Care, orderliness and system

Reading Christian Science Wartime Activities (WWI) at this time has been a sobering experience in light of current world focus on the situation in Ukraine.

For a while, I puzzled over the naming of the committees which undertook to provide needed garments (and other items) to soldiers, i.e.: 

·       the War Relief Committee 

and

·       the Comforts Forwarding Committee

I now appreciate the aptness of the names. Who wouldn't want relief in a war situation? And Christian Science stands for comfort and forwarding, humanly and spiritually. 

A conversation between the head of an organization (non-Christian Science) receiving some goods and their assistant (p. 273) illustrates this aptness:

           Comforts Forwarding Committee – what a symbolic name!

           Who are they?

           The Christian Scientists; and their garments are so well made, so carefully pressed and so exactly folded and packed, they are a comfort to the first person who handles them, and the comfort is forwarded.

           Well, I shall never again allow anyone in my presence to say a single word against them.

As a rule, no-one but military personnel were allowed in camp. This was especially so during the outbreak of epidemic. However, in at least one instance, the Christian Scientists were excepted. Having received a “shipment of knitted garments, consisting of a sweater, helmet, pair of wristers and two pairs of socks for every man in the camp” the Commander insisted that he had “never seen such a splendid array of knitted goods” (p. 281) and required that the Christian Scientists be there when the garments were distributed. The paragraph ends by saying: “To the men in the service here Christian Science has come to stand for that which helps and brings joy and comfort.” The War Relief Workers stressed that the “boys now knew that we were there to help them and not to preach to them” (ibid)

It seems that those who made the garments could include a note with the warm clothing. One such note mentioned Psalm 91. The service-man who received this parcel wrote (p. 284):

           …although I’ve had lots of spare time in which to investigate the benefits which she claimed were to be derived from reading it, I have not done so until today, much to my regret. There was in it a message of calm confidence and trust in a Being whom I had known but little in my childhood, and in whose existence I have not had the slightest faith as I grew older. But war is a great school, and I am considerably wiser today….

           I wish to thank that kind lady most cordially for a good tip.

Finally, I love this (p. 288):

           The same care, orderliness and system which characterized the packing, were exercised in the distribution of the clothing…

Mary Baker Eddy reminds us: Christian Science demands order and truth.

(Miscellaneous Writings 215:12–13)

Julie Swannell

Marvellous healings

Chapters 9 (Christian Science Wartime Activities [WWI]) tells how the work was financed. “Financial Statement: A Word from the Treasurer of The Mother Church.

Chapter 10 is largely testimonials and expressions of gratitude. Marvellous healings and stories of protection.

The book finishes with lists of the Christian Science workers, and this is the final statement:

          No better words could be found to express their motive in preparing this history, than those of Malachi 3:16 -- "Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon His name."

The reader may have noticed this writer’s preoccupation with The Christian Science Monitor and the emphasis that the book put on its distribution and sharing and glad acceptance during the war years, particularly in 1917/1918. With the entry of the United States into the war effort, there was a mighty influx of men and materials to the battle.

On my first reading of this book, I concluded that once The Christian Science Monitor came to the barracks and to the war zones of Europe the tide of the war turned and victory was the inevitable conclusion. I likened it to the Scriptural passage:

            And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things.     Matthew 17:11.

Joyce Voysey

Adding some context to Christian Science work in WWI

The Siberian Expeditionary Force gets a mention on pages 285 and 286 of Christian Science Wartime Activities (WW1)! The 200-strong members of the Canadian Siberian Expeditionary Force were all supplied with “a sleeveless jacket and two pairs of socks, on 10 days’ notice, just before [embarkation]” (p. 286).

[Ed. An entry in Wikipedia explains that “In 1918, Canada sent troops to Russia as part of an Allied intervention to support Russian government forces against Bolshevik revolutionaries”.

The Wikipedia article continues: “In late 1917, the Bolsheviks proclaimed a socialist government in Russia under Vladimir Lenin. Although Russia had been an ally of the Western powers against Germany (see First World War), one of the reasons for the revolution was a strong desire among many Russians to end the war. On 3 March 1918, the Bolsheviks signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany and her allies, ending Russian participation in the war. With Russia’s withdrawal, the Allies’ Eastern Front collapsed.”]

At war’s end the Christian Science Comforts Forwarding Committee also contributed to filling France’s great need for clothing in a big way.

[Ed. There are not many references to Australia or New Zealand in the book. However, our intrepid researcher, Joyce Voysey, always reads “around” the topic at hand in order to gather a wider context. As part of that wider reading, Joyce discovered a previously unknown fact (to her and probably to many readers) regarding the role of Japan in WW1.]

Of interest to Australians and New Zealanders is the following snippet from Empires at War: 1911-1923 edited by Robert Gerwarth and Erez Manela, p. 205: “Japanese ships played a key role in the mobilization of the British Empire between 1914 and 1918, conveying Australian and New Zealand troops from the Pacific through the Indian Ocean to Aden in the Arabian Sea. And, following attacks on Japanese merchant vessels in the Mediterranean, three Japanese destroyer divisions and one cruiser (thirteen ships in all) in February 1917 joined the allied fight against German submarines there.”

Joyce Voysey

[Ed. Readers might also find the article “Anglo-Japanese Naval Cooperation, 1914-1918”, published in the Winter 2000 edition of Naval War College Review (Vol 53. No. 1) by Timothy D. Saxon helpful.]

Christian Scientists permitted into military chaplaincy

Chapter 8. Timely Recognition.

I have been waiting for the Christian Science chaplains to appear in this story. Here we have it, beginning page 296. And page 298 explains the process by which one became a chaplain. The chaplains were commissioned with the rank of a first lieutenant. They wore (and wear*) the uniform of an officer.

While the most important role of the chaplain was “the maintenance of … morale” (p. 299, Christian Science Wartime Activities [WW1]), I can’t resist this list of “duties” performed: They were known to have given lectures on current events. They also “ran educational classes, gave magic lantern exhibitions, organized baseball teams, refereed sporting contests, acted as interlocutors in minstrel shows, arranged dances for enlisted men, sang in concerts, erected Christmas trees, placed The Christian Science Monitor in Officers' Clubs and in Red Cross and Y. M. C. A. Rest Rooms, ran canteens, cooked for boys away from their mess on special detail, assisted as stretcher bearers, helped surgeons in first aid stations, carried messages back to Division Headquarters, dug graves, laid boys away, conducted their burial services, took care of their valuables, wrote to bereaved parents, joked with the boys who wanted to laugh and weep with those who would cry” (p. 301). Necessity, the recorder says, really made the chaplain the mother of the army.

Page 307. We hear of Chaplain Arthur C. Whitney marching with his captain at the head of the company through heavy shell fire. The captain testified that he felt a security and confidence that he had never felt before under shell fire. The company did not suffer one single casualty in that engagement.

For another engagement with a different regiment the French Government awarded Chaplain Whitney the Croix de Guerre with bronze star.

Page 316. We hear of Chaplain Herbert Beck doing such splendid healing work that “four army chaplains [had] been healed and [had] taken up the study of Christian Science.” One said that he “could no longer preach the old dogmas”. He became a Scientist in civilian life. Healings included abnormal growth, nervous prostration, and a wife’s tuberculosis.

*For a more recent shining example of Christian Science Military Chaplains, readers might enjoy a wonderful book about the service of Janet Horton. Cracking the Camouflage Ceiling: Faith Persistence and Progress in the Army Chaplaincy During the Early Integration of Women in the Military tells of her rise to the rank of Colonel. And of her marvellous demonstrations and over-comings. Janet was the first woman chaplain to serve The First Church of Christ, Scientist. She served from 1976 till her retirement in 2004.

Ed. For several blog posts about Horton’s book, see February 2020. Here is a link to one such post.

Joyce Voysey

Women Christian Scientists in WWI

Page 249 of Christian Science Wartime Activities (WWI) introduces the role of women. Surely, it seems to me, we have a poetess composing the opening paragraph of Chapter VII: A Unique Committee. (Note: on one of the front pages of the book there is a list of contributors -- I guess our poetess is among them.)

“What could it [the response to one great human, globe-encircling cry] do through women ? Much. It could say to the enlisting men: ‘The womanhood of the world is with you; it will provide you warmth and comfort; it will bring you cheer, encouragement, and even joy.’ To the widow and the fatherless it could say: ‘The great mother-heart of the universe embraces you; lean on it; for it will feed you, clothe you, comfort you.’" (p. 249)

Oh! The knitting! In Boston the church arranged for yarn to be sold to the knitters in quantity. (Note: I think Australian women did their knitting for the Australian Comforts Fund. My guardian knitted many socks. I seem to remember a song, “Knitting socks for soldiers.”

The aim of the ACF was to provide free 'comfort' items that were not supplied by the services to all Australian servicemen. These items included singlets, socks, pyjamas, cigarettes and tobacco, razor blades, soap, toothbrush, toothpaste and reading material (newspapers and magazines))

For a while it seemed there was no way of getting the garments to where they were needed. It was sorted when it was realised that the activity lacked a name! Comforts Forwarding Committee. Christian Scientists fitted the bill.

The workers were organised in units like an army. 10 women learning to make garments and each going back to form a new unit of 10; teaching and producing.

There were “comforts bags.” This is from a letter of appreciation:
"Dear Friend Someone: I was very much pleased to get a fine comfort kit from you yesterday. It certainly had the comforts. A little bit of a bag of buttons, that was really what I most needed. Oh, there were lots of buttons in it, but it looked so tiny and stuffy I had to laugh. . . . The pins, the thread, the kerchiefs, soap, both shaving and hand, talcum powder, laces, oh, I can't think what all was there. And everything just fits me. I know I won't need any more shaving soap for a long time, for my beard doesn't grow fast….” (p. 253)

Perfection was the standard of all the garments, sleeping things, toys. The sweaters were very much in demand. One snugly outfitted man would pass the word of where they may be obtained. It seems that no one was ever disappointed.

I like this one: ”One veritable novelty was a slumber robe made of pennants — an inexhaustible source of amusement to the boys in one of the convalescent hospitals. What trip could one not take traveling under so many flags! So great was the demand for this robe in the hospital that it was generally engaged in advance for the following day, and to keep it only half of one's allotted time and then pass it on to another, was plainly one of the sacrifices of the war.” (p. 259)

Alaskan women made leather moccasins.

Such organisation! Such demonstrations!

Joyce Voysey

[Ed. Regarding the quality of the work done by the women, this quote is insightful from p. 260:

    “Are all your workers trained sewers?”

    “No.”

    “Then how do you account for your work being so exceptional I had always thought that Christian Science was an idealistic religion.”

   “So it is, --a practical idealism; a religion which governs every act of our lives even to the sewing on of buttons. There is a perfect standard of sewing, and Christian Scientists having that before them when making these garments, do all to the glory of God.”]

The British Christian Scientists

Continuing the unfolding story of Christian Science Wartime Activities (WWI), our correspondent Joyce Voysey reports --

Still in England, on to Dover. One thinks of how close Dover is to France and the implications of that at that time.

There were constant raids and bombardments from the sea. A great number of the inhabitants moved out of their homes so that the houses might be available to soldiers and sailors.

At Chatham (p. 217): “There were good cases of healing recorded in Chatham, but it is noticeable that many men quickly learnt to do their own work, when once they started reading the books.”

There is a photo in the book. It shows a huge sign on the side of a three storey building: Christian Science Reading Rooms for Soldiers.

At Ripon the military police approved of the good the Reading Rooms were doing. “The military police were particularly struck with the order and refinement of the Rooms, one of them remarking, "You do get the best men here." (p. 218)

If one looks at a map of Europe, and Germany’s options for getting its ships into the Atlantic, it will be noticed that there are two paths: the English Channel and through the North Sea and over the top of Scotland. A lot of the traffic went over the top. The area was prohibited under the Defence of the Realm Act. There were mines being laid in the waters.

At Inverness: “As there was no local Christian Science organisation, a Worker from the north of England was appointed, and he and his wife set off as pioneers, in a true missionary spirit. They were equipped with special military passes….” (p. 226)

At Plymouth there is mention of the moral value of the rooms. "I cannot tell you how grateful I am for these Rooms. They have saved me from so much I could only regret. Not that I am naturally vicious, but I had nowhere I cared to go, and in the streets temptation was flung at me from every corner.” (p. 228)

A worker wrote: "From the first day, we placed the work of the War Relief Room in the care and under the guidance of divine Love…” (p. 229)

At war’s end there was much shipping activity in Liverpool with all those men needing to be sent home. And there was traffic the other way with all the Britishers coming home from the East.

“On one occasion a body of 11,000 men, mostly from Boston and its districts, passed through on their way to embark for the East, and when they saw the Monitors*, the distributors were nearly mobbed. The officer in charge came up and smilingly offered an apology for his men.” (p. 233) They were mostly from Boston!

The book always stresses the value of the Monitor.

Aha! Page 240 gives a mention of Church Army Rooms and Y.M.C.A.s The interested reader may remember the Church Army Rooms getting a mention in relation to my brother’s experience of letter-writing in quiet retreats during WWII.

At Blandford, Dorset county, there was a large R.A.F camp. An interesting snippet: “A portion of the hut was partitioned off at the special request of their commanding officer for the use of recruits under eighteen years in training for the Royal Air Force. These boys, who were arriving in weekly drafts of from two to three hundred, were quite undisciplined and many of them drawn from the slums.” (p. 244)

I am always looking for items that might show that my father may have come in contact with Christian Science during his period of time in Europe, both in the trenches and as a prisoner of war in Germany (in hospitals due to a leg wound). So this is of interest to me:

“Early in 1917 permission was obtained to send literature regularly to a number of British and Canadian prisoners of war in Germany and to men interned in Holland. Literature has also been supplied to German prisoners of war in internment camps in Great Britain and many of the men who have been repatriated have gone back to Germany with Christian Science literature in their pockets.” (p. 247)

Joyce Voysey

*The Christian Science Monitor

A sheltered corner

The following is a direct quotation from this month’s study Christian Science Wartime Activities (WW). Readers will find it on pp. 267-268:

It was a sailor boy who stood, one Saturday morning, reading the sign, "Comforts Forwarding Committee." 

At first it seemed to mean nothing to him; but surely, if slowly, its promise and appeal worked its way through the shell-shocked, gassed and horror-stricken mind, to the inner consciousness, where it met a response. He crossed the street, opened the door and walked in. The steady rays of unchanging love surrounded him. Little by little his petrified thought relaxed; little by little, stuttering, gasping, sighing, his story came forth; and when the effort to speak became too great, he finished the tale in writing. 

After more than a year of service in the army "over there," after going over the top and experiencing the full import of those words, what was left of the once stalwart lad had been sent back to his Texas home. But no home awaited him. His widowed mother, having married again, had closed her heart and her house to the shattered hero. 

Turned from her door, he came to Uncle Sam, to offer such service as he could then render in the merchant marine.

Seated in a sheltered corner of the Comforts Forwarding Room, the homeless one was gently led to relax, and confidently rest in the mother love there shown him.

Was there no church to help him?

"Oh, mercy, no, I never went to church; but my people are Protestants."

"How did you happen to come in here?" 

"I don't know. I was across the street." 

"I know ; it was because we can help you." 

"That is impossible. (A sigh.) I am so lonesome." 

"If you stay in this city we will give you something to do."

"I wish I could do something for you." 

The conversation closed with the gift of a Sentinel*, a pamphlet and an invitation to come again Monday morning.

At nine o'clock there stood the boy, happy, whistling.

"I went to your church yesterday; ain't it fine!" 

No mention of the church had hitherto been made to him, but he had found a notice of it in the Sentinel, and even the pouring rain could not keep him from its doors. His happy visits to the Comforts Forwarding Rooms continued, until his ship put out to sea; and it was a very different boy who said, "Good-bye; I shall come to see you on my return."

*Christian Science Sentinel

posted by Joyce Voysey

England answers the call

“England Answers the Call” - page 211, Christian Science Wartime Activities (WWI).

As no opportunities were allowed for setting up Christian Science study and rest centres within the designated camps in England, facilities were provided in nearby towns, even if there were no officially organised Christian Science churches there. These were initially in the south of England. 

One can imagine the setting in Colchester - page 213:

    The writing facilities were the great attraction in the early days to many men who enjoyed the peace and quiet, instead of the racket of the usual places provided for them. As time went on, they began to take an interest in the Monitor, the periodicals, and finally in the textbook, in a way in which perhaps they might never have done except for the opportunity thus given to them.

I am reminded of the last letter I had from my brother during World War II. He was in the RAAF (Royal Australian Air Force), the pilot with a crew from various Commonwealth countries and working with the RAF (Royal Air Force). He wrote to me from London. I have just now read the heading on the “letter-folder”:

    These Letter-folders are supplied to H.M. Forces with the Compliments of Singer Sewing Machine Co. Ltd. (Black ink)

    Members of H.M. Forces planning to spend their leave in London should ask the Hon. Superintendent for a list of Church Army Service Hostels in London, where there is always an assured welcome, as in all Church Army Huts and Canteens at Home or Overseas. (Red ink)

The Singer Sewing Machine logo heads the page to the left of the text.

I have discovered that the Church Army was founded in 1882 in association with the Church of England and still operates in many parts of the Anglican community. So, no doubt there were similar havens in England during World War I. What blessings must have accrued in these places of refuge and peace.

Now I am wondering about my father and my guardian who both served during WWI. Did they seek out these places? Did they perhaps come across a Christian Science haven?

The letter-folder folds down to 4” to 3 ½” and requires a 2 ½d. postage stamp.

Joyce Voysey