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‘An artisan of Christian Unity’: Sir Frank Willis, Rome and the YMCA
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
Extract
I have always most earnestly desired that Christians should meet in Associations, such as will meet on Thursday, with this conviction, that their common Christianity ought to form a bond far more powerful to unite them to their one Lord, and Master, and Head, and in brotherhood one to another, than that their conscientious differences of opinion should form cause or excuse for hostile separation. I am glad to know that some of my brethren in the ministry of the Church of England will be with you.
YMCA is a household acronym. Throughout the world people are sure that they know what it means. In 1926 two well-connected Labour politicians, the Wedgwood Benns, were in Moscow. There the head of the Bureau for Cultural Relations with Foreigners, Olga Kamenev, who was also well-connected, since she was Trotsky’s sister, told them about one of the Russian capital’s most serious problems: the street children. These youngsters, homeless since the civil war, slept under bridges and robbed railway trains:
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References
1 Dean Elliott of Bristol, regretting his inability to chair Bristol YMCA’s first annual meeting, 1853, quoted by Sir F. Willis and adduced as confirming his view that from its earliest days the YMCA was not just ‘very largely a Nonconformist (or Free Church) organisation’ but ‘was supported by quite a number of Anglicans who were what is generally called Low Churchmen’; Geneva, World Alliance Archives [hereafter WAA], Sir F. Willis to Dr Paul Limbert, Hampstead, 12 March 1962.
2 Stansgate, Margaret, My Exit Visa (London, 1992), p. 106 Google Scholar.
3 In 1895, with his parents, a brother and two sisters, he joined F. B. Meyer’s Christ Church, Westminster Bridge Road, the heir to Rowland Hill’s famous Surrey Chapel. I am indebted to the Revd Ian Randall for this information.
4 WAA: Willis, F., Report of the First Session of the Second Vatican Council (Geneva, 1963)Google Scholar. Willis was famous for his confidential reports, most notably that on the YMCA and sex, marked ‘Confidential: not for reproduction.’ He was quite without a sense of humour.
5 Ibid., p. 7.
6 Ibid., pp. 5-6.
7 Shedd, C. P. et al., History of the World’s Alliance of Young Men’s Christian Associations (London, 1955), pp. xvii, ix–x Google Scholar.
8 Mott died on 3 January 1955. The previous December Shedd had travelled to Orlando, Florida, to hammer out the Foreword: ‘As we read our suggestions to him sentence by sentence, he would break out and in his characteristic way with fire and enthusiasm say “That’s right. That’s what I mean. That’s what I want to say …”.’ Then, early in the new year, ‘I found from Dr. Mott the following wire. “Approve use of my name to manuscript submitted. Would decidedly prefer that manuscript be not reduced, signed John R. Mott.”’ WAA: C. P. Shedd to Paul Limbert, Yale, 1 Feb., 1 Jan. 1955.
9 WAA: Dr D. A. Davis to Paul Limbert, Westwood, NJ, 12 Feb. 1955.
10 Ruth Rouse, quoted in T. Strong, ‘The World’s Alliance in a changing world’, in Shedd, History, p. 464.
11 World Communiqué [hereafter WC], May/June 1955, 66, No. 3, pp. 3-9.
12 Ibid., March/April 1962, pp. 4-6.
13 Shedd, History, p. ix. For Williams see Binfield, C., George Williams and the YMCA: A Study in Victorian Social Attitudes (London, 1973)Google Scholar.
14 Shedd, History, p. 492.
15 Ibid., p. 489.
16 Willis, Z. F., ‘That they all may be one’, in Shedd, , History, p. 701 Google Scholar.
17 Ibid., p. 698.
18 Ibid., p. 707.
19 Since that unnamed benefactor had, however, died, Willis was careful to point out the implications for any further attendance. WAA: Sir F. Willis to Paul Limbert, Hampstead, 27 Aug., 11 Sept. 1962.
20 ‘The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican’, WC, Nov./Dec. 1962, p. 13.
21 Willis, Report, pp. 14-17.
22 ‘In Measured Stride’, WC, Jan./Feb. 1963, p. 14.
23 In the sense of ‘updating’ or ‘renewal’ rather than ‘adjournment’ or ‘postponement’. Willis, Report, pp. 22-7.
24 WAA: Sir F. Willis to Fredrik Franklin, Hampstead, 6 Dec. 1963.
25 WAA: F. Willis, Report of the Second Session, p. 16.
26 Ibid., pp. 29, 25,21.
27 Ibid., p. 18.
28 F. Willis, ‘The Vatican Council: Decisive Days for Christian Unity’, WC, March/April 1964, p. 10.
29 WAA: F. Willis, Report of the Third Session, p. 2.
30 Ibid., pp. 8-20.
31 Ibid., pp. 29-38.
32 Ibid., p. 6.
33 Ibid., pp. 48-50.
34 ‘The Bishop will in future share direcdy with the Pope, in ways to be determined by him and always subject to his unique and unquestioned primacy, in the government of the Church.’ F. Willis, ‘The Vatican Council: a “creative and historical session”’, WC, Jan./Feb. 1965, p. 10; Willis, Report of the Third Session, p. 43.
35 Willis, Report of the Third Session, p. 39
36 F. Willis, ‘The Vatican Council’, WC, March/April 1966, p. 12.
37 WAA: F. Willis, Report of the Fourth Session, pp. 30, 28, 22.
38 WC, March/April 1966, p. 12.
39 Willis, Report of the Fourth Session, p. 45.
40 F. Carrera, an engineer from Concepción, Chile, and Italy’s Olindo Parachini, with the Lutheran German Dr Jentsch and the Swedish Baptist Fredrik Franklin. Other observers included Dr Klaus von Bismarck, Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s brother-in-law.
41 F. Willis, ‘Roma: two historical ecumenical events’, WC, March/April 1968, pp. 8-9.
42 WAA: Sir F. Willis to F. Franklin, Hampstead, 11 Nov. 1967.
43 Ibid., 1 Feb. 1969.
44 F. Willis, ‘Roma’, WC, March/April 1968, p. 8.
45 WAA: Rosemary Goldie to F. Franklin, Vatican, 18 March 1969.
46 Ibid.
47 WAA: John, Cardinal Willebrands to F. Franklin, Vatican, 11 July 1969; Telegram, Willebrands, Secretariat for Christian Unity, Vatican, 25 July 1969.
48 WAA: Sir F. Willis to F. Franklin, Hampstead, 10 Nov. 1969.
49 Ibid.: copy sent to F. Franklin.
50 WAA: Sir F. Willis to F. Franklin, Hampstead 29 Nov. 1971.
51 Willis, Report on the Fourth Session, p. 55.