Footprints of a dream; the story of the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples.

Howard Thurman's Footprints Of A Dream

The African American religious leader and philosophical mystic Howard Thurman (1891 -- 1981) became the co-founder and pastor of the first inter-racial, inter-faith, and inter-cultural house of worship in the United States, the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples in San Francisco. The Fellowship Church aimed at a broad ecumenicism by welcoming people of all races and religions without asking any participant to give up his or her prior identities or religious commitments. Thurman tells the story of the founding and goals of the Fellowship Church in his short 1959 book "Footprints of a Dream: The Story of the Church for the Fellowship of all Peoples".

At the outset of his book, Thurman explains the mission of the Fellowship Church. He writes that his story "tells how a group of people in the Protestant tradition but of various backgrounds and cultures learned the meaning and the strength of an authentic religious fellowship by creating it and living within it." Thurman continues:

"The movement of the Spirit of God in the hearts of men often causes them to act against the spirit of their times or causes them to anticipate a spirit which is yet in the making. In a moment of dedication they are given wisdom and courage to dare a deed that challenges and to kindle a hope that inspires."

Thurman tells much of this inspiring history in his book. He also describes many of the details incident to the founding of a new organization, such as the risks and the innumerable meetings, committees, funding requests, and searches for space and for personnel that any such venture requires. These matters are important to the history of the Fellowship Church, and they show how inspiration must be put to work in the sometimes mundane tasks of the everyday.

Thurman offers a discussion of his own spiritual life which led to activity in founding and leading the church. He discusses the purposes and ideals of the Fellowship Church which brought it into being and which continue today as its mission. Probably most importantly, Thurman discusses his ideas for worship, meditation, and reading that he brought to bear during the Fellowship Church's early years

Thurman reminds the reader of the highly segregated, racially separatist character of American society during the years of WW II, when the idea for the Fellowship Church was born. The immediate goal was to provide a place acting counter to this separatism in which people of all races and cultures would feel welcome in worshiping together while recognizing their differences. Thurman also brings to bear his own early life and its role in shaping his career and sense of purpose. Although he discusses race prejudice in the segregated Florida town where he was raised, he discusses as well an unfortunate experience with his family's church involving his father's death and burial. This experience made Thurman decide as a young child with great intellectual gifts that he wanted nothing to do with the church. The call of an idealistic, expansive faith, however, proved impossible to resist. Thurman devoted his life to its realization.

The Fellowship Church was designed to appeal to people from various religious denominations and backgrounds as well as to individuals without a religious home. In its early days it rode a fine line between being a non-denominational Protestant church and a church which did not require a commitment to any form of Christianity. It moved in the direction of the latter. Prospective members were asked to indicate their agreement with a brief commitment statement developed by Thurman and a committee.

The heart of the book for me was the chapter titled "The Letter and the Spirit". Thurman discusses some of the books he read and taught to study groups at the Fellowship Church. This discussion helps the reader understand the direction of his thought. Thurman discusses as well the use he made of the dance, of quiet meditation, and of music as elements of the worship service. Thurman also quotes from sermons he delivered during the early years when the Fellowship Church was finding its mission. Thurman describes in the following passage the crux of his own religious thought as well as his understanding of the mission of the Fellowship Church.

"The basic conception was that the highest act of celebration of the human spirit is the worship of God. In His presence, the worshiper sees himself as being in the presence of God. The worshiper is neither male nor female, white nor black, Protestant nor Catholic nor Buddhist nor Hindu, but a human spirit laid bare, stripped to whatever there is that is literal and irreducible. This kind of worship inspires a quality of life that makes barriers of separateness among men increasingly and finally untenable. Worship therefore is central in the church."

In the final sections of the book, Thurman discusses his decision to leave the Fellowship Church in 1953 to serve as the chaplain and as Professor of Theology at Boston University. Thurman became the first African American to serve as chaplain at a large American university, and he brought to bear the ideals and vision he had developed at the Fellowship Church. The book also includes Thurman's reflections on the continued prevalence of separateness in much of American life.

Thurman's book offers a history of what at the time was an untested experiment in the full integration of an American house of worship. It also offers insight into Thurman's thinking and the ideals of human unity and spirituality which remain a challenge and a goal for thought, for American life, and for spiritual life.

Robin Friedman