“Care for the Widow and Orphan”: From Wesley to the 21st Century
United Methodist Association – March 9, 2015
St. Petersburg, Florida
Robert J. Williams
INTRODUCTION AND LINCOLN QUOTE
When Abraham Lincoln was nominated for a second term as president in 1864, a
committee came to notify him of his nomination. I guess politics functioned a little
differently then and Lincoln would have been the first president since Andrew
Jackson to seek a second term. Lincoln responded: “I will neither conceal my
gratification, nor restrain the expression of my gratitude.” (Carl Sandburg,
Abraham Lincoln, The Prairie Years and the War Years, The Illustrated Edition,
New York: Fall River Press, 2011, page 302) That sounds pretty restrained to me
but I do not want to conceal my gratification for the privilege of speaking to this
distinguished gathering. I am truly honored to be asked and certainly want to add
my voice to the theme of this gathering “Celebrating our Past.” It will be up to
others to “Plan for the Future.” I was quite surprised to be offered this
opportunity and I want to assure you that while I will be outwardly restrained, I am
inwardly ecstatic. Who would not want to be in Florida in March for an early
spring to escape the Northeast?
I do believe that Lincoln is a good place to start. The Civil War and post-Civil
War era was the beginning of a period of rapid growth in institutions to bring
healing and care to the aged, to children, and to the sick. The energy that went into
the war became the fuel to drive the engine of institutional development. But also
the words his Second Inaugural Address gave me the title of this address: “let us
strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for
him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan.”
I know that I don’t have to convince you of the importance of your work for the
“Bible tells us so” and John Wesley, who set in motion the particular tradition that
is Methodism, enables us to place this work firmly in our Wesleyan tradition. We
celebrate what has brought us to this moment but are humbled by the responsibility
to faithfully care for what has been entrusted to us. Billy Joel reminds us that “we
didn’t start the fire.”
ANNIVERSARIES AND THE HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW
Why are there commemorations of anniversaries and especially this 75th
Anniversary of the founding of the United Methodist Association? Because we
function on a base 10 numerical system those ending in five or zero seem
especially important. I am fortunate to have been in a position, that of leading the
United Methodist agency for archives and history, to advocate for the importance
of heritage, which is claiming the past for the sake of the future. I probably don’t
need to convince you but I found encouragement about the importance of heritage
in an unlikely source. I was excited when I was given a copy of an article that
appeared in the Harvard Business Review for December 2012, entitled, “Your
Company’s History as a Leadership Tool, Take your Organization forward by
Drawing on the past.” A few quotations will suffice to give a sense of the article.
“When the history of an organization does come up, it’s usually in
connection with an anniversary—just part of the “balloons and fireworks,” as one
business leader we know characterized his company’s bicentennial celebration
(knowing that the investment of time and money would have little staying power.)
…The history of the enterprise can instill a sense of identity and purpose and
suggest the goals that will resonate….For a leader who hopes to take an
organization into the future, one of the most powerful tools available may be a
sophisticated understanding of its past… Great leaders don’t talk about history
only when planning their organization’s next anniversary. They always think and
talk about the past—in the present and in living color.”
I feel I always need a Biblical text and thus chose James 1:27 – “Religion that is
pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows
in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”
WE TURN FIRST TO JOHN WESLEY
“There was a large (and increasing) population of poor and sick people in the part
of London which surrounded the Foundery, (the headquarters of the movement
purchased by Wesley about 1739). Wesley often went begging from house to
house to raise money to relieve their needs. As well as food and clothing, from the
year 1746, he entered upon a new sphere of ministry. Many of his members were
sick and their afflictions appealed to his heart. He prepared and administered
medicines himself in a room in the Foundery. Some of his concoctions were very
weird indeed and can be to this day found in his Primitive Physick. Later he
employed an apothecary and an experienced surgeon resolving not to undertake
complicated cases himself. He made an appeal to members of the Society at the
Foundery and in five months medicines were given to more than 500 persons
several of whom were strangers and not members of his societies. The whole cost
of medicines for the first half of the year was £40. This was probably the first free
dispensary in the City of London. The entire proceeds of money collected in the
London Classes were distributed for the relief of the poor and especially to help the
sick poor by supplying the dispensary and retaining the services of the medical
professionals. Its success soon led to another dispensary being opened in Bristol.
Curiously this project raised its fair share of criticism. There were those who felt
that Wesley was engaging in activities for which ill qualified. However, he
defended his conduct by writing in his Journal in 1749 as follows: ‘I do not know
that any one patient yet has died under my hands. If any person has such
knowledge, let him declare it with the time and circumstances.’
From the late 1740’s, there was also an Almshouse which offered ‘accommodation
to 9 widows, 1 blind woman, 2 poor children, and 2 upper servants, with a maid
and a man.’” (Leslie Griffiths, Lecture Given at the Wesleyan Theological
Institute, Chicago, 2009.)
Much more could be said about John Wesley but I agree with Albert Outler,
greatest Wesleyan scholar of the 20th Century, who said, “I am not interested in
John Wesley, but I am interested in the same things that Wesley was interested in.”
We are interested in caring for the whole person, body, mind, spirit, and soul. This
is part of our Wesleyan based value system mentioned on the UMA web site and
captures his doctrinal emphasis on the grace of God available to all humankind.
Wesley and his spiritual descendants have been concerned about caring for the
whole person. In an essay entitled, “John Wesley on Holistic Health and Healing,”
Randy Maddox wrote, “I hope to demonstrate that, far from being an amusing
avocation, Wesley’s interest in health and healing was a central dimension of his
ministry and of the mission of early Methodism.” (Methodist History, XLVI, 1,
October 2007, page 4). Dr. Maddox concluded his essay with these words,
“Likewise, as we seek to honor the precedent of Wesley’s concern to provide
‘physick for the poor’ we will surely need to consider alternatives beyond simply
publishing an up-to-date self-care health manual. But while our specific actions
might differ from those of Wesley, we can only hope that our goal will be the
same–to realize as fully as possible in the present the healing of body and soul that
God longs to provide to all!” (page 27)
Wesley wrote directions to Samuel Bradburn in 1788, who was caring for Charles
while he was in declining health, “If he cannot go out, and yet must have exercise
or die, persuade him to use (the wooden horse) twice or thrice a day, and procure
one for him; (and) I earnestly advise him to be electrified.”
ASBURY CONTINUES THIS MINISTRY OF CARE IN AMERICA
BETHESDA – WHITEFIELD
GROWTH IN INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT – 19th and early 20th
Centuries
As early as 1833, an article appeared in the Methodist Quarterly Review entitled,
“Our duty toward the Aged” which admonished that “we are bound by Christian
obligations to regard the aged with tenderness and with deepest veneration and
respect.” Some of the early institutions included George Whitefield’s orphanage in
Georgia, a small orphanage in St. Petersburg, VA founded in 1847 called the
Thomas C. Paul Female Orphan Asylum, and the Methodist Episcopal Home in
New York in 1850. In the same period, conferences composed of AfricanAmerican churches started institutions. The Louisiana Conference opened a home
for children in 1873 but by 1880 a storm damaged the building and permanently
closed the home. The 1870 General Conference of the ME Church, South, adopted
a resolution “that the highest obligations of duty to God, as well as to our fellowmen, require us to make provision for the welfare of the helpless orphan and
indigent widow, and the faithful discharge of this high trust is one of the sources of
the richest consolation possible to human experience.”
David Crummey, whose doctoral dissertation at the University of Chicago in 1963
was on the rise of Methodist Hospitals and Homes called 1881 “The Year of
Awakening.” In January 1881, James Buckley, editor of The Christian Advocate
wrote, “The time has come when the Methodist Episcopal Church should turn her
attention to providing charitable foundations. She is today, so far as we can learn,
without a hospital, a bed in a hospital, a dispensary, an industrial school, or except
in mission fields, an orphan asylum under her control. We do not believe for one
moment that this is the outcome of unfriendly conviction. It is the outcome of
preoccupation; but now, is it not time that somewhere we build a hospital?...Our
church has, indeed, very few homes for the aged and indigent. They are well
managed and abundantly useful. Yet, more apply than can be admitted.” (Cited in
Crummey, page 79)
And that was the year that Methodist Hospital in Brooklyn filed its papers of
incorporation.
The early 20th Century showed a rapid growth in institutions. Between 1920 and
1940, the number of hospitals increased from 56 to 70; the number of homes for
the aged increased from 34-42; but the number of homes for children decreased
from 42 to 34.
GOVERNANCE AND DEVELOPMENT OF OVERSIGHT STRUCTURE
These dates give an indication of the desire of the church to provide oversight and
support to the ministry of homes, hospitals and orphanages.
In 1930 the General Hospital Board of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South was
created and the church adopted this resolution:
The M E Church, South, recognizes its obligation to relieve human
distress in the name of the Lord Jesus, who went about doing good and
healing all manner of diseases. Accordingly, the Church believe that
hospitals should be established and maintained by our denomination for the
care of the sick and injured. (Discipline, 1930, par. 525)
Arlene Peckham wrote concerning the merger in 1939 of three branches of
Methodism to form the Methodist Church: “This merger was significant to health
and welfare interests of the church for in Chicago, in 1940, the new body
established the General Board of Hospitals and Homes, the organization to which
the United Methodist Association of Health and Welfare traces its origin. The
name and purpose of the new Board was defined thus: ‘There shall be a Board of
Hospitals and Homes of the Methodist Church for the …care of the sick, and
homes for the aged and children, to promote the Christian character of these
institutions, and to conserve their spiritual value as institutions of the Church.’”
(Unquenchable Dreams, Cincinnati, OH: Creative Company, 1990, page 9)
The United Methodist Association of Health and Welfare Ministries was founded
in Chicago in 1940 following the action of the 1939 General Conference.
The Evangelical United Brethren Church established a Commission on Health and
Welfare. (At the time of the merger of the Evangelical Church and the Church of
the United Brethren in Christ in 1946, the church had nine homes for aged and
children.)
(Arlene B. Peckham, Unquenchable Dreams, United Methodist Association of
Health and Welfare Ministries, 50 Years 1940-1990, (Cincinnati, OH: Creative
Company, 1990).)
MINISTRY OF CARING HAD A GLOBAL DIMENSION IN METHODISM
UMA WEB SITE
There is a fine statement on the heritage of healing and caring ministries in the
Wesleyan tradition. There is a clear awareness of the connection to the United
Methodist Church which I hope the church and the institutions will continue to
affirm. Along with the other church agencies that are mentioned, I would hope
that the General Commission on Archives and History would be included as it can
be a resource with much historical information. Also, three of the Heritage
Landmarks of The UMC highlight these ministries – Methodist Hospital in
Brooklyn, Simpson House in Philadelphia, and Mary Johnston Hospital in Manila.
THE FUTURE
But what is ahead? What will General Conference do? What will affect health and
welfare ministries? Will the denomination split?
Issues include identifying what should be in a Global book of Discipline and
confronting church dividing issues. But your ministry will go on. Keep the
knowledge of your Methodist and EUB roots alive. Keep the Wesleyan values of
healing of the sinful condition, healing the total person, and that God’s grace is
available to all.
CONCLUSION
As we “Celebrate the Past and Plan for the Future” I hope I have captured the place
of the church in shaping these important ministries.
In The Christian Advocate for October 19, 1950, Rev. Karl P. Meister, executive
secretary, Board of Hospitals and Homes wrote, “It was Christianity which
provided the inspiration and motive for the work of hospitals and homes. The
church must again lead the way if this motive is to live, so that life will be added to
years as well as years to life. The church must put the ‘plus’ in the equation of
human life and welfare. It is scientific care plus all the Christianity can offer that
makes life worth living.”
Arlene Peckham 25 years ago wrote: “A recent mission statement reflects the
present conviction of the importance of the church understanding the magnitude of
its ministry by…’providing moral and ethical guidance, as well as theological
perspective to this vast ministry, so that what is done and said in the heritage and
spirit of the United Methodist Church is in concert with the understanding of the
church to the ministry called forward by Jesus Christ.’” (page 25)
You are the moral voice in our policy debates about providing care for all.
I am compelled to close with a Scripture text and so went to the book of Job. Job
defended his life of caring against those who tried to provide comfort that saying
he was to blame for his troubles. In Job 29: 11, 12, 13, 15, 16 we read:
“When the ear heard, it commended me, and when the eye saw, it approved;
Because I delivered the poor who cried, and the orphan who had no helper.
The blessing of the wretched came upon me, and I caused the widow’s heart to
sing for joy.
I was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame.
I was a father to the needy, and I championed the cause of the stranger.”
Thank God that the institutions connected with this association have been all this
and more to millions whose hearts can sing for joy because of your work. This
mission is a legitimate child of the past we celebrate and the heritage we claim.