RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Young People’s Societies
ity threads in and out of all departments, and binds them together, so that no one can come into any part of the association without coming also under its religious influence. A great deal of this is necessarily an invisible and unspoken influence, but it is present none the less. Under the organized religious work come the Bible-study classes, the devotional meetings, the personal service groups, and the missionary and evangelistic meetings. Through these the effort is made to ground a girl in the Christian faith, so that she will have a reason for what she believes, and will have a spiritual strength that will not only enable her to fulfil her duties, but will cause her to be a source of strength and helpfulness to others. The association does not rival the Church in any way, but endeavors to develop a trained and useful membership for the Church. These four departments constituted for many years a city association, but gradually the members began to realize that many young women lived at too great a distance from the association to come to it. Therefore an extension department was formed to carry the benefits of the association into the factories and shops at the noon hour. From this small beginning a large industrial work has grown, with clubs in many factories, while in some cities and mill villages there may be found a full-fledged industrial association managed by the workers themselves. In such associations a large subscription is paid by the factory or mill owners to the association, but the control of the association work and the employment of the secretary are left to the young women employees. In the student centers for women the need was felt of a vitalizing Christian organization that should be under the auspices of the students themselves. From small prayer groups developed the Young Women’s Christian Associations which provide for Bible- and mission-study classes and devotional meetings among the students, and which also have charge of such philanthropic enterprises as the young women have time for. From the one prayer group in Normal University in 1873 have grown 667 student associations now affiliated with the national movement.
The work of all associations is directed in general by a board of managers or a cabinet, which is elected from the membership, while standing committees have charge of the different departments. The general secretary and the other department secretaries are the executives of the board of directors. It is the duty of the general secretary to be in touch with all the departments, to make plans for the strengthening and enlarging of the association, to have knowledge of the latest methods employed
elsewhere, and herself to originate
3- Organ- methods which are particularly adapted
ization and to the local surroundings. She is the
Confer- true executive of the association, one
ences. with the board of managers in their councils and plans, and able to guide
them though employed by them. One of her chief duties is to harmonize conflicting personalities, so that she must be a woman of tact and resources; she must have great executive ability, and must have, first of all, a deep spiritual nature, for the success of all departments hangs on the religious
Young People’s Societies
THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
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strength of the association. More and more the secretaryship is being recognized as a legitimate and satisfactory profession for college women, who would make their lives tell in the spiritual uplift of the world. There were for some time in the United States two national organizations of the Young Women’s Christian Associations, but in Dec., 1906, 398 delegates from the local associations, formally affiliated with the International Board of Women’s and Young Women’s Christian Associations and with the American Committee, met in New York and formed The Young Women’s Christian Associations of the United States of America. A national board of thirty representative women was elected with Miss Grace H. Dodge as president. The national board has eight departments, viz., field work, secretarial, finance, publication, office, foreign, conventions and conferences, and method. A training-school for secretaries was opened in New York City in Oct., 1908, and the national headquarters are at 125 East Twenty-seventh Street, New York City. Under this national board are formed territorial committees who come in close touch with the local associations and have traveling secretaries, experts in the various departments, to give advice and help wherever it shall .be necessary. The relation between the territorial and local associations is purely advisory. To give additional strength to the associations, ten conferences are held in different sections of the country. These are arranged by the national board, and to them come members of the local associations for Bible and mission study, for open conference on plans and methods of work, and for inspirational meetings. Each conference lasts about ten days, the smallest numbering some 200 delegates, the largest 800. The leaders of these conferences are national board and territorial secretaries and committee members, and among the speakers are some of the best-known clergymen and social-betterment workers of the country.
Certain phases of work promoted by the specialists of the national board in suitable communities or in a general way are as follows: the provision for club houses for professional women students; the organizing of associations for Indian students and for those in colored schools; the linking-up of recent college graduates to volunteer work along such religious and philanthropic lines as they may indicate preference for; recognition of the recent “ rural awakening ” by the formation of county associations; and a system of meeting and protecting young immigrant women and equipping them, by instruction in English and other help, for life in a new country.
Besides the work in the United States the Young Women’s Christian Association is strengthened by its international bonds. It is affiliated with the World’s Young Women’s Christian Association, which has branches on every continent and in almost every country, and with the World’s Student Christian Federation. These world’s associations have their own conferences, the last being the World’s Young Women’s Christian Association Conference in Berlin, in 1910; and the World’s Student Christian Federation Convention in Constantinople, in LOT:
The following statistics for 1910-11 show something of the growth of this organization in the course of a little over fifty years. Now thas
4. Interna- it is united under one central board, a tional Affil- still greater increase may be expected. iations and City associations (with 32 branches),
Statistics. 196; extension associations, 12; to-
tal membership, 228,757; 147 associations report an average weekly attendance of 6,719 at the religious meetings; 151 report 22,193 enrolled in Bible classes; 57 report 1,434 enrolled in mission-study classes; 109 report equipped in gymnasia, and 152 report 25,133 enrolled in physical training classes; 158 report 36,153 enrolled in educational classes and clubs; 131 report libraries with 109,931 volumes, and 144 report reading-rooms with 2,269 periodicals; 97 report 7,496 enrolled in domestic-science classes, and 134 report 14,079 enrolled in domestic-art classes; 126 report lunch departments serving 5,652,145 meals during the year; 104 report boarding departments with capacity for 4,531; 94 report 27,150 positions secured through the employment bureau; 44 report travelers’ aid departments; 80 report buildings owned, and 32 report summer homes; the secretaries, directors, teachers, etc., number 1,106.
The student associations number 667, with an active membership of 54,369 out of 115,703 young women students in the institutions; the general secretaries number 47; the mission-study classes number 1,262, with 14,196 students (reported by 342 associations); the Bible-study classes number 1,485, with 18,957 students (reported by 345 associations); 16 associations have buildings, and 201 have libraries; 253 associations held special evangelistic meetings.
XV. Young Women’s Christian Association of Great Britain and Ireland: An organization formed in 1855 in two sections by Lady Kinnaird (then Hon. Mrs. Arthur Kinnaird) in London, with the idea of establishing suitable Christian homes and institutes for young women; and by Miss Robarts
in the country, who, believing in the
1. Origin power and influence of women, “banded and together a union of women whose work History. should be cemented by prayer,’’ which
was called the Prayer Union. These two sections, the one with its purely spiritual aim, and the other combining to meet both the spiritual and practical needs of young women at that time, grew side by side, until in 1877 both were united under the presidentship of Mrs. Pennefather (of the Prayer Union) and Lady Kinnaird, and called the Young Women’s Christian Association; the work had already extended to Scotland and Ireland, thus making the association to consist of four divisions —London, provincial, Scotland, and Ireland. By 1884 it had become evident that the time was ripe for a more united constitution and regular organization in the work, and after much prayer and consultation a united basis and constitution were agreed upon, still adhering strictly to the lines upon which the London and country branches had worked, and in harmony with the motto of the association, ‘‘ Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts”’ (Zech. iv.6). A united central coun-