The Deans Letter
By A.S. Giles
[from “The Pilot”, June 1967]
Naturally my mind is filled by things
American. After this my second visit of any length. I feel less capable of
writing of the American scene. America is so vast, so varied, that one never ceases
to wonder at its infinite variety. You can travel from near tropical conditions
in the South, to biting cold in the North. From a world of skyscrapers, of
bewildering patterns of flyover roads in New York, to the sixteenth and
seventeenth century spaciousness of Williamsburg.
Its people differ just as much as
the people of England differ. The Cockney, the Lancastrian and Yorkshireman
differ not only in speech but in their way of life. America has all this but on
a larger scale. The main division is between North and South. Some Southerners
are still fighting the Civil war, and as one lady from the South told me she
thought as a girl that all Northerners were called “damyankees” until her future
mother-in-law corrected her.
Perhaps I can draw some
conclusions. It was fifteen years since I was last in America for some length
of time. Compared with those days I found a quieter approach to life. I
mentioned this in Washington and was told that was probably due to the fact
that America had taken on a new role in world affairs, she was now carrying a
heavy load of responsibility through her involvement in so many parts of the
world.
Responsibility, it was suggested
to me causes men and women to think harder and deeper than ever before, hence
the apparent mellowing of so many people. Possibly this is true. One thing I do
know is that America has shown a willingness to bear some of the burdens of
other nations. Her Aid programme for other countries lays a heavy burden on the
American taxpayer. Despite the many rebuffs they have received, they continue
with this Aid.
Of all the American cities I have
seen. Washington will always remain my favourite. Here there are no
skyscrapers, but instead some of the finest buildings of a modern world.
Admittedly they are built in the classical style of another world and age, but
there is a beauty which belongs to no one age, and to all ages. The Mellon Art
Gallery would find a home in Athens, but it is not out of place in Washington.
Its perfection outside is a fitting home for the incredible wealth of the art
of apes inside.
The Capitol is an equally worthy
building. Despite its size, it is modest in its dress and furnishings. The
Lincoln memorial is a wonderful conception: the kind of place you are glad to
visit time and time again. It may be that for me Lincoln has always belonged to
the world, rather than just America. He was cast in the mould of men of whom
Churchill was another example. Both men of vision who could translate their
visions into realities, and what is more wonderful, translate it into words of such
meaning, that we lesser mortals are helped to see our visions. The memorial
does not try to glamorise Lincoln. It leaves him in his essential simplicity.
One can speak of the English
atmosphere of Virginia, of the astonishing farmlands of Pennsylvania or of the
futuristic skyline of Pittsburgh, the embodiment of modern technology.
What can you make of a country
which in March can serve strawberries, melons, grapefruit and oranges picked
from the fields in another part of the States only days before.
It is true that America gives the
visitor the impression of being a wealthy country: a country with a high
standard of living. Some people regard it as it modern land of promise. It is
true that many people earn high wages, but it is also true that through intense
competition, you have to work hard to hold your job. Salaries of ten thousand
dollars may he paid, but I noticed that the price of houses and clothes was scaled
to the same high scale of values.
What of the American Church, the
Episcopal Church as it is called. It owes its birth to the missionaries of the
S.P.G. who provided the means of worship in the days when America was indeed
New England. Although Washington and his merry men spent a great deal of time chasing
the English forces up and down America, and finally drove them out, much of
English culture remained : and not least of all the Church.
When you realise that in two
hundred and fifty years, the Episcopal Church which has had no sheltered
position to help it has grown into its present size, you realise how
sacrificial has been the faith of these people. Throughout the length and
breadth of America you have parish churches, church schools all built and paid
for in these two and a half centuries. Cathedrals in every Diocese, and several
of them, such as Washington Cathedral would grace any English Cathedral Town.
When you see the large congregations,
it makes you wonder how these things can be. Some people decry it by saying it is
superficial. Do men and women in this age waste time and money on being
superficial? It may be that a country which has built itself in two hundred and
fifty years into this vast kaleidoscope of cities and peoples, achieved its
present position through the hardness of its struggle. It may well be that
their Christian faith was equally forged in the hard and early days of their
creative years, and is not exhausted or satiated by the materialism around
them.
Whatever the cause, there is much
to be admired in the American Church: much to be thankful for in its continuing
existence, and something for pride in that this offshoot of the Church of
England is today a virile, growing Church serving the cause of Christ in the New
World.
A. S. GILES
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