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.
While the original “C” was thin – 1840’s British Protestant Evangelical White Young Male – these followers of Jesus took to heart his prayer in John 17:21 and embodied it throughout the world; their willingness to expand the depth, diversity and richness of the “C” thickened it, giving it more weight, more room for unity, and more dimensions of reality.
What can this mean for how you embody the “C” in the YMCA?
Our YMCA mission seems to embody a tension between practicing Christian principles and being for all; yet a historical overview shows a progression, an expansion, a richness, of inclusion.
Not perfect, obviously; a struggle for sure – one that we in the Y get to joyfully and humbly participate in for our generation.
This summary paragraph below comes in the middle of an extensive yet readable dissertation exploring the global influence of the YMCA Paris Basis from 1855 to 1955 – a century of stunning innovations, horrific trauma, courageous love.
At one level it lays out how Faith has been a dynamic and crucial Dimension of Diversity.
It highlights significant historical realities regarding the “C” in the YMCA striding forward into new countries and cultures, new generations, new opportunities.
By remembering our past, our roots, we can more wisely discern what we’ve been nourished with in order to stay engaged as healers and bridge-builders in the way of Christ amidst our present realities.
“The YMCA was a fruit of the Evangelical Revival of the 19th century.
Contrary to several other revival movements, which were separatistic, the YMCA idea was based on a sense of unity among Christians.
This led the YMCA to co-operate – often lead – with the major streams in the Ecumenical Movement of the 19th and 20th centuries.
The YMCA leaders were active in the Evangelical Alliance and Sunday School Movement; they were in the spearhead of the Muscular Christianity and student awakenings; they were inspired by the Social Gospel movement; they led the first meetings of Missionary Movement and the World Council of Churches.
Although the YMCA was Protestant in origin, it also adapted itself to Orthodox and Roman Catholic contexts.
In general, the attitude of Protestant and Orthodox church leaders was positive, while that of Catholics was negative.
In all different religious contexts, the YMCA aimed to lead youth to their respective churches.
Extending out of Europe and North America, the YMCA faced new problems and sought answers to them.
The area that had, along with the two ‘Christian continents’, the most profound effect on the mission view of the YMCA, was Asia.
In the Near East, the YMCA faced Islam and in India, it faced Hinduism and Buddhism.
In both contexts, the movement took the lead in interfaith dialogue with these world religions.
Additionally, in India, the YMCA faced the problems of rural youth – and aimed to adapt itself to their needs.”
How does this expansionist, diverse, “thick C” inspire you?
While the original “C” was thin – 1840’s British Protestant Evangelical White Male – these followers of Jesus took to heart his prayer in John 17:21 and embodied it throughout the world; their willingness to expand the depth, diversity and richness of the “C” thickened it, giving it more weight, more room for unity, and more dimensions of reality.
What can this mean for how you embody the “C” in the YMCA?
With a dynamic and inclusive legacy like ours, who can you be building a bridge of friendship with through your faith, hope and love in Jesus?
Readable and thorough overview with brilliant summaries for inspiring reflections. Click pic to download the PDF.
Provoking reflections for adults investing in young people: “Adults may have their longings, but they keep them out of sight, and somehow master them; and the more they have to overcome in order to live fully in the present, the more they will have the respect and confidence of other people, especially the younger ones, who are still on the road that the adult has already travelled.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
How do you know when you are grown up?
What makes an adult an “adult”?
For all of us who work with youth, how do we measure success?
This paragraph below by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, taken from his Letters and Papers from Prison, resonates with me, in particular discerning the characteristics of becoming an adult.
But is it not characteristic of adults, in contrast to an immature person, that their center of gravity is always where they actually are, and that the longing for their fulfillment of their wishes cannot prevent them from being their whole self, wherever they happen to be?
The adolescent is never wholly in one place; that is one of the essential characteristics of youth, else he would presumably be a dullard.
There is a wholeness about the fully grown adult which enables a person to face an existing situation squarely.
Adults may have their longings, but they keep them out of sight, and somehow master them; and the more they have to overcome in order to live fully in the present, the more they will have the respect and confidence of other people, especially the younger ones, who are still on the road that the adult has already travelled.
Desires to which we cling closely can easily prevent us from being what we ought to be and can be; and on the other hand, desires repeatedly mastered for the sake of present duty make us richer.
Lack of desire is poverty.
Almost all the people whom I find in my present surroundings in prison cling to their own desires, and so have no interest in others; they no longer listen, and they are incapable of loving their neighbor.
I think that even in this place we ought to live as if we had no wishes and no future, and just be our true selves.
What is it about that quote that sheds new light for you the role of desires in becoming an adult?
In an era that idolizes being “young” and resists becoming “old” – how does this description of desires and becoming an adult subvert those idols?
Bonhoeffer’s lived experience and seasoned reflections as a Christian pastor and theologian – he died in a Nazi prison at age 39 – are meaningful to me, and have shaped my striving to become an adult that is fully present with my whole self.
For me, no greatness or gratitude comes from regret-dwelling on the past or day-dream living in the future; that usually only fuels self-loathing and depression.
If I don’t master my desires, it also undermines me becoming the kind of adult who takes genuine interest in others, who truly listens, and is capable and willing to welcome and love neighbors, strangers, and enemies, as instructed by Christ Jesus.
In the YMCA and our communities, in the youth work we do, in the collaboration we do with adults, mastering our desires, by God’s help, gives us freedom to become our true selves – not enslaved to our desires.
This is how we can all live richly and authentically in the present; it enables us to embrace the duties that God’s Spirit and society have presented to us in these turbulent days.
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 Technologyis 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?
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.
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.
