Eugene Carson Blake was born just one hundred years ago. As stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church, as well as chief executive of the World Council of Churches in Geneva, Blake deserves a hearty “Happy Birthday” this year.
He was born into the home of fundamentalist sympathizers in St. Louis, Mo., at a time when Presbyterians were engaged in the Fundamentalist-Modernist brawl. His family traced ancestry back to Scotland and Ireland. From these Presbyterian strongholds they sailed westward across the Atlantic to the new country, then to St. Louis, Mo. He grew up in the West Church. Across town in South St. Louis, this author also matured.
Blake went off to Princeton University in 1924. There, in addition to becoming a football star, he participated in the Frank Buchman’s First Century Christian Fellowship. He later experienced a conversion experience at Northfield, Minn., among Dwight L. Moodyites. After study for a time in Edinburgh, Scotland, he took a degree at Princeton Theological Seminary. Following a brief missionary experience in India, he returned to serve churches in Albany, N. Y., and Pasadena, Calif., where he made a name for himself as pastor of the Pasadena Church increasing the membership from 3,500 members to 4,500.
So effectively did he care for the congregation and the wider church, that the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. called him to serve as stated clerk of the denomination in Philadelphia where the headquarters were located in the Witherspoon Building. He held the office from 1951 to 1966, and helped direct some notable changes in the life of the denomination and the nation.
For one thing, as an ecumenist he encouraged the union of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. with other Presbyterians, and cooperation among other Christian bodies. He expressed an ecumenical theology with these affirmations:
1. There is a transcendent God, who has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ.
2. Knowledge of this God is found in reading the Bible and understanding what it says in historical context.
3. The heart of the Christian faith remains what it always has been. God, who created the universe, is Redeemer through Jesus Christ and He is fulfilling His purpose in history.
4. “Time makes ancient good uncouth,” which … requires us radically to revise our understanding of what should be expected of followers of Jesus Christ today as contrasted to what was required fifty years ago.
This led the church, under Blake, to the denomination’s debate over its confessional stance and the ultimate adopting of the Book of Confessions with the “The Confession of 1967.” The Book affirmed our history as Christians through the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds of the early church, the Scots Confession of 1560, the Westminster Confession and Shorter Catechism, the Heidelberg Catechism, the Second Helvetic Confession of our larger Reformation past, the Barmen Declaration of the Confessing Church of Germany in 1934. Also it affirmed the statement of 1967 that emphasized our calling as Christians to be peacemakers under Christ to one another and in the world; Christ the reconciler calls us as Christians to live lives of reconciliation in the world and in all areas of our human existence.
While opposition to this statement was strong, 82 percent of Presbyterians approved this Book of Confessions. In it we embraced our Christian and Reformed heritages and committed ourselves to current challenges and responsibilities in the world today.
This reminds us of another aspect of Blake’s legacy, and indeed, to American faith and life during some difficult times. Blake took part in and called us all to participate in the struggle of African-Americans for civil rights and full participation in America’s life. He had expressed his concerns for this matter in Pasadena, and elsewhere as he grew in consciousness of the need for social justice, and in this case, racial equality. He did so in the pulpit and in interracial commissions on which he served. He supported the Supreme Court decision of Brown v. Board of Education (1954). He supported the work of Martin Luther King Jr., in the “March on Washington.” He was present when King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963. Moreover, he was also arrested on July 4, 1963, when he and others attempted to integrate the Baltimore amusement park. He became notorious when his picture appeared in a paddy wagon on the way to the police station. He did not, it should be noted, stay there, but his act was widely heralded in the nation.
He served as stated clerk under Edler G. Hawkins, our denomination’s first black moderator, in 1964. During these years he published Christian Faith: Bulwark of Freedom (1958) and He Is Lord of All (1958). It should be underscored that the first woman, Margaret Towner, was ordained to the ministry in 1956 during Blake years.
During these times Blake’s international reputation grew. In 1956, he visited Moscow with others to build relationships with the Patriarch Alexis and the Russian Orthodox Church, helping to break through the Iron Curtain that separated East from West.
He was also a dedicated ecumenist at home. He served as one of the first four presidents of the National Council of Churches in 1954-1957 during these same years of racial unrest. He also rode in a convertible with then President Dwight D. Eisenhower, now a Presbyterian himself, to the dedication of the Interchurch Center in New York City. He also helped bring together the PCUSA and the United Presbyterian Church of North America to form the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. in 1958. He built bridges to the Presbyterian Church in the South but could not manage a reunion with that denomination, which came about in 1983 just before he died.
He also emerged a leader in the Church of Christ Uniting, or COCU. This consultation brought together in conversations the Protestant Episcopal Church, the United Church of Christ, the Methodist Church, along with Presbyterians, to search for a body “truly Catholic, truly Reformed, and truly Evangelical.” While the discussion and relation did not bring about unification, the denominations still cooperate through the National Council and various state and local ecumenical efforts. Blake also built bridges to the “Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches, even welcoming the pope to the Ecumenical Center in Geneva when Blake became general secretary of the World Council.
In 1966 Blake assumed the office of secretary and moved to Switzerland. He had served on the powerful Central and Executive committee of WCC. He had helped organize and shape the WCC’s meeting and discussion in Evanston (1954), which focused on the theme “Christ the Hope of the World.” As Secretary of the organization he restructured it, recruited fifty more churches worldwide for membership, and challenged, through his office, worldwide racism and economic inequalities. He stressed during his tenure “Life and World” and “Faith and Order” issues at various meetings.
In the Uppsala meeting the conferees addressed the subject “Behold, I Make All Things New” (Rev. 21:5). There was cause for concern. In the United States, theologians had pronounced, “God is dead.” Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated, causing worldwide concern for the world’s democratic superpower. At the Uppsala meeting, some participants worried about the verbiage, which they labeled “Uppsalalia.” One wag put it this way in describing ecumenical dialogue:
God is not Dead
He just Fell Asleep
In the Middle
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Nevertheless, at the meeting “Hoary, aged ecclesiastics,” as they were called then, were making way for numerous youth who were taking up the cause of ecumenics and also of ethical concerns worldwide. And Blake tried to build bridges not only to Roman Catholics and the Russian Orthodox but also between the many members of the WCC.
Blake was twice married, first to Vilina Gillespie during his early years, and to Jean Ware Hoyt; each wife died during the years of their marriage. He died in Stamford, Conn. in 1985.
He was still working at the time as chair of the UPCUSA Task Force on Peacemaking. He was celebrated while still with us by R. Douglas Brackenridge in Eugene Carson Blake, Prophet with Portfolio (New York: Seabury Press (1978).
On a personal note, I served under Blake as editor of the Journal of Presbyterian History, published by the Presbyterian Historical Society in Philadelphia. See the Journal (4 (Winter 1998) for a more detailed review of Blake’s contributions.
What an example for us all!
James H. Smylie is professor emeritus of church history at Union Seminary — PSCE in Richmond, Va.
