Toward Worldwide Industrial Mission:The Presbyterian Story, 1945-1975

by Richard P. Poethig

to the national church, but the one thatmost symbolized his ministry was thecreation of Labor Temple on the lowerEast Side of New York City.3 while hisown relation to Labor Temple was short-lived, the ministry he began went on tobecome the basis of the PresbyterianChurch's engagement with the changingindustrial scene in the United States.The purpose of this article is to look atthe continuing stream of industrial mis-sion as it evolved in the Presbyterian

Church in the World War II era andafterwards through the creation of thePresbyterian Institute of Industrial Rela-tions in 1945 and i ater the Institute onthe Church in Urban-Industrial Societyin 1966.

PRESBYTERIAN INDUSTRIAL MISSIONhas its roots in the turn-of-the-centuryresponse of socially conscious pastors

to the impact which immigration and

industrialization were making upon thepeople and cities of the United States.Historically, industrial mission has beencategorized as the "social gospel" inaction.1 America's drive to become anindustrial nation had created a growingindustrial class of people in its steeltowns, mining camps, and manufactur-

ing-dominated cities. Clergy servingchurches in these communities, and

those who went as evangelists amongthe industrial workers, were among thefirst to recognize the impact which anindustrial way of life was having uponworkers and their families. They saw theneed for reaching this new group ofpeople within the context of their work-ing lives. During the 1930s the Board of Na-

Among Presbyterians, Charles Stelzle tional Missions was the locus for much

set the stage for the work of industrial of the Presbyterian Church's involve-mission in the twentieth century. His ment in industry and the cities. The net-appointment as director of the Work- work of settlement and neighborhoodingmen's Department of the Presbyte- houses related to the work of Nationalrian Church, U.S.A. in 1903 was the first Missions continued to be the front line

offcial recognition of industrial minis- of involvement with the ethnic working

try by a U.S. denomination.2 Stelzle car- class in the urban neighborhoods of U.S.ried out many imaginative industrial cities.4lt was forthis reason that Charlesmission programs in his ten-year service Stelzle had originally established Labor

Mr. Poethig, a retired Presbyterian minister, served as an industrial missionary in the Philippines (1957-72) and asdirecor of the Institute on the Church in Urban-Industrial Society, Chicago (1972-82).

American I'reobyterians 73:1 (Spring 1995)

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Temple, which continued to fulfil thisfunction throughout its existence. Neigh-borhood houses had been the main av-enue of contact for many of the largerurban Presbyterian congregations withthe ethnic working class. In some cases,local foreign language congregations

grew out of the programs of the neigh-borhood houses. Very often the sponsorcongregation's relationship to the neigh-borhood house provided the chief expe-rience for its membership's understand-i ng of the problems of the urban worki ngclass. Pastors assigned to neighborhoodhouse programs became intimately in-volved with the social and economicissues facing the constituencies whichtheir programs served. In Detroit, forexample, Henry D. Jones, director ofDodge Community Center, who was laterto become a major figure in overseasindustrial mission, became actively en-gaged with those involved in the organi-zation of the United Automobile Work-ers.s

One ofthe other streams which cameto playa major role in alerting the Pres-byterian Church to its responsibility forministry within industrial society wasthe educational program of the church.The Board of Christian Education had inits structure a major instrument forchange within the local congregation-the Department of Social Education andAction.6 It was the purpose of this de-partment to produce the study materialson social issues for use in localcongregations. The study materials be-came the means for engaging the mem-bership in the social implications of theChristian faith.

By the mid-1930s the consequencesof a faltering economy could no longerbe avoided. Discussion of the premisesunderlying the U.S. economy becamemore possible within local congrega-tions. The General Assembly's socialpronouncements passed in response tothe problems ofthe economy provided abody of material for study and action

American Presbyterians

within local congregations. The partici-patory process of study, discussion, andreflection opened' up church membersto a new perspective on the church'srole in the economy.

Under Cameron Hall, who in 1939became director of the Department ofSocial ,Education and Action, this pro-

cess continued. Under his leadershipthe department took a more active rolein dealingwith industrial concerns. Hallpaved the way for the department's pub-lication Social Progress, which had fo-cused on the issues of gambling and

alcohol,to include articles on industrialrelations and international affairs.6

During World War Ii, Cameron Hallcalled for the creation of an advisory

group of the Social Education and Ac-tion Department to develop a policypaper dealing with the church's role inthe industrial economy. Wartime gov-ernment policy urged cooperation be-tween management and labor in pursuitof victory. Could these cooperative rela-tionships be continued after the war?

The Advisory Committee explored thisquestion in their paper on labor andmanagement relations. The committee,composed of three clergy and thirteenlay people representing business; labor,and the public sector, produced the

document "The Church and IndustrialRelations." The 156th General Assem-bly meeting in Chicago in 1944 affirmedthe report and passed it on for study andaction within the congregations of the

Presbyterian Church, U.S.A/At the same time as the Division of

Social Education and Action was work-ing on its report, "The Church and In-dustrial Relations," the Department ofCity, Immigrant, and Industrial Work inthe Board of National Missions was alsopreparing for postwar change. WilliamShriver,8 who had headed the depart-ment since 1910, retired in 1941. Immi-grant work, which had dominated theindustrial and urban work of the boardfor a generation, was dropped from the

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Toward Worldwide Industrial Mission

department's name. The work was nowcontinued in the Department of City andIndustrial Work.

jacob A. Long was called to head thedepartment in 1944. Long had startedhis work life as a building contractor inPhiladelphia. His desire for educationpressed him on, first to complete col-lege and then to enter Princeton Theo-logical Seminary. After finishing semi-nary he was called to a new churchdevelopment in Norristown, Pennsylva-nia. From there he went on to become amember of the executive staff of thePresbytery of Philadelphia.9

Jacob long knew the war had broughtgreat changes within U.S. cities. He wasconvinced that after the war the churchwould need to deal with two major ur-ban concerns: (1) the reviving of theinner city churches, which were beingvacated by members moving to the newsuburbs, and (2) the organizing and

building of new churches in the sub-urbs. His consuming concern, however,was the fear of a revival of the strugglesbetween organized labor and corporatemanagement which had dominated thehistory of the 1930s. Long recognizedthat once the war was over, wage con-trols would be removed and industrialstrife over wages and working condi-tionswould again come into play. Facedwith this scenario, Long foresaw the needfor church workers to be knowledgeablein industrial relations and especially tobe trained to minister in situations ofconflict.10

Upon assuming responsibilityfortheDepartment of City and Industrial Work,long immediately initiated action toestablish an in-service training programto prepare church workers for the newindustrial reality. As the report, "TheChurch and Industrial Relations" waspassing the General Assembly in May1944, long was recommending to thenational church that an "institute" becreated at labor Temple in New YorkCity for the training of ministers, lay

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workers, and theological students in thefield of industrial relations. At its June15, 1944 meeting the Executive Com-mittee of the General Assembly gave

support to long's proposal and calledfor programs to reach blue collar work-ers through new techniques of evange-lism.ll On November 30, 1944, the Boardof National Missions voted to establishthe Presbyterian Institute of Industrial.Relations (PIIR) at the Labor Temple inNew York City.12

Jacob long promptly began the searchfor a director of the new institute. Hissearch brought him to Marshal L. Scott,a pastor at First Presbyterian Church inColumbus, Ohio. Scott had been activein a religion and labor fellowship whichhe helped initiate in Columbus.13 One ofthe co-sponsors of the group, JohnRamsay, a fellow Presbyterian and anorganizer for the United Steel Workers,had helped Scott make contact with la-bor leaders in the city.14 Scott had alsobegun study of industrial relations onhis own. He had taken courses underRhea Foster Dulles at Ohio State Uni-versity and had written a major paper on"The Effècts of Industrial Expansion onProtestant Churches in America from1875 to 1914."

Marshal Scott's first response to theinvitation to become director of the na-scent "Institute" was negative. "i toldhim," Scott recalled of his conversationwith long, "i wasn't interested in direct-ing it, but I certainly would be interestedin teaching. I told him that though Ithought itwas a great idea, I didn't knowenough to teach regularly. I rememberhis answer very plainly: 'i know youdon't, but nobody else in the Presbyte-rian Church does, and I've got to startsomewhere.' That's exactly what hesaid!"lS

Marshal Scott accepted the invita-tion and became director of the Presby-terian Institute of Industrial Relations onJanuary 1, 1945. The movement for anindustrial ministry begun over fourty

38

years before with the creation of theWorkingmen's Department in 1903 hadbeen reestablished. Labor Temple againbecame a laboratory for the Presbyte-rian Church's exploration of ministry ina rapidly changing industrial society.Industrial mission had returned to theroots from which it had sprung.

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Seminar programs at Labor Templebegan immediately. Space at LaborTemple was converted into a library andseminar room. Housing for participantswas provided. Additional teaching staffwere engaged. Chief among the lectur-ers was Liston Pope, Christian ethicsprofessor from Yale Divinity SchooL.

Pope had distinguished himself with agroundbreaking book, Milhands andPreachers, an investigative study of thechurches' relationship to labor in thetextile mill town of Gastonia, NorthCarolina.16 Marshal Scott quickly ex-panded his own syllabus oftopics whichhe taught in the program.

Ministers came for four-week semi-nars, later cut down to three. A majortheme posed by Scott was their churches'involvement in the community. Earlyexperience revealed that the ministersoften did not distinguish between theircongregations and the community. Theministers' experience was so focused onbeing pastors that they did not see theimportance of the church's relationshipto the community. The program set aboutbroadening the ministers' experience:teaching them "how to's" on engagingand learning about the people and theorganizations of the city. Field trips toindustries, labor unions, and commu-nity institutions became a major thrustof the seminars.

Early in the life of PIIR, Marshal Scotthad a meeting with James Myers, the

Industrial Secretary of the Federal Coun-cil of Churches.17 Jim Myers had been astalwart in keeping alive concerns for

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American Presbyterians

industrial issues initiated at the creationof the Federal Council in 1908. Myerssuggested to Scott that one task of PII R

should be a program of summer fulltimeemployment of theological students inindustry. Scott began the program inJune 1945 with a four-week seminar forseminarians. It was patterned on thePIIR program being conducted for min-isters. He soon learned that the four-week program did not meet the semi-narian's needs. By 1950 he had set up,with the help of John Ramsay and arepresentative from the National Asso-

ciation of Manufacturers, a "Ministers-

In-Industry" summer seminar in Pitts-burgh.18 The program was to employseminarians in full-time jobs in steel orrelated industries. Their identity as semi-narians was to be concealed, so as nottoprejudice the attitude of their fellowworkers. Eighteen students from six semi-naries worked in Pittsburgh industriesthat summer as the first in a long line ofsuccessful summer work and study pro-grams.19

The early years of the Ministers-in-Industry program challenged seminar-ians to see their ministry in a new di-mension. The worker-priest movementin Europe had been going on for almosta decade. The theological premise ofthe worker priest was that ifthe workingclass were to be reached by the gospelthen God's love needed to be incarnatein their working situation. Some partici-pants in the summer program weremoved to enter into a "worker-priest"ministry.

Among these Presbyterian "worker-priests" was Donald Mathews, a partici-pant in the first Ministers-In-Industry

program, who worked in the open-hearthlabor gang at U.S. Steel in Braddock,

Pennsylvania in the summer of 1950.His general foreman had been ki lied onthe job that summer. His experience asa steel worker in a risky job, alongsideother men who were risking their lives,convinced him that he needed to see his

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Toward Worldwide Industrial Mission

ministry in a new way. He left Pittsburghthat summer to serve a small Presbyte-rian worki ng-c1ass congregation in

Kalamazoo, Michigan. It was a congre-gation that had not had a regularly in-stalled pastor for twenty-five years. Hedecided to serve that congregation as

their pastor, but would earn his moneyby working in industry in the same waythey earned their living. In explaininghis decision he wrote in January 1951:Statistics indicate that the church and theworking man don't know each other verywell. Our experience suggests that the min-ister and his people don't know each othervery welL. To the degree that is true then itbecomes increasingly difficult for the minis-ter to mediate between the questions of lifeand the answers of the Christian faith...partic-ularly in a workingman's community. I amworking in industry in an attempt to bridgethe gap.20

Mathews was hired at Fuller Manu-facturing, a truck motor builder withseven hundred workers. He worked forsix months as a sweeper, then in thegear-cutting department for six and ahalf years. During that time he marriedand had two children. Under time pres-sures he finally quit the shop and tookon a more tra.ditional role for another sixyears in the congregation. During his

time the congregation grew and took ongreater presbytery responsi bi i ities. It par-ticipated alongside two other larger Pres-byterian churches in a joint diaconateprogram which resettled in Kalamazoosix coal-mining families from jackWeller's Presbyterian mission in WestVirginia.21

Another industrial mission experi-ment, the Ecorse Project, based in De-

troit, developed out of the Ministers-in-Industry program. A group of Princetonseminary classmates, influenced by thePllR experience, carried on a three-yearcorrespondence as "the industrial min-istry group." Out of their discussions

Detroit was chosen as the site of anindustrial team ministry experiment. InMarch 1956 Detroit Presbytery voted to

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pursuewhat became known as the EcorseProject. A Detroit newspaper told thestory in this way:Ecorse Presbyterian Church, located in oneof the largest industrial areas in the country,was selected as the ideal church by theBoard of National Missions to try a plan forthree ministers to be united with one churchfor the purpose of determining how thechurch can most effectively minister topeople in an industrial society. The Ecorse

church will be the first in the nation in whichthe experiment will be conducted by thenational board.22

Two members of the "industrial min-istry group," James Campbell (a PIIRalumnus from the summer of 1952) andJesse Ch ristman, were part of the EcorseProject, which was later named the Pres-byterian Industrial Project. In 1956 theproject assigned three ministers to oneparish. Two ofthe team were to work onthe assembly line in the automotive in-dustry. Accordingly, Campbell andChristman worked on the General Mo-tors Cadi lIac assembly Ii ne forfive years.The stated purpose of the project was"to analyze the present relationship of alocal parish to its surrounding industrialcommunity, to analyze the industrialenvironment and its impact on a localchurch, to recommend modifications inthe church's organizational and ide-ational structures and to project a pro-

gram that might be adaptable to otherpari shes."23

In May 1958 the Ecorse project de-cided to restructure the' church phase ofthe ministry. The triple pastorate wasdissolved. One person was to remain asminister ofthe Ecorse congregation andthe other two would continue at theirjobs in industry. Campbell and Christmanremained at Cadillac Motors until theearly 19t)Os, when they became part ofthe staff of the Detroit Industrial Mission(DIM). DIM had been initiated in 1956through the efforts of Hugh C. White, apriestofthe Episcopal Church, who drewheavily upon the Church of England's

experience of industrial mission.24

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Campbell and Christman brought to theDIM practical "on the line" experiencewhich helped that project carry out the"dialogue" phase of its work. The dia-logue program brought together in homesleaders from both labor and manage-ment to talk about the human and ethi-cal dimensions of "on the job" issues.

The Detroit Industrial Mission was toencourage a number of industrial mis-sion projects across the country. At the

height of the movement in the 1960sthere were as many as eighteen projectsassociated with industrial mission. Thosewith direct connections to the DIM werethe Flint Industrial Mission, the BostonIndustrial Mission, and the CincinnatiIndustrial Mission. The Cicero Business-Industrial Mission, based in Berwyn, Il-linois, grew directly out of Presbyterianinvolvement, as did the Chicago Busi-

ness-Ind ustri al Project.

Other ministries which came intoexistence in the 19605 were the WallStreet Center, the Business-Industrial

Focus in Rochester, New York, the Air-port Ministry at Kennedy Airport, theMetropol itan Associates of Ph i ladel ph ia,and the Puerto Rico Industrial Mission.National Industrial Mission (NIM) wasorganized in 1966 under the leadershipof Hugh White to coordinate the work ofthe industrial mission projects nation-

ally. By the late 1960s, the efforts ofindustrial missions projects had wanedand the NIM closed in 1970.2S

The most enduring of the churches'efforts at industrial mission was the Pres-byterian Institute of Industrial Relations.Its modest task was as a train ing pro-gram for pastors, seminarians," and laityto study the nature of industrial society.Through the thirty years ofthe institute'sexistence, its programs reached somethree thousand people. Participantscame to a new understanding of theimpact which the industrial process washaving upon people and their communi-ties. This awareness reached into differ-ent corners in the life ofthe Presbyterian

American Presbyterians

Church, whether in a ministry within acongregation, or in a presbytery's com-mitmentto sponsor an industrial project,or within the studies and policies pro-

posed by task forces of the General As-sembly.

Marshal Scott's regular PIIR letter,which went out to the network of thosewho had participated in the institute'sseminars, provided an up-to-date analy-sis of the industrial issues which thenation was facing. His careful critiqueof the people and the forces shaping theeconomy was well received by hun-dreds of pastors and church members.Scott's leadership in the church was rec-ognized in 1962 when he was electedmoderator of the 1 74th General Assem-bly. The industrial ministry of the Pres-

byterian Church had come a long waysince the first decade of the century.

Even in his more sanguine moments,however, Marshal Scott recognized thelimitation of the church's commitment.Twenty years after the creation of thePIIR he reflected on the belatedness withwhich the church participated in indus-trial problems:

In the matter of human relations in industry,we (the church) missed the boat. The labor-management battle had been fought in the1930's and the Protestant churches, with afew exceptions, had been indifferent or hadsupported a now-discredited system. On thatissue P.i.I.R. came too late. Roman Catho-lics had a better record and right after WorldWar II had an outstanding record in helpingunions get free of communist confusion-through their Labor Schools.... Probably themost permanent work was that of HenryJones in China and Japan, and his later influ-ence in other countries of Asia and Africa.But on the whole, the churches came withtoo little and too late. P.I.I.R. did help manychurchmen in understanding the post-warsituation.26

in

As Scott stated, it was on the interna-tional scene that the Presbyterian Churchwas to make a significant contribution

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Toward Worldwide Industrial Mission

to industrial mission. The overseas mis-sion work of Henry Jones was one of themore lasting impacts of Presbyterian in-volvement.

As the tide of industrial change wasunleashed in the United States at theclose of the Second World War, a paral-lel movement for social and economicchange was occurring in the newly in-dependent colonial nations of Asia. Mostof Asia, with the exception of Japan, haddepended upon agricultural and naturalresources as the basis of their econo-mies. The former colonial powers hadencouraged their client countries to besuppliers of raw materials and agricul-tural products in exchange for manufac-tured products. The indigenous Com-munist movement in Asia had built itscase for revolution on this unequal rela-tionship. The new nations of Asia, rec-ognizing their dependent situation,moved immediately toward industrial-ization of their economiesY

The Christian mission movement,whose emphasis was upon church plant-ing, had slowly awakened to the dra-matic social and economic changesmoving across Asia. The rapid move-ment of the People's Red Army acrossChina after the defeat of Japan alertedthe Christian churches intheWestoftheneed for a new strategy. As the war inAsia ended, the mission boards of theU.S. denominations sent a delegation tomeet with church leaders in China. Atthe initial meeting, the Chinese churchleaders raised questions about the fu-ture of mission. They recognized that anew approach to China was necessary,and pointed to the industrializationwhich had taken place in China in thelast decade. The Japanese had built manyfactories along the èast coast of China.These were now in Chinese hands ándthe workers were being organized. The

Chinese Christians requested that theU.S. churche,s provide missionaries witha knowledge of industry and the labormovement.28

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Henry D. Jones in 1985

At the time only the Presbyterians

were prepared to act on this request.Lloyd S. Ruland, China Secretary of theBoard of Foreign Missions, accepted theassignment. He was already aware ofthe work of Henry D. jones in Detroitand decided to present him with thework in China. Upon returning to theUnited States Ruland attended the 1947General Assembly meeting in GrandRapids, Michigan. Here he met withJones, who had been director of DodgeCommunity Center in Detroit since 1935and had recently been elected modera-tor of the Detroit Presbytery. Jones hadbeen active in Detroit during the orga-nizing campaign of the United Auto

Workers in the mid-1930s. He had beensupportive of the union, knew many ofits leaders, and had opened up the DodgeCommunity Center to meetings of thePlymouth local of the U.A.W. Whenpresented with Ruland's invitatiòn towork in China, jones raised the possibil-ity with his wife, Maurine. She agreed,and in May 1947 the Board of ForeignMissions appointed Henry Jones to serve

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in China in the field of industrial evan-gelism. It was the first appointment by aProtestant mission board to the field ofindustrial mission. Jones was assignedto the National Christian Council in

Shanghai as Industrial Relations Secre-tary.

Upon his arrival in Shanghai in thesummer of 1947, Henry Jones was as-signed to a study commission whoseresponsibility was to investigate work-i ng cond itions and the rights of workersin the factories which had been takenover from the Japanese. Wherever therewere Christian workers-in factories,banks, or post offices-jones helped or-ganize workers' groups around the coreof Christians in these institutions. As the

People's Army moved into Shanghai,the U.S. embassy called for all "non-essential" residents to return home.Jones's family left for the U.S., but hecontinued with his assignment until themiddle of 1951. In the next year and ahalf he organized students who had beenforced out of the Sible Schools in the

countryside and had emigrated to Shang-hai. jones's committee took on the taskof getting them jobs in factories. Thecommittee used a Baptist settlementhouse in the south end industrial area ofShanghai to house the students. In theevenings they discussed what it meantto be a Christian among fellow-workersin a factory.

Henry jones returned in 1951 to theU.S., where he served a two-church par-ish in Iowa for a year. Charles T. Leber ofthe Board of Foreign Missions called forthe joneses to return to Asia to continuethe work of industrial evangelism. In1952 the Jones family set sail for Indiaby way of Geneva, Switzerland, wherethey had to wait because the Indian

government would issue no visas. Fi-nally the Board of Foreign Missions de-cided that the Jones family should go toJapan. In 1953, Henry Jones was

as-signed to work with the industrial evan-gelism committee of the Kyodan, the

American Presbyterians

United Church of Japan. His home basewas Osaka, a major industrial city. Forfive years he traveled up and down ja-pan, visiti ng with the presbyteries(kyoku) in the industrial cities. His pres-ence strengthened already existing in-dustrial work. Where there were indi-vidual pastors carrying out work amongworkers, jones gave his support. Wherethere was a tendency to intellectualizethe church's involvement in technologi-cal change, Jones emphasized the hu-man and practical aspects of industrialevangelism.

Henry jones's methods ofinquiry andorganization were exceptionaL. He be-

came acquainted with the labor move-ment in Japan and encouraged relation-ships between pastors and labor leaders.He urged the development of programswith workers in factories. From his Welshbackground he encouraged the organiz-ing of singing groups among workers. Incooperation with japanese leadership,he promoted worker's education pro-grams in the Kansai area which includesthe Osaka, Kyoto, and Hyogo districts.He fostered a program for the training ofseminarians and lay leaders in urbanand industrial mi nistries within the theo-logical seminaries at Kobe, Osaka, andKyoto.

Jones was to move between Japanand other regions of the world during atwelve-year period from 1953 to .1965.The Commission on Ecumenical Mis-sion and Relations (COEMAR), formerlythe Board of foreign Missions of the

Presbyterian Church, U.S.A., sent Joneson exploratory trips on behalf of indus-trial mission throughout Asia and to LatinAmerica and Africa.29 His work encour-aged the indigenous movement of in-dustrial mission within the countries ofthese regions.

The role of the Presbyterian Church,U.S.A. (after 1958 the United Presbyte-rian Church, U.S.AJ was a major factorin the development of industrial missionoverseas. This was true not only of as-

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Toward Worldwide Industrial Mission

signments in the field, but also in thefinancial support for the work of indus-trial mission throughoutthe world. AfterHenry jones's trips through SoutheastAsia in 1955-56, COEMAR made ap-pointments in industrial mission to theUnited Church of Christ in the Philip-pines, the Presbyterian Church of Tai-wan, and the Church of Christ in Thai-land.30 In several of these appointments,previous experience at the PresbyterianInstitute of Industrial Relations was acontributing factor in the appointees

choosing to work in industrial mission.Among the early assignments to industrialmission Bryce Little, who served in Thai-land, Donald Mathews who served inKenya, and the current writer, who servedin the Philippines; all were alumni of thePIIR Ministers-in-Industry program.

One of the fruits of Henry jones'sefforts in Asia was the first Asian Confer-ence on Industrial Evangelism held injune 1958 in Mani la. This was one ofthefi rst meeti ngs sponsored by the sti Ii form-ing lEast Asia Christian Conference(EACC). The EACC would be offciallyorganized in May 1959. The First AsianConference on IndustriallEvangel ism wasthe beginning of the ecumenical streamof the urban-industrial mission move-ment in Asia. Representatives from Aus-tralia, Burma, Hong Kong, India, Indo-nesia, Japan, Korea, Pakistan, thePhilippines, Taiwan, Thailand, and NewZealand were in attendance. Country

reports made by the delegates showedonly three official industrial evangelismprograms sponsored by nationalchurches.

The general tenor of the meeting wasone of exploration. There was a realiza-tion of the dramatic, and often trau-matic, social and political changes whichhad overtaken former colonial countries.The Philippines was indeed the rightchoice for this first meeting. That nation'spredominantly agricultural character andits early experience with industrializa-tion represented the situation of most of

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Ci priano Malonzo, Representative of Laborto the Social Security Commission of thePhilippines, under President Aquino.

the countries attending the conference.The conference format called for shar-

ing of information on the economic situ-ation confronti ng each cou ntry. Moreimportant was the "story telling" of thechurches' earliest engagements with in-dustrial change. The stories includedthe experiments being pursued in coun-tries like Korea, japan, and Australia inreaching working people caught in themidst of these changes. At all pointsthere was a sensitivity to the dangersinherent in unbridled economic change.Exploitation of working people was al-ready evident in the first flush of indus-trialization. Concern for social justiceremained a focus throughout the confer-ence. The struggle for justice was viewedagainst the background of the minoritystatus of the Christian church in Asia.

This rec9gnition galvanized a spirit ofsolidarity among the delegates. One

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sensed from this meeting the beginningof a network of people who would en-gage the issues and continue to share

information and resources across theregion.31

Eight years after the Manila confer-ence, the Second Asian Industrial Mis-sion Conference was held in Kyoto, Ja-pan, in May 1966. The work in Asia hadexpanded exponentially. Masao Taken-aka of japan had been in attendance atthat First Asian Conference and was nowone of the major voices at the SecondConference in Kyoto. Reflecti ng on theperiod between the two meetings hewrote in 1969:

Returning from Manila the conference del-egates not only spoke widely of the chal-lenge but began to respond in action. Hereand there new experiments in urban-indus-trial mission began to take shape. The num-ber of people involved was small and theystruggled with differing outlooks and sparseresources. By the time a second conferencewas held in Kyoto, Japan in 1966, it wasencouraging to recognize concrete develop-ments in urban and industrial mission in thevarious countries of Asia. We discoveredthat some two hundred people were en-gaged directly in these experiments on afull-time, part-time or voluntary basisY

One of the parallel themes whichconcerned the Kyoto Conference was

the role ofthe laity in the changes evolv-ing in Asia. One section of the confer-ence was given over to the discussion oftrain i ng the I aity both for the inner I ife ofthe church and for their work in theworld.33 It had been recognized early inthe work of urban-industrial mission thatthe laity were the main actors in thewitness of the Christian faith within so-ciety. It was the laity who were on thefront lines of decision-making in all ar-eas of societal change.

Representative of the laity at the

Kyoto Conference who played a role insocial change in their countries was

Ci priano Malonzo, president of theMindanao Federation of Labor in thePhilippines. His story captured the at-tention of the delegates. Educated at

American Presbyterians

Silliman University, a Presbyterian-re-

lated school in Negros Oriental, he be-gan his work as a seminarian during theJapanese occupation of the Philippinesin World War II. His involvement in thestruggles of the plantation workers dur-ing this period awakened in him a deep-ening concern for the rights of workers.After the war he became an organizer ofthe unorganized and a spokesperson forworker issues among those in the lum-ber camps and on the plantations ofMindanao. Malonzo was one of the firstto respond to the call for the church totake an active role in urban and indus-trial centers ofthe Philippines. He joinedthe Committee on Industrial Life andVocation as it was organized by theUnited Church of Christ in the Philip-pines in the mid-1950s. He was one ofthe mai n supporters of efforts to educatethe clergy in the issues of i ndustri alchange, and was a strong preacher forreminding seminarians and pastors ofthe roots of soci al j usti ce in the scri p-tures.34

Also in attendance atthe Kyoto meet-ing was Pau i Loeffer, a German mis-sionary and secretary ofthe World Coun-ci I of Churches Advisory Group on Urbanand Industrial Mission, which had beencreated in July 1965.35 He brought backfrom the conference a sense of the needfor communicating between the differ-ent urban-industrial mission projects and.the regions for which his committee wasresponsible. In considering Loeffler'srequest the advisory group urged "thatgreater priority should be given to thedevelopment of co-operation, cross-fer-tilization and above all the bui Iding up

of systematic channels of communica-tion within the different regions of the

world."36 The advisory group then gaveimmediate attention to lines of commu-nication between projects. It began thesearch for a place which would becomea center for the gathering and exchangeof information. During the early historyof urban-industrial mission many of those

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Toward Worldwide Industrial Mission

who had taken leadership in urban andindustrial ministries in their own landshad been part of the summer programcarried out by the Presbyterian Instituteof Industrial Relations. Masao Takenaka,for example, had been an early PIIRparticipant. A review of the history andprogram of PIIR convinced those on theadvisory committee to approach Mar-shal Scott, dean of PIIR, in early 1967with a proposal to use his institute'sresources as a center to provide "infor-mation and advice on urban-industrialmission training facilities and a serviceof reference and information on litera-ture. "37

IV

In September 1967, the AdvisoryGroup on Urban and Industrial Missionmet at the Wingspread facility of thejohnson Foundation in Racine, Wiscon-sin. The meeting then traveled to Chi-cago in order to provide members of theadvisory group an introduction to theoffces and the work of the PresbyterianInstitute of Industrial Relations withinits McCormick Seminary context in Chi-cago. At the meeting in Chicago, Mar-shal Scott provided a memorandum onthe development of the center visual-ized by the advisory group. As the dis-cussions continued at Wingspread, theWorld Council of Churches' Advisory

Group took action to recognize "TheInstitute on the Church in Urban-Indus-trial Society" OCIUS) as "the one Centremandated by it to provide worldwideinformation and consultation on train-ing facilities for urban and industrialministries as well as an internationalreference Centre for literature andprogramme information in this field."38The advisory group entered into a fullcooperative relationship with the insti-tute in developing the two services forecumenical use.

Thus the line begun by the Presbyte-rian Church, USA, in 1910 at the Labor

45

Temple among the immigrant workingpeople in the New York tenements, andcontinuing in 1945 in the work of thePresbyterian Institute of Industrial Rela-tions, formally entered into the interna-tional ecumenical stream in 1967. TheInstitute on the Church in Urban-Indus-trial Society offcially began its work inChicago on January 1, 1968. Its facili-ties were coterminous with the PIIR

which had a seminar room in McGawMemorial Library at McCormick Semi-nary. Its initial financing came throughthe United Presbyterian Church and itsfirst administrator was Bobbi Wells. in1972, upon returning from fifteen yearsin urban-industrial mission in the Phil-ippines, the current writer became di-rector of the institute.

By the 1970s the industrial scene inthe United States had changed dramati-cally. The nation's unchallenged eco-nomic' position, inherited in the post-

World War II period, faced new industrialcompetitors in Asia and Europe. The riseof OPEC, the oil producers' consortium,forced an escalation in energy prices,putting great pressure on the U.S.

economy in the early 19705. Thetransnational connections of U.S. cor-porations sped up the downsizing andclosure of U.S. manufacturing facilitiesand the flight of capital overseas. Allthese events affected the industrial mis-sion of U.S. churches.39

The reorganization of the United Pres-

byterian Church in 1972 had a directimpact on its commitment to industrialmission. in the restructuring, the JointOffce of Urban Ministry, which duringthe 1960s was responsible for the coop-erative efforts in urban-industrial mis-

sion between the Board of National Mis-sions and the Commission on EcumenicalMission and Relations, was abolished.The newly created Program Agency wasto carryover the concerns which had

been part of that office. No specific

offce was create to develop and over-see the programs initiated under the

46

former loi nt Offce.40 The work of urbanand industrial ministry was distributedthroughout different portfol ios with Ii m-ited financial commitment. The Instituteon the Church in Urban-Industrial Soci-ety was the lone urban-industrial mis-sion projectto carry a budget line in theProgram Agency, and that was consid-ered an ecumenical project. United Pres-byterian Church funding continued tobe a major factor in the support of theICUIS program. The institute receivedgrants from the Urban-Industrial Mis-

sion Desk of the Commission on WorldMission and Evangelism of the WorldCouncil of Churches to carryon itsworldwide information program, andalso sought ecumenical participationfrom other Protestant denominations inthe U.S.

The passing of an era was marked in1975 when the Presbyterian Institute ofIndustrial Relations, with its thirty-yearhistory of training in industrial ministry,was incorporated into the Institute onthe Church in Urban industrial Societyprogram.41 PUR, which had begun in the

flush of the post-World War Ii era ofindustrial expansion, had come to theend of the road. The industrial economyofthe United States was being replaced,

in the job market particularly, by thegrowth of the service economy. The onceagricultural economies of the develop-ing world were now becoming indus-trial, and industrial mission was now acentral issue for the churches overseas.

NOTES

Historical materials on the industrial missionof the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A., are availablein several places. The Department of History ofthe Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in Philadelphiais the repository of the records of the Board ofHome Missions and its successor agencies, andalso holds biographical files on many of thoseengaged in industrial mission. The library of thePresbyterian Institute of Industrial Relations andthe resources of the Instiute on the Church inUrban Industrial Society were largely integratedinto the Jesuit-Krauss-McCormick Library locatedat the Lutheran School of Theology, 1100 E. 55th

American Presbyterians

St., Chicago. Some of the materials of the ICUISare also available at the library of the Universityof Illinois, Chicago campus.

1. For the Social Gospel movement, see forexample C. H. Hopkins, The Rise of the SocialGospel in American Protestantism, 1865-1915(New Haven: Yale U. Press, 1940); H. F. May,Protestant Churches and Industrial America (NewYork: Harper & Row, 1949); R. C. White, Jr., andC. H. Hopkins, The Social Gospel: Religion andReform in Changing America (Philadelphia:Temple U. Press, 1976).

2. See Annual Report of the Board of HomeMissions of the Presbyterian Church in the UnitedStates of America (New York, 1903) 6. CharlesStelzle's autobiography A Son of the Bowery (NewYork: Geo. H. Doran, 1936) tells the story of thisearly ministry.

3. See James Armstrong, "The Labor Temple1910-1957: A Social Gospel in Action in thePresbyterian Church", diss., U. of Wisconsin,

1974.4. Neighborhood or settlement houses be-

came a major means of the churches' ministry tothe great influx of immigrants entering U.s. citiesbeginning in the late nineteenth century. By the1940s there were 114 neighborhood houses re-lated to the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. Twenty-three of these were operated by the Unit of Cityand Industrial Work of the Board of NationalMissions. See Jacob A. long, Scotch, Irish, and-(New York: Board of National Missions, 1943).

5. Henry David Jones (1900-87) biographicalfile, Dept. of History, Presbyterian Churchi

(U.S.A.), Philadelphia, hereafter designated asDOH; also personal interview with Jones, 10 July1982.

6. Richard Poethig, interviewer, "CameronHall, Economic Life, and the Ministry of the Laity"American Presbyterians 72 (Spring 1994): 33-47.By General Assembly action in 1936, the Stand-ing Committee on Social Welfare was changed tothe Standing Committee on Social Education andAction. By the time of Hall's appointment to theBoard of Christian Education in 1939, the titlehad been changed to Department of Social Educa-tion and Action.

7. See Minutes of the General Assembly of thePresbyterian Church in the United States ofAmerica (Philadelphia: Office of the General As-sembly, 1944) 194-220.

8. Will iam Payne Shriver (1872-1957) bio-graphical file, DOH.

9. Papers of Jacob A. Long (1896-1970) are inthe H. Paul Douglass Collection, Emory Univer-sity, Atlanta.

10. Jacob A. Long, A Challenge to City Mis-sions: An Address Delivered before the Presby-tery of Detroit, November 2, 1942 (New York:Unit of City and Industrial Work, Board of Na-tional Missions, PCUSA, 1942).

11. Jacob A. Long, "Labor Temple, New York,N.Y.: A Study and Recommendations Submittedby Jacob Long, April, 1944," copy in author'scollection; Minutes of General Assembly Execu- .tive Committee, 15 June 1944: 90, DOH.

Toward Worldwide Industrial Mission

12. Armstrong 146ff.13. For Scott's background and career, see

Daniel W. Nelson, interviewer, "A Hoosier inMegalopolis: A Conversation with Marshal L.Scott," American Presbyterians 71 (Spring 1993):1-15.

14. John Gates Ramsay (1902-91) was namedPresbyterian Layman of the Year in 1957. See JohnG. Ramsay interview, 17-18 May 1976, in oralhistory fies, Ohio Historical Society, Columbus.

15. Information in this and following para-graphs about the beginnings and early programsof the PIIR is from a personal interview with

Marshal L. Scott, 24 June 1982.16. Liston Pope, Millhands and Preachers

(New Haven: Yale U. Press, 1942).17. James Myers (1882-1967), Presbyterian

minister, was secretary of the Department of In-dustrial Relations, Federal Council of Churches,from 1925 to 1947.

18. The National Association of Manufactur-ers was organized in 1895 as a lobbying group towork for industry's national and internationalconcerns within government entities.

19. Personal experience-the writer wasamong the participants in the first Ministers-In-Industry program.

20. Donald L. Mathews, "Report on a Minis-try: Pàrt of a Continuing Conversation on theRenewal of the Church in an Industrial Society,"15 Jan. 1958, 1, copy in author's collection.

21. Donald L. Mathews biographical file,DOH. Jack Weller (b. 1923) was director of theWest Virginia Mountain Project from 1952 to1965; see his biographical file, DOH.

22. David Lowry, Ecorse Papers, Letter 15 (30June 1956): 2, newsletter in author's collection.

23. The material on the Ecorse Project comesfrom a mimeographed report on the project, April1958, in author's collection.

24. For a history of the Detroit IndustrialMi ssion see Scott Paradise, Detroit Industrial Mis-

sion: A Personal Narrative (New York: Harper &Row, 1968).

25. For the National Industrial Mission, seeScott Paradise, "Requiem: A Personal Statementon the Decline and Fall of the Industrial MissionMovement in the United States," microfiche inJesuit-Krauss-McCormick Library, Lutheran Schoolof Theology, Chicago.

26. P.I.I.R. Newsletter, 30 Nov. 1965: 3.27. Christians in the Technical and Social

Revolutions of Our Time: A World Conference onChurch and Society, Geneva, July 12-26, 1966(Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1967) 80 ff.

28. Material on industrial mission in China

and Japan is from the Henry Jones interview citedabove.

29. The Commission on Ecumenical Missionand Relations (COEMAR) replaced the Board ofForeign Missions of the Presbyterian Church,

47

U.S.A., in 1958 and lasted until 1972 when theUnited Presbyterian Church, U.S.A., was reorga-nized and the work of mission became part of theProgram Agency. See Stanley Rycroft, The Ecu-menical Witness of the United PresbyterianChurch, (Philadelphia: Board of Christian Educa-tion, 1968) 157 ff.

30. Early industrial mission appointments toAsia under COEMAR included Richard P. Poethigto the United Church of Christ in the Philippinesin 195.7, George Todd to the Presbyterian Churchof Taiwan in 1959, and Bryce Little to the Churchof Christ in Thailand in 1961; see Secretaries'

Files, Commission on Ecumenical Mission andRelations, DOH.

31. The First Asian Conference on IndustrialEvangelism was the beginning of a growing net-work of urban-industrial mission workers andministries which grew into the Urban-Rural Mis- dsion committee of the Christian Council of Asia.The current writer was responsible for local ar-rangements in Manila and an editor of the finalreport of the conference. See Report of the First.Asian Conference on Industrial Evangelism, Ma-nila (Manila: n.p., 1958), copy at DOH.

32. Church Labor Letter (Kyoto) 100 (1969): 833. See Robert M. Fukada, ed., The Report of

the East Asian Christian Conference's Conferenceon Christians in Industry and Lay Training (Kyoto:East Asia Christian Conference, 1967).

34. Cipriano Cortez Malonzo (b. 1912), per-sonal interview, December 1992.

35. For the creation of the Advisory Group,see Paul Loeffler, Urban and Industrial MissionCircular Letter (London: Division of World Mis-sion and Evangelism, World Council of Churches)5 (30 July 1965).

36. loeffer, Urban and Industrial MissionCircular Letter 6 (11 Aug. 1966).

37. loeffer, Urban and Industrial MissionCircular Letter 7 (13 Feb. 1967)

38. Minutes ofThird Meeting, Sept. 8th-11th,1967, Advisory Group on Urban Industrial Mis-sion, Division of World Mission and Evangelism,World Council of Churches, p. 4, copy in author'scollection.

39. The literature on the loss of U.S. industryduring the 1970s is extensive. A perceptive his-torical analysis of the change is Barry Bluestoneand Bennett Harrison, The Deindustrialization ofAmerica (New York: Basic Books, 1982).

40. For the creation of the Joint Office ofUrban Ministries, see Minutes of the GeneralAssembly of the United Presbyterian Church inthe United States of America... 1966, Part 1: 289.

41. The Presbyterian Institute on IndustrialRelations shared offices with the Institute on theChurch in Urban-Industrial Society and was as-similated in the ICUIS program in 1975 whenICUIS moved to the Chicago Cluster of Theologi-cal Schools in Hyde Park, Chicago.