Sermon:
Those of you who are newer to our church may have heard the name A. Powell Davies spoken in reverential terms, and for good reason. Quite a few of our long-term members once eagerly crossed the Potomac River on Sunday mornings to hear Dr. Davies speak from the historic pulpit of All Souls Unitarian Church. How many of you here today have heard A. Powell Davies speak in person? I=ve been told that in the early years of our church, the congregation would listen to Dr. Davie=s sermons over the telephone line connected to speakers.
Time magazine described Davies in these words: AIn Washington D.C., where many talk but few listen, spare, sharp profiled Rev. A. (for Arthur) Powell Davies, 44, is a man who is heard. Every Sunday his congregation at the chaste, redbrick, All Souls= Unitarian Church overflows from the church auditorium into adjacent halls and recreation rooms. Reason: his 35-minute sermons are protein-rich with wit, wisdom, sincerity and invective. His preaching has made Welsh-born Powell Davies one of America=s outstanding liberal clergymen.@
A. Powell Davies was arguably the most influential Unitarian of the 20th century and one of the most prominent political gadflies in Washington D.C. during his 14 year ministry at All Souls. He is largely responsible for all of us being here today, for during his tenure he inspired the creation of seven new Unitarian churches, including our own, and those churches then created many more UU congregations so that this area now represents one of the largest concentrations of UUs in the country.
A. Powell Davies was born to a Welsh family in 1902, growing up in the suburbs of Liverpool, England. After graduating from college, he was urged by George Bernard Shaw and others to make a career of politics. Davies did enjoy debating political issues, but he strongly believed that the ministry was his calling.
He attended Richmond Theological College in London where he was a star theological student, and then he served a small Methodist congregation on the outskirts of London for three years. It was in London that he courted Muriel Hannah -- the daughter of a Methodist minister -- who became the love of his life for the rest of his life. Muriel, by the way, still lives in Washington and is a member of the River Road UU Church.
Young Davies dreamed of immigrating to the United States because of his interest in international affairs, and in 1928, he and Muriel did just that, settling in Maine where he served several small Methodist parishes. It was while he was in Maine that he became good friends of a Unitarian minister, Vincent Silliman. In the biography of Davies by George Marshall, he notes, AAs they talked long into the nights, it became clear to Davies that here was the missing ingredient he sought B the American faith in democratic institutions, as old as the Declaration of Independence, yet continually fresh... It gave sense and sustenance to the American dream he held.@
Davies decided to become a Unitarian in 1933 and was warmly welcomed as the minister of the Summit, New Jersey Community Church where he served for eleven years. While in Summit, Davies became a significant denominational and political presence.
It didn=t take him long to criticize the Unitarian leadership for their reluctance to promote our liberal faith, saying at one point, AThe Unitarians have a modern Cadillac theology pulled by a Model T Ford engine while the Congregationalists have a horse-and-buggy nineteenth century theology pulled by a streamlined Cadillac engine.@
Davies proceeded to throw himself into helping Unitarianism to grow as a religious movement. In one of his reports as the chair of a prominent committee, he wrote, AFor this much is certain in the view of some of us: the Unitarian movement must extend or pass into history; and >pass into history= is a euphemistic phrase for >die=.@
Optimism, being a natural part of Davie=s constitution, he assured the Unitarian board that, ANot only can we live while other, older movements die. We can fill the place they must relinquish. We can claim the world tomorrow... We can do this if we choose to do it, and if we have the courage and energy to back our choice.@
While serving the Summit congregation, Davies struggled with many issues in the pulpit. One of the most prominent was World War II. He had taken a pledge of pacifism when he was in the Oxford Movement in England, but as he saw Hitler coming to power and crushing the weak and vulnerable, he had a change of heart.
By 1939, four weeks after the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia, he spoke these words from a sermon titled, AWhat About Pacifism?@: APacifism, so far from making peace, may help produce war... If there had been no pacifism ... in England and France for the last ten years, Hitler could not have made Germany a military menace. He would not have dared...@
It would be interesting to know what his views would be of our new war against terrorism.
Davies also stood by the Jews who were being persecuted by Hitler and harassed in our own nation. In a sermon in 1938 he said, AWhen Jews are persecuted..., it is because they have been made ... >scape-goats= by cruel men and cruel mobs... That is what is happening in Germany at the present hour... Brutal, cruel things that nothing whatever could possibly excuse...@
In 1944 A. Powell Davies accepted a unanimous call from All Soul=s Unitarian Church in Washington D.C. It was an auspicious time. World War II was in its fourth year. The D Day invasion in Normandy had just taken place. And President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced he would run for re-election.
His first charge to the congregation was this (using the gender language of the day): AWe need a rediscovery and reaffirmation of the faith that makes men free and a new more adventurous declaration of it...@ Davies began his ministry by organizing six discussion groups with 500 participants to address the important issues of the day.
And Davies gave his congregation as well as the metro D.C. area plenty to discuss. From the All Soul=s pulpit he tackled the most controversial topics of the day. And usually on Monday mornings his friends and foes could read about his sermon in the Washington Post.
The Post reported on his sermon following the atomic bombs that were dropped on Japan in August, 1945. They reported that Rev. Davies said:
AThe bomb marked a >turning point so unparalleled in magnitude and so staggering in its implications= that >we must learn to live like gods or perish like grasshoppers... the root of the problem is and always has been spiritual..., adding, Aunless man can come to spiritual maturity, he has no future.@
Davie=s insistence that the atomic energy program should be controlled by civilians and not the military, resulted in his being appointed the first chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission.
In 1952, Davies spoke out for free speech when he defended the minister of the Arlington Unitarian Church, Ross Weston. Rev. Weston was cited for contempt of court for criticizing in a sermon a judge=s decision to deny government employees the right to run for office. Weston had insinuated that the judge=s decision was politically motivated B which is hard for any of us to believe I=m sure.
Davies responded from his influential pulpit with these words: AIn Communist and fascist countries the pulpit is fettered. In America it must remain free.@ The case was eventually decided in favor of Rev. Weston, with free speech winning another victory.
One of Davies most vehement subjects was civil rights. He was astonished that many of the restaurants, hotels and public facilities in Washington were segregated. His own church made a conscious effort to avoid discrimination in all of its programs, but Davies was disturbed that the Police Association=s Boys Club which rented the church facilities would not allow black boys into the club.
Davies tried to reason with the leaders, but when that didn=t work he convinced the church board to deny them use of the building unless they integrated. When the Police Association decided to move out, Davies worked with the Unitarian Service Committee to set up their own fully integrated Boy=s Club (I might add that a long-time member of our church, Harry Van Cleve, was on the first board of the new Boy=s Club).
When it came to issues of justice, Davies went beyond words to deeds. In a sermon called, AThe Shelter of Good Intentions,@ he told his congregation, AI shall ... from this time on, not knowingly eat a meal in any restaurant in the District of Columbia that will not serve meals to Negroes... I invite all who truly believe in human brotherhood to do the same.@
The congregation, all 1,157 present that Sunday, responded immediately to the call to action. The restaurant boycott was reported in the press, and the Washington Post published favorable editorials. Not only were many restaurants forced to integrate or go out of business, but it wasn=t long before a law was passed making discrimination in the nation=s capital a criminal offense. A decade before Martin Luther King, Jr. practiced nonviolent resistance, A. Powell Davies had succeeded in a short period of time in radically changing the racist culture of Washington.
In another sermon that made newspaper headlines, Davies brought attention to the black ghetto in the nation=s capital called ACensus Tract 48.@ According to an article in the Washington Post, Dr. Davies commented:
A>Jesus wouldn=t last a year in any pulpit in Washington.=
A>He wouldn=t just talk about Tract 48 ... which has often been described as the most congested in the city. He would go and live there.= The churches would find Jesus >intolerably embarrassing,= the clergyman said. >The board of deacons would beg him to return to heaven, where, presumably, the slum question is well in hand and there is no racial discrimination.=@
The Post was not alone in paying attention to Davies. The FBI kept an active file on him throughout his ministry at All Souls. In one report, they mentioned his involvement in the formation of The Americans for Democratic Action. AThe leadership of (the ADA) is not Communist,@ they report, Ahowever, the organization has been criticized for espousing some programs similar to programs espoused by the Communist Party...@ The report continues, AAmong the most prominent people listed (in the ADA leadership) were Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Chester Bowles, Allan Haywood and Rev. A. Powell Davies.@
Davies was adamantly anti-Communist, causing friction with some of his more liberal friends. He spoke of his differences in a speech on ALiberalism versus Communism,@ saying that AThe word liberal comes from the same root as the word liberty. True liberalism is that which liberates, and a real liberal is one to whom liberty is a supreme value.@ He went on to explain that Marxists:
A...place their reliance in social mechanics. It is not an accident, therefore, that Communism, though it begins with a Utopian dream, ends with a police state...@
As opposed as he was to Communism, Davies could not stand the sheer stupidity of McCarthism. Davies stated that McCarthy Ahas not unearthed a single communist, or done anything whatever but lower the level of American standards of fair play and decency B the very standards we are fighting to preserve in our struggle with the communists. What we need is not merely anti-communism ... but good Americanism with truth and justice as bed-rock principles. We shall not defeat the communists by rivaling them in fanaticism and big-lie methods.@
And he also had no sympathy whatsoever for the House Un-American Activities Committee which he called both un-American and un-democratic.
I don=t want to give you the impression that A. Powell Davies only spoke on social and political issues. Theology, ethics, and personal fulfillment were all favorite subjects of his.
In those days the evangelist, Rev. Billy Graham, made regular stops in Washington to preach to thousands of followers. And every time he showed up, A. Powell Davies would be there to greet him from his pulpit. In one of those sermons titled AThe Old Time Religion B How Harmful Is It?@, Davies used his wit as well as his wisdom to confront Graham. He reported:
AAn evangelist, at present preaching to large audiences in America, is reported in the newspapers to have described heaven as a 1600-mile cube. That is to say, it is 1600 miles long, 1600 miles wide, and 1600 miles high. This rather lofty ceiling is presumably for convenience in flight...
A>Along the streets of gold,= the evangelist tells us, >Jesus drives up and down in a jeweled chariot,= except when >conferring in the great council hall with God the Father and God the Holy Ghost.= It is a little disturbing to be informed that formal conferences are found necessary between the three persons of the Trinity, and one wonders whether, during these conferences, the residents of heaven may be uneasy. Moreover, according to orthodox theology, the three persons of the Trinity are completely reconciled on all subjects, being in fact one God, and so one feels a little startled that there is anything left to discuss.=@
Davies concludes on a more serious note that AThis (old-time religion) is intellectually unbelievable. Modern science and modern psychology have made it obsolete.@
Davies also loved to proclaim the Unitarian faith to his congregation and the community. In a sermon on AUnitarianism: What Is It?@, he wrote:
ACreeds are divisive. They are also negative: they say >no= to new truth. They put the dead in the place of the living; they make yesterday the oppressor of today. It is better, says Unitarianism, to be affirmative, to be free to believe what persuades you, and to follow the truth as it grows.@
The All Soul=s congregation as well as most of the Washington D.C. area was shocked to learn of A. Powell Davies death on September 26, 1957 from a blood clot following surgery. He died at the much too young age of 55.
We can=t help but wonder what would have happened if he had lived another ten, twenty or even thirty years. Would Unitarian Universalism be even more vibrant and widespread? Would government policies have been more progressive and liberal? Would our nation and world be more civilized?
There is no way to know. But we can be grateful for the legacy he left us. What was that legacy? Perhaps the Washington Post put it best in their eulogy:
AIt was inescapable ... that he should have been militantly in the forefront of every assault upon intolerance and racial discrimination and injustice. Convenience and convention never silenced him. He was most certainly the most controversial of clergymen in the Nation=s Capital. By the same token, he was, among all the members of his calling, the most resolute and indomitable champion of righteousness as he saw it and of the brotherhood of man.@
Perhaps Dr. Davies described his legacy best when he said, ALife is just a chance to grow a soul.@ For me that statement is at the heart of who he was as a person and what he taught. He certainly did not mean soul in the traditional sense, but more as the totality of who we are: our religious beliefs, our ethical principles, our deeds and acts of compassion and justice.
May we remember A. Powell Davies as man with the greatest of souls, a minister who lived his religion to its fullest, and a prophet who challenged us to embody his loving legacy.
Amen.
