Advancing the Kingdom

dvancing

ingdom

: K

ingdom

ouse

Movement, Kingdom House advanced

towards another location. Bishop Holt

describes the Centenary Movement as

part of his address of 1953:

…We came in 1919, my first year at

St. John’s, to the launching of a great

movement in the Methodist Church known

as the Centenary Movement. When the

Centenary Movement was launched after

the close of the First World War it was

a movement in which we sought to raise

millions of dollars in the Methodist Church.

It went on in the Methodist Episcopal

Church and in the Methodist Episcopal

South Church simultaneously, and we were

asked at St. John’s to raise, in addition

to our regular contributions to missions

and social service, fifty thousand dollars

within a four-year period, the sum of twelve

thousand five hundred dollars a year. To me

it still looks like a lot of money, and at that

particular time it looked like a lot of money

to the church too, and a good many of our

fine people out there said to me, ‘We are

not too much

interested in

missions. Why

should we raise

twelve thousand

five hundred

dollars a year

as a special for

missions? We

have Kingdom

House on our

hands and

we have the

Orphans’ Home

that we have

to support. We

must make some

contributions to

Barnes Hospital.

We have our

hands full right

here in St. Louis.

Why should we do this?’ ‘Of course,’ I said,

‘Barnes Hospital is not in the Centenary

Movement, but Kingdom House ought to

be. We have a social settlement down there

that is run by deaconesses of the Methodist

Church, and Kingdom House ought to be

in the campaign.’ They said at St. John’s,

‘It is a different matter if Kingdom House

is in.’ I wrote to Nashville to our church

headquarters to know what kind of a plea

had been put in for Kingdom House. I found

out this: that the deaconess who was in

charge of Kingdom House had asked the

Centenary Movement to give six hundred

dollars for some folding chairs for Kingdom

House. Here was St. Mark’s at New Orleans,

a social settlement of the same kind, asking

the Centenary Movement for a hundred

thousand dollars for an expansion program.

I realized, of course, that somebody had

slipped up, and so, writing to our Home

Mission Secretary, Dr. O.E. Goddard at

Nashville, I said, ‘I think it is ridiculous;

we have a requisition in this campaign for

six hundred dollars for some folding chairs.

‘ He wrote back and said, ‘I quite agree

with you. Would you like to put in a revised

asking?’My reply was, ‘If we are given the

opportunity we certainly will.’ And he sent

me the blanks. After talking with some of

the people on the Board here and some of

our people out at St. John’s I sent him back

a request for fifty thousand dollars, instead

of six hundred dollars for folding chairs.

Within a very few days he had had a meeting

of the committee in charge of quotas and

they granted us fifty thousand dollars for

Kingdom House. I know that meant that

I wouldn’t have any trouble getting fifty

thousand dollars at St. John’s Church for the

Centenary Movement if Kingdom House was

to get fifty thousand dollars.

I will tell you another piece of good

luck. We not only got the allotment of fifty

thousand dollars from our Home Mission

Division of the Board of Missions, but when

the campaign solicitation was over, and

the spring had come and the money begun

to come in a lot of people were sending in

payments in Liberty Bonds. Is there anybody

here old enough to remember the Liberty

Bonds? Well, we used to have Liberty Bonds

back in the First World War period and

people would pay pledges with them. Dr.

Goddard wrote me a letter and said, ‘Would

you be willing at Kingdom House to take

fifty thousand dollars in Liberty Bonds for

your allotment? If you would I think I can

send it to you at once.’ It didn’t take me

longer than I could get a letter off to him

to say ‘We will take it.’ I didn’t consult the

Board at Kingdom House. I didn’t consult

anybody. I said, ‘We will take the fifty

thousand dollars,’ because I had an idea

that the time was coming when they were

not going to collect all these pledges and

therefore that these allotments were not

going to be paid. If we waited a little bit

later on we might get seventy-five per cent

or sixty per cent. We were offered a hundred

per cent – well, not quite a hundred percent

at the time, because the Liberty Bonds

hoto

Kingdom House,

1102 Morrison Ave.

know

that meant

that

wouldn

’

t have

any

trouble

getting

fifty

thousand

dollars

. J

ohn

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hurch

for

the

entenary

ovement

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ouse was

get

fifty

thousand

dollars