YMCA
Young Men’s Christian Association
ALTERNATIVE NAME: YMCA
LANGUAGE: English, originally
TIME: Nineteenth century to present day
LOCATION: Worldwide (Originated in London, England).
CATEGORY: Association
DISCIPLINE: Christian social
SHORT DESCRIPTION: An association originally formed to give spiritual direction to young men in commerce.
DESCRIPTION:
The YMCA was founded in London in 1844. During the nineteenth century, opportunities in commerce increased. Voting had been extended to include small tradesmen and householders, and literary, scientific and mechanic institutions were improving educational opportunities. These factors resulted in a large increase in the numbers of young men working in towns away from their families. Many of them lived in very cramped circumstances on the commercial premises where they worked, and for large numbers of clerks and shop assistants the only recreation available was drinking. Working hours were long and Sundays were regarded as a holiday rather than a time for religion. This worried some of the management and a regular prayer meeting, attended by about twelve people, was started in one of the commercial houses in the London financial district.
When George Williams, partner in a large drapery firm in the city of London, heard about the meeting, he decided to do the same. Williams was a non-drinking Evangelical and a progressive employer who gave his employees a half-day off on Saturday and ended their working day at 7 pm rather than the usual 9 pm. On 6 June 1844, Williams held a meeting on his drapery premises at which it was decided to form a society “for improving the spiritual condition of young men engaged in the drapery and other trades”. A committee of management was set up and in the following months they liaised with other prayer meetings in a coffee house in Ludgate Hill. By November, they needed a larger room for their prayers and two-weekly Bible classes.
In March 1845, 160 people attended a social meeting and a YMCA branch opened in West London. Christian businessmen were interested in saving their young employees from evils they listed as “the cigar divan, cards and billiards, the concert room and theatre, the seducting and polluting retreat”, and over the next five years more branches were opened in the capital and in the provinces. In 1849 a branch was opened in Dublin and at the end of that year the first American branch was founded in Lowell, Massachusetts. Activities at the meetings were extended to include lectures in Christian botany, Harmony of Science and Revelation, and the Extent and Moral Statistics of the British Empire.
After ten years, these lectures were published. Libraries and reading rooms were set up. This drew in more members who were not primarily interested in religion. The Great Exhibition in Hyde Park, London in 1851 was used to promote the Association’s message. Many major Christian businessmen had connections all over the world through trade and through Evangelical churches, and the movement spread to Protestant Europe and then into Africa and Asia.
The first international conference was held in 1855, inspired by the efforts of Dunant*, the Swiss founder of the Red Cross. In the same year, the first Associations for Young Christian Women were established. In 1876 Williams toured North America. Four years later Exeter Hall in London was established as the headquarters and a national council was formed.
Earlier in the century, Follen* had introduced the “turnverein” gymnastic movement to America and during the 1890’s, gymnastics become associated with the activities of the YMCA.
In 1894, the jubilee of the Association was celebrated in London. There was a thanksgiving service in St Paul’s cathedral and a gathering at the Albert Hall in Kensington where there was a gymnastic display, and a concert of sacred music.
The American writer Jerome K. Jerome* wrote in “Modern Society” that he had never seen “a manlier, jollier, better behaved gathering”, and Williams was summoned to Windsor to see Queen Victoria*.
New headquarters were opened in Tottenham Court Road, London in 1909 and in 1914 King George V and Queen Mary visited the building to see the new gymnasium and swimming pool. The YMCA first became involved with the military during the Civil War in the United States, and during World War I the YMCA employed the composer Holst* to organize music for the allied troops in Salonika. In 1929 the Geneva Convention asked the YMCA to organize educational and recreational facilities in prisoner-of-war camps.
At the centennial celebrations of 1955, 8,000 delegates representing 4,000,000 members in 76 different countries and regions attended a series of conferences. Today the Association’s activities include physical education, camping, sports, education, counseling, citizenship and public affairs activities.
OTHER CONNECTIONS: At the Springfield, MA YMCA basketball* was invented by staff member James Naismith*
Irving Berlin wrote Yip Yip Yaphank, a revue that included a song entitled "I Can Always Find a Little Sunshine in the YMCA"
ONELINER: YMCA provides training, accommodations and fellowship.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Binfield, Clive, George Williams in Context, A Portrait of the Founder of the YMCA, Sheffield Academic press, Sheffield, 1994
Shipton, William, The Young Men’s Christian Association in London, Its History, Objects and Development, YMCA, London, 1855