These articles were first published in the July 19, 1924, issue of The Living Church.
Concord Conference on the Ministry
About two hundred picked boys from the first three Provinces gathered recently at St. Paul’s School, Concord, N.H., for a conference on the ministry. The boys were from the junior and senior high school classes and fifth and sixth forms of preparatory schools. The purpose of the conference was not to obtain life-work decisions, but to present fairly the claims of the ministry. The conference extended over a period of three days.
Each day began with a celebration of the Holy Communion. After breakfast the boys gathered with their group leaders for a period of study, after which was a lecture. The afternoons were devoted to athletics and recreation. Just before supper was another lecture, and after supper an address. The morning addresses were given by Bishop [Charles] Slattery, of Massachusetts, who took as his subjects the intellectual, the pastoral, and the religious life of the minister. Bishop [W. Blair] Roberts, of South Dakota, who gave the afternoon addresses, made a stirring appeal to the boys when he challenged their spirit of adventure. He spoke of the priest as a man, a citizen, and a priest. In one of the evening addresses, Canon [Frederick] Scott, of Quebec, spoke on the functions of the priest as he exercises his power to bless, to sacrifice, and to absolve. President [Remsen] Ogilby, of Trinity College, spoke on the missionary work of the Church and its call to young men. On the last night Bishop [Charles Henry] Brent, of Western New York, held the preparation service for the Corporate Communion of the conference on the following morning.
Thousands of Bible Schools in New York
Daily Vacation Bible Schools were opened this week in various churches, parish houses, and mission halls throughout the city. Three hundred and fifty such schools were opened on the first day, reporting a teaching staff of 3,000 and an enrollment of 47,000 children. The schools in the lower east side districts and in the First and Second Avenue neighborhoods reported the largest attendance. The schools are under the auspices of the Metropolitan Federation of Daily Vacation Bible Schools, whose headquarters are at 71 West Twenty-third Street.
Georgia Young People in Camp
In its initial camp for Young People’s Service League members of the Diocese of Georgia, the Department of Religious Education, which sponsored the venture, feels that it has scored a complete success. While the attendance was not as large as was expected, the impression made on those who attended wholly justified the camp idea. The attendance included the bishop [the Rt. Rev. Frederick Fock Reese], thirteen officers, councilors, and other adults, twenty-two young people, and five children, making a total of forty.
The camp was located on St. Simon’s Island, near Brunswick, at the far end, away from the summer colony, on the edge of a grove of shade trees, about two hundred feet from the ocean. The girls were quartered in a large cottage and the boys in tents; classes were held under the trees, and meals were served on the porch of the Arnold House.
Beginning on Wednesday morning and continuing through Saturday the daily schedule was as follows: 7 a.m., morning ocean dip; 8:15, prayers; 8:30, breakfast; 9 to 9:30, intermission; 9:30 to 10:15, Bible class, by the Rev. Mr. Winn for boys and girls; second class, instructions on personal religion (ideals of manhood and womanhood), the Rev. Mr. Halleck for boys, Mrs. Otto for girls; 11:30 to 12, recess; 12, noonday prayers; 12:05 to 1, third class, missionary course, “The other side of the world,” by the Rev. Mr. White; 1 to 1:30, intermission; 1:30, dinner; 2:30 to 4, quiet hour; rest of afternoon, recreation; 6, supper, followed by stunts, camp fire, and good night service.
A chief feature of the camp was the Rev. Mr. White’s class, and before the camp was over many of the boys and girls were asking questions about the duties of missionaries, and as a result of these lectures at least one member volunteered for service to the Department of Missions.
The real inspiration of the camp came at the good night service on the beach when the Camp Director led the prayers and inspirational talks. On Saturday night the whole service was given over to preparation for the corporate communion the next day. Sunday morning the campers attended service at historic Christ Church, Frederica, on the Island, and the bishop preached a special sermon and was the celebrant at the Holy Communion service. Before the service a Bible class was held under the trees, after which the young people roamed around and saw the “Wesley Oak,” under which the Wesleys preached. After service they drove to the old fort at Frederica, built by General Oglethorpe, the founder of the colony, for defense against the Spaniards.
To the Rev. Mr. Jonnard is due the success and inspiration of the camp. He was at all times the life of the camp, and the members felt that they are unusually lucky to have as their young people’s leader, one who is so exceptionally gifted in this work and who makes an appeal to youth.
College Women Study Actual Conditions
Twelve girls from as many women’s colleges arrived in New York yesterday to go to the tenements of the east side and learn more about practical economics than their textbook can teach them. They came under the auspices of the Church Charity Organization Society, which is the recipient of an anonymous donation to defray the expenses of the trip.
The girls are all juniors in college and were chosen by their respective institutions. They will spend a month at the work and when they return as seniors are expected to be able to tell their classmates the results of their study. The group met and organized yesterday. They went to the Charity Organization Society office and heard a lecture on housing by Lawson Purdy, the director. Then they were taken to various points in the city, including the Metropolitan Life Tower, where they saw a panorama of their future activities spread before them.
The students will visit most of the charitable, penal, and correctional institutions in the city. Their week will consist of three days of such visits, during the course of which they will receive explanatory lectures, and three days doing what the social workers call “family case work.” This consists of visiting families where distress has been reported, taking children to clinics, and assisting in any other way that necessity demands. One will be stationed at each of the branch establishments of the society.
Church Pageantry School
A Church Pageantry School will be conducted at St. John’s Military Academy, Delafield, Wis., August 18th to the 30th, under the auspices of a committee of the Fifth Provincial Synod and with the endorsement of the National Commission on Church Drama and Pageantry. It has thus both a national and a provincial character.
Among the departments and instructors are the following: History of Drama and Pageantry, the Rev. Irwin St. John Tucker; Composition of Plays and Pageants, the Rev. Frederick D. Graves; Acting, Miss Grace Hickox and Miss Gloria Candler; Stagecraft, Miss Dorothy E. Weller; Liturgical Pageantry and Drama, the Rev. Morton C. Stone; Story-telling, the Rev. Louis Tucker, D.D., Music, the Very Rev. George Long; other topics: Educational Dramatics, Puppets, Dance, Eurythmics.
The daily schedule begins each morning with the Holy Eucharist and contains four work periods during the forenoon, the afternoon being left for recreation, and the evening for special features. Among the latter will be shadow plays, demonstration of the sacred dance, puppet plays, a liturgical pageant, ballet dances, a stunt night, a story hour, a eurythmic demonstration, a mystery play, and an outdoor pageant. In connection with the school there will also be an exhibit of dramatic and ecclesiastical art.
The accommodations at St. John’s Military Academy are excellent, and the beauty of the site on Nagawicka Lake will be impressed upon all the visitors. The cost is low; there is a registration fee of $5 and a charge of $30 for board, lodging, etc., at the school for the entire period. Further inquiry may be made of the Very Rev. George Long, 401 Chestnut St., Quincy, Ill.
The 1920s saw a major expansion in summer youth and children’s programs in the Episcopal Church, especially at the diocesan and provincial levels. A functional provincial system for the church was created in 1913, and 1919 brought a series of canonical changes and the Nation-Wide Campaign, a fundraising effort. These gave the church a much stronger central executive authority, with a series of departments, capable of beginning new work, much of it focused on forming the faith of young people and helping the destitute. An editorial in the same July 19, 1924, issue of TLC traces the rapid way in which provinces and dioceses adapted similar structures. The result was a proliferation of summer schools, church camps, vocations conferences, and related programs.
The first Vacation Bible Schools were held in the 1890s, but these exploded in the early 1920s. The first nondenominational Vacation Bible School association was founded in 1922, and the first curriculum published in 1923. In the 1920s, the schools were generally held daily throughout the school summer vacation, usually seven or eight weeks. Two and later one-week VBS sessions were not common until the 1950s.
