James Henry Rushbrooke: Baptist Champion of Civility
James Henry Rushbrooke: Baptist Champion of Civility
Sometimes in history a person will appear upon a story’s pages and rise to meet seemingly insurmountable challenges in a remarkable way. Such was the impact of Henry Rushbrooke’s life and legacy, who wove peace from tatters of hatred after the world had gone to war.
“Peace” seemed to be the middle name of the babe born that sunny day in Bethnal Green, London, on 29 July 1870. Son of devout Anglican parents, James Henry Rushbrooke was brilliant, thoughtful, and became known as one who carefully reconciled differences, even as a child. When James was fifteen years old, he began attending Westbourne Park Chapel with his aunt each Sunday and soon made a profession of faith. He was baptized by its famous pastor, Dr. John Clifford.
James Henry lost his young wife and baby to death in 1894 and, while suffering deep grief, enrolled for ministerial training at Midland Baptist College in Nottingham, winning scholarships to study in Halle and Berlin (1899-1901). He then served as pastor at St. Mary’s Gate in Derby, London’s Archway Road, and Hampstead Garden Suburb Free Church, all in England. His wise leadership soon earned him a role in the British Baptist Union.
Rushbrooke attended the first Congress of the Baptist World Alliance (BWA) in 1905 with its co-founder, John Clifford, and spoke at each of its subsequent gatherings for almost half a century. In 1919, he led a nine-week fact-finding tour across war-ravaged Europe for the BWA, a role that catapulted him into the ranks of the world’s peacemakers.
He resigned his church, became the BWA’s European Secretary in 1925, and three years later shouldered the job of the first General Secretary, which he faithfully executed until 1939, when he took up the mantle of President until his death in 1947. During this tenure, the global Baptist community felt his stamp of civility, reconciliation, and international peace-weaving most profoundly. Almost single-handedly, Rushbrooke led heroic, courageous, and costly Baptist efforts to work for peace following World War I and during and after World War II. Rushbrooke established the BWA’s World Emergency Relief Committee in 1943 to coordinate Baptist relief efforts in devastated countries. He personally contacted Baptist leaders in every European nation, surveyed their situations, and addressed their most pressing needs. BWA offered support and friendship, relocated thousands of refugees, and encouraged practical efforts to help to restore or establish peaceful relationships between former fierce enemies. Rushbrooke’s published work on Religious Freedom and International Peace also contributed to a clarified Baptist global identity.
As the surviving victors, the liberated, and the vanquished found ways of creating a new Europe in which they could all live together in civility and peace, Baptists who had been on opposing sides faced excruciating challenges in confessing to and forgiving one another in order to become reconciled in the one body of Christ. For Baptists, James Henry Rushbrooke was the face of this reconciliation and their Champion.
We give thanks today for his valuable life and model, and pray for God to raise up men and women of deep, thoughtful civility, of compelling peace. We pray for a new generation who will be negotiators of reconciliation and respect for all peoples, and for those who will embody Christ’s love, both in America and across our troubled world.
-Karen O'Dell Bullock
“Peace” seemed to be the middle name of the babe born that sunny day in Bethnal Green, London, on 29 July 1870. Son of devout Anglican parents, James Henry Rushbrooke was brilliant, thoughtful, and became known as one who carefully reconciled differences, even as a child. When James was fifteen years old, he began attending Westbourne Park Chapel with his aunt each Sunday and soon made a profession of faith. He was baptized by its famous pastor, Dr. John Clifford.
James Henry lost his young wife and baby to death in 1894 and, while suffering deep grief, enrolled for ministerial training at Midland Baptist College in Nottingham, winning scholarships to study in Halle and Berlin (1899-1901). He then served as pastor at St. Mary’s Gate in Derby, London’s Archway Road, and Hampstead Garden Suburb Free Church, all in England. His wise leadership soon earned him a role in the British Baptist Union.
Rushbrooke attended the first Congress of the Baptist World Alliance (BWA) in 1905 with its co-founder, John Clifford, and spoke at each of its subsequent gatherings for almost half a century. In 1919, he led a nine-week fact-finding tour across war-ravaged Europe for the BWA, a role that catapulted him into the ranks of the world’s peacemakers.
He resigned his church, became the BWA’s European Secretary in 1925, and three years later shouldered the job of the first General Secretary, which he faithfully executed until 1939, when he took up the mantle of President until his death in 1947. During this tenure, the global Baptist community felt his stamp of civility, reconciliation, and international peace-weaving most profoundly. Almost single-handedly, Rushbrooke led heroic, courageous, and costly Baptist efforts to work for peace following World War I and during and after World War II. Rushbrooke established the BWA’s World Emergency Relief Committee in 1943 to coordinate Baptist relief efforts in devastated countries. He personally contacted Baptist leaders in every European nation, surveyed their situations, and addressed their most pressing needs. BWA offered support and friendship, relocated thousands of refugees, and encouraged practical efforts to help to restore or establish peaceful relationships between former fierce enemies. Rushbrooke’s published work on Religious Freedom and International Peace also contributed to a clarified Baptist global identity.
As the surviving victors, the liberated, and the vanquished found ways of creating a new Europe in which they could all live together in civility and peace, Baptists who had been on opposing sides faced excruciating challenges in confessing to and forgiving one another in order to become reconciled in the one body of Christ. For Baptists, James Henry Rushbrooke was the face of this reconciliation and their Champion.
We give thanks today for his valuable life and model, and pray for God to raise up men and women of deep, thoughtful civility, of compelling peace. We pray for a new generation who will be negotiators of reconciliation and respect for all peoples, and for those who will embody Christ’s love, both in America and across our troubled world.
-Karen O'Dell Bullock
Posted in PeaceWeavers