which is shaped in various ways by our pluralistic, secular, multi-cultural, multi-faith communities.
And, with the division that has exponentially increased between Christians in the past 200 years, it complicates communication between them in the Y – thus if they talk past each other, or down to those who are different in their following of Christ, how can they speak with united confidence among those who don’t believe in Jesus like them?
One of the elephants in the YMCA room is the uncomfortableness Christians have talking about their own faith – especially with other Christians who believe differently.
If you don’t believe the Y is a safe place to talk about what you believe, then the Y squelches most kinds of Christianity and by default let’s a vague version emerge that might be “safe” but also barely meaningful.
What’s your take on Christians who believe differently than you?
Imagine how Jesus feels when he looks around the world at all the different Christians… is he clicking his tongue, slapping his forehead, rolling his eyes at the diversity of his disciples?
No.
When you read this part of Jesus’ prayer for disciples in the generations to come, there is nothing narrow-minded or small-hearted about it:
My prayer is not for them alone.
I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.
May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity.
Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
It’s a beautiful, bold, compelling, visionary prayer that, to be frank, we are yearning still for Jesus to fulfill.
This prayer of Jesus was a fueling element for the posture of the YMCA towards different kinds of Christian men they let join and lead in the Y.
For anyone who wants a stronger “C” in the YMCA, it includes ecumenical acceptance of the diverse “C” that’s always been true of us – the fruit of this being God’s love for the world being made known.
The movement started with boundaries, like all must; but the Y kept expanding it through the decades – in London, through the British Isles, then Europe and eventually five more continents.
Eventually they let all the Protestant into the Y, despite some internal protesting; then they let in the Catholics and Orthodox – this ought not to be assumed as natural, but rather a striving based on rigorous efforts and prayer.
This same posture led the Y to take the momentous step of letting in their Jewish and Muslim friends, and eventually they would drop all religious requirements for membership and leadership.
When someone joins the Y, whatever kind of Christian they might be, whatever kind of religious conviction you may or may not hold, there is no denying the truth of the ground and roots which nourish the global YMCA movement.
It is inauthentic of the Y to downplay the religious history of the Y, to shy away from the explicit Christian heart of the Y – it makes our movement less interesting, less compelling, less transformative.
It’s okay to honestly say that it is more complicated now, that there is uncertainty on what to do with religions in the Y, and Christianity in particular.
In light of the religious upheavals we are experiencing globally, no surprise that the Y is also caught up in it.
And the violence that is done in the name of religion is reprehensible. Always.
The solution, though, is not to squelch religion, to ban it or ignore it as a way to stem violence.
People are violent.
Religion can be used as a wise and healing tool in the face of violence, or it can be wielded to destroy with it.
If the goal is to find ways to transform violent people into peacemakers, and if those people are religious, we ought to seek ways to use their religious traditions to fuel ways of reconciliation instead of killing each other.
The YMCA sought to do this in its first hundred years, embodied among many leaders, in particular through the life’s work of John Mott, who is considered the Ecumenical Statesman of the 20th century, and who won a Nobel Peace prize for his war relief work.
With a religious YMCA legacy like that, we have an opportunity now to learn from and draw on this part of our history to foment religious reconciliation as part of our peacemaking, of forging just mercy in our violent communities.
Jesus’ prayer is our prayer, for those that believe in him, which is what then shapes our posture towards one another and the world.
When Christians seek oneness with one another, through Jesus, we end up demonstrating a healing and resonant love for the world.
Within the Orthodox Christian community, which John Mott highly respected, is the word “theosis” to describe the oneness in Jesus’ prayer.
Jesus prays that we would be one with each other and with God like Jesus himself is: this is theosis – a kind of healing communion where we experience the transforming joy of God’s reconciling presence in spirit, mind and body.
Thanks to the rigorous studies by Christian missionaries, we now realize that so much of the Christian division in the world is largely due to complex cultural differences, generational differences (often tied to immigrant communities), and sometimes violent socio-economic differences.
Of course the divisive Seven Deadly Sins are always at work, like entropy, pulling people apart in spirit, mind and body – and these must honestly and care-fully be confronted in a community, no matter what they are going through.
But to miss the larger forces at work is to misattribute to individuals what is happening on a massive scale to millions of individuals- thus being blind to trends which we can learn from, and then miss out on ways to give people more wisdom and truth on how to overcome cultural, generational and social-economic differences with grace.
When reflecting on how expansive, how inclusive, how global, how radical is the mercy of God, of how patient and kind Jesus is in answering his prayer these past twenty centuries, we can exclaim like St. Paul:
“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!
“Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?”
“Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?”
For from him and through him and for him are all things.
The unity that Christians yearn and strive for is a vision of the future which God is mysteriously and faithfully fulfilling in the world as it really is.
It becomes a matter of faith, of trust, that God is the source, the means, and the purpose of unity, that it is marked by mercy, faithfulness, wisdom, mystery, and glory.
Did Jesus know when he prayed for unity in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night of his betrayal that twenty centuries later we’d still be missing the mark?
Whatever Jesus knew, he wasn’t naive, nor a quitter – rather, motivated by a sacrificial love, an enduring joy, and a glorious hope that God will someday, someway answer his prayer for unity.
This prayer of Jesus, this desire for theosis, this yearning for transforming unity with God and others – past, present, future – it’s part of why the Y was formed, and in part why it has endured, adapted, matured, and kept moving forward, even if it has stumbled along the way.
“For all” is a key part of our YMCA mission, and for Christians in the Y we can do our part as the welcoming hands and hospitable heart of Jesus, motivated to do our part in our decades to be ones who unite – and be part of the transformative answer to Christ’s prayer “that they may all be one.”
The Y decided long ago, wisely, not to make religion an expectation or requirement of membership or employment.
Loyalty to Jesus Christ is always about grace, about gifts and blessing, not about coercion.
George Williams and his eleven friends – and later Anthony Bowen, John Mott, MLK, Paul Limbert, Harold Smith, Carlos Sanvee – are evidence of what happens to men who do believe Jesus, who take a leap of faith and pledge their loyalty to the Kingdom of God.
And that is how Jesus is alive and well in the YMCA today, when Y staff and members show up desiring to embody the love and loyalty of Christ to whoever comes across their path.
“I first learned in Bridgewater”, said Williams, “to love my dear Lord and Saviour for what He had done for me…I was on the downward road…I said, ‘Cannot I escape? Is there no escape’ They told me in this town of Bridgewater how to escape—Confess your sins, accept Christ, trust in Him, yield your heart to the Saviour. I cannot describe to you the joy and peace that flowed into my soul when I first saw that the Lord Jesus had died for my sins, and that they were all forgiven.”(7)
It is undeniable, the role of Jesus in the origins, heart and purpose of the YMCA.
George Williams and the eleven Christian friends who founded the Y in 1844 did so out of their love and loyalty to the Lord Jesus.
As an Association it’s impetus for action was Christian love and loyalty to the Young Men in their factories and neighborhoods who were facing crushing inequities, overwhelming temptations to vice, loneliness and purposelessness.
Our history is centered on the real presence of Christ Jesus, a man who figures in the background of the Y and the foreground of our leaders throughout the many generations.
The Y logos since 1881
The “X” and “P” in the background of the original Y logo are Greek letters, religious symbols for the name of Christ in the New Testament, written in Greek and spelled XRIST – Chi Rho Iota Sigma Tau.
Was the simplification of the logo in 1897 a secularist removal of Christ from the Y or rather a pragmatic marketing move?
Considering the Christians leading the Y in those days, men like John Mott, Luther Wishard, etc, their work and words, attitude and lifestyle was the real embodiment of the “C” in the YMCA.
The reality is that Christ is present in the Y irregardless of what the logo looks like, for it is through people that Jesus does his reconciling work, not marketing materials.
It is undeniable, though, that the role of the “C” – of Jesus – has become more complicated and conflicting in the YMCA.
The 1960’s seemed to have changed everything. One could make the case that the Great War of 1914 broke the ecumenical Christian Spirit of the world, that the Holocaust and atom bomb of WW2 poisoned the global Christian Spirit, and that it took decades for these reverberations to unsettle and upheave Christianity in our American culture; the 1960’s were the unveiling of the brewing chaos.
In post-war 1940’s elderly John Mott is noticing the waning of the Christian mission of the Y; in the 1950’s the famous Christian theologian and Y advocate Emil Brunner is calling the Y back to Christ; in 1989 the revered 101-old Paul Limbert laments the lack of awareness of Christian principles and legacy in the Y.
The YMCA was affected by the 1960’s, and all that led up to it, and since then; in some ways the Y embodies the culture of its communities and countries – in other ways we influence it.
One example: The diversity of Christianity in the USA is found in our YMCA staff and members.
This religious inclusion was intentional, hard-fought, often resisted, but crucial to us living out our name.
What the Y learned through religious inclusion has been seeds for greater inclusion amongst our increased dimensions of diversity – not without struggle, obviously.
Christians have always been part of the push for inclusion in the Y; they are also ones who resist it.
That’s been the history of Christianity, it’s attempt to live out Jesus’ prayer recorded in the New Testament Gospel according to John “that they may all be one.”
As Christ’s gospel encountered different tribes and nations, the diversity of the Faith increased, and so did the complexity and conflicts amongst the Body of Christ.
You can see this in the by-laws of the YMCA:
THE YMCA IS UNIVERSALLY REGARDED AS BEING IN ITS ESSENTIAL GENIUS, A WORLDWIDE FELLOWSHIP OF PERSONS UNITED BY A COMMON LOYALTY TO THE PRINCIPLES OF JESUS CHRIST FOR THE PURPOSE OF DEVELOPING CHRISTIAN PERSONALITY AND BUILDING A CHRISTIAN SOCIETY. THE YMCA SHALL BE NONDENOMINATIONAL AND SHALL NOT DISCRIMINATE AGAINST ITS STAFF, BOARD, VOLUNTEERS, COMMITTEES, MEMBERS OR RECIPIENTS OF SERVICES BASED ON ANY CHARACTERISTIC OR STATUS PROTECTED BY FEDERAL, STATE OR LOCAL LAW AND IS COMMITTED TO A CULTURE OF INCLUSION AND UNDERSTANDS, RESPECTS AND VALUES THE DIVERSITY OF OTHERS.
It’s ironic: as Christians strive to bring the peace-full gospel of Jesus to more people, there sometimes ends up being more struggles and even chaos – hence the emphasis by the Y on inclusive fellowship in imitation of Jesus Christ.
The Paris Basis of the YMCA, the original document for framing how different Christians could work together across the globe emphasized “harmonious relations”:
“The Young Men’s Christian Associations seek to unite those young men who, regarding Jesus Christ as their God and Saviour, according to the Holy Scriptures, desire to be his disciples in their faith and in their life, and to associate their efforts for the extension of his Kingdom amongst young men. Any differences of opinion on other subjects, however important in themselves, shall not interfere with the harmonious relations of the constituent members and associates of the World Alliance.”
What could it look like now it for Jesus to still be part of the Y? Challenge 21 is a compelling strategy and framework, developed in 1998 in reflection of 15 decades of YMCA ministry.
The first challenge is: “Sharing the good news of Jesus Christ and striving for spiritual, intellectual and physical well-being of individuals and wholeness of communities.” Read more at https://www.ymca.int/about-us/ymca-history/challenge-21-1998/
Sometimes we think too little of Jesus.
Is Jesus like a little Christmas elf, lurking in our buildings to bless people? Is he a ghost that haunts our facilities with nostalgia for the glory days of Christendom?
Is he a severe judge condemning all the sinners who work out at the Y? Is he a cultural critic of the right or left?
Is he wringing his hands at the mission drift of the Y? Is he rolling his eyes at the crazy Christians in the Y? Is he a timidly permissive of whatever people want to do or believe at the Y?
No.
Whatever Jesus is doing in the Y – in our world – in our communities – in our homes – it is with and through people, for all creation.
And whatever Jesus has done, is doing, and will do, it will often be – to be frank – unbelievable.
Why do I say that?
Because that’s the general experience of people as recorded in the New Testament.
It requires a leap of faith, to quote Kierkegaard, to believe Jesus existed and is still who he claims to be.
On the face of it, there is an unbelievability to Jesus.
But George Williams and his eleven friends – and Anthony Bowen, John Mott, MLK, Paul Limbert, Harold Smith, Carlos Sanvee – are evidence of what happens to men who do believe Jesus, who take a leap of faith and pledge their loyalty to the Kingdom of God.
And that is how Jesus is alive and well in the YMCA today, when Y staff and members show up desiring to embody the love and loyalty of Christ to whoever comes across their path.
The Y decided long ago, wisely, not to make religion an expectation or requirement of membership or employment.
Loyalty to Jesus Christ is always about grace, about gifts and blessing, not about coercion.
History shows that Jesus is not bound to our expectations and will not be manipulated or coerced, nor will he require that of us to others.
The grace of Christ grants us an almost unbelievable amount of freedom – which is why St Paul admonishes us to use our freedom for good “all things are permissible but not all are beneficial.”
At almost 180 years old, the relationship the Y has with Jesus is complicated and conflicted, which ought not to be much of a surprise.
But no matter how many decades have elapsed, life with Jesus always require more trust, which means there always more room for doubt.
Our faith only grows when tested, which means we will face more complicated conflicts which give us the opportunity to increase our hope and reveal the resiliency of our love and dependence on God’s Grace.
Are there still Christians still in the Y? Yes.
Is Jesus and the Y still a thing? Of course?
Do we crave more certainty and security about the “C” in the Y? Probably too much.
Did Jesus come to make people comfortable and happy? Not really.
Jesus did come to be the light in the darkness, to rescue us from evil, to call people to join him in a ministry of reconciliation for the restoration of all creation.
That’s what Jesus is doing in the world, in the Y, with and through and for people – people who can be stiff-necked, hard-hearted, stubborn and rebellious.
Yet he faithfully, patiently, with great endurance overcomes evil with good, redeeming it all by love, for those that believe it, who trust that this is what God is doing in the world through Jesus.
Sometimes Christ is in the background of our Y, like in that first logo; sometimes you can’t see him in obvious ways, like our current logo.
But since it’s by faith, through grace, that Jesus fulfills God’s will in the world, may we choose to believe that Christ is in the Y, that he is mysteriously present in the background and foreground leading us – the complicated and conflicted people that we are – into his promised future, where there is flourishing for all.
Here is how Carlos Sanvee authentically puts it, our World YMCA Secretary-General, in his 2021 Easter message to the Y:
I also realised how my faith in Jesus aligned with my African understanding of Ubuntu: that a person is a person only through other people; and that I am, because you are.
The YMCA taught me triangles and trinities: of the interlinkage of body, mind and spirit; and the interrelation of me, my neighbour and God.
So my work has always been my faith, and my faith has always been my work.
The core of my faith is to endeavour to accept and understand the unconditional love of God, shown to us at Easter. And my work is to try and share that love.
Jesus poured himself out in love and service. He preached and he lived the social gospel. He bridged the divides in society, and he reconciled us to God and to each other.
We in the YMCA are called to do the same.
Carlos Sanvee, https://www.ymca.int/eastermessage/
