World Fellowship Center

The World Fellowship Center is a retreat and conference center located in Albany, New Hampshire, United States. It is open from late June to approximately Labor Day weekend, with a few workshops and other events taking place before or afterwards. Nestled at the southeastern edge of the White Mountain National Forest, east of Mount Chocorua off Route 16 in Albany, it currently comprises approximately 455 acres (184 ha), including two nature trails, a soccer field, and boating and swimming access to a large pond. It can host over 200 guests and features speakers, groups, organizations, and entertainers from around the world.

History

Although the World Fellowship of Faiths had existed as an organization since 1929, the idea for a summer retreat and conference center was brought to life by Charles Winston Weller, who had been a speechwriter for Theodore Roosevelt,[1] and by Weller's wife Eugenia Winston Weller in 1940. That year, the Wellers' adult son died, after which Charles did a two-week long meditation on nearby Mount Whiteface, during which he had a vision to create a more permanent place for the World Fellowship of Faiths.[2] Between 1940 and 1941, the Weller couple selected a 290-acre (120 ha) plot known as Draper Estate, located in Albany, which was for sale for $3,000. After making a down payment of $500, Weller summoned his friend Lola Maverick Lloyd, an investor based in Chicago, to pay the remaining $2,500. A total of 253 people were recorded as attending that year.[3] The initial slogan was "In a time of war, prepare for peace." The Wellers assumed the position of co-directors from 1941 until 1952.

In August of that year, retired theologian and pacifist Willard Uphaus and his wife Ola visited, and became directors the subsequent summer. Uphaus had previously been fired from Hastings College in Nebraska in 1930 for advocating radical viewpoints, and he remained committed to the cause of pacifism during World War Two. From the time he assumed directorship in 1953, Uphaus was scrutinized and maligned by William Loeb III, publisher of the Manchester Union Leader, New Hampshire's only statewide newspaper. Subsequently, in 1954 Uphaus was summoned by New Hampshire Attorney General Louis Wyman to surrender a list of all attendees of World Fellowship. Uphaus refused; and after a long legal battle that involved numerous subpoenas and appeals, as well as attempts to meet with Wyman in person to negotiate what the demands were, he was sentenced to a year in jail in December 1959 for contempt of court. The duration of his sentence lasted exactly that, from December 14, 1959, to December 11, 1960. The Uphaus couple resumed directorship in 1961, a position they retained until 1969.[4]

In 1969, Katheryn "Kit" and her husband Christoph Schmauch became directors. Kit, a teacher, was from Columbus, Ohio, and Christoph, a Lutheran minister, was from East Germany, but had immigrated to the United States in the late 1950s. To date, they have had the longest tenure of directorship, during which they made numerous expansions, improvements and additions to the place, including the purchase of 135 acres (55 ha) and the construction of bunkhouse dormitories and other lodging facilities for seasonal workers as well as a year-round house for the directors. The Schmauchs instituted a working wage for employees (prior to that, all wages were based on tips left by guests), purchased laundry facilities, established a children's fellowship, constructed a basketball court and volleyball net, and blazed nature trails for hiking. The Schmauchs remained co-directors until 2000. In May of that year, Andrea Walsh and Andrew Davis, living with their infant daughter at the time in Keene, New Hampshire, took up the reins of directorship. During their tenure, they have labored to increase the presence and attendance of people of color as well upgrade the lodging facilities to comply with fire safety regulations, and improve accessibility to alter-abled people. With regards to program changes, they have expanded the season to include weddings in June and September and have created more programs, venues, opportunities and workshops pertaining to the arts, body movement (such as yoga, paneurythymy, Capoeira Angola and Feldenkrais), and exercise (such as nature walks, hiking and/or biking in the nearby White Mountain National Forest).[5]

Landscape

The buildings and lodging facilities consist of one large lodge (Lloyd lodge) which has a kitchen, dining hall, a galley kitchen, guest rooms and bathrooms, a conference room (Schmauch house), several campsites, a large house (Uphaus lodge) a quarter mile away from the main lodge, and two cottages that date from the early to mid-19th century, as well as hiking trails and access to swimming and boating in a nearby pond. The pond is largely undeveloped and free of motor boats, making it a prime location for swimming, canoeing, kayaking, berry-picking and bird-watching. Prior to 2010, there was also a large 18th century farmhouse on site that was discontinued as a lodging facility in 2008 and demolished that year. Subsequently, off-site cabins were rented for accommodation losses; in future years, there are plans to build more cabins and construct a bathhouse. Most rooms in each lodging facility are named after historical figures committed to social justice causes - some of whom were actual guests - such as Scott Nearing and Florence Luscomb. The World Fellowship sign on the southern (primary) entrance adjacent Route 16 has also been defaced and damaged (by graffiti, gunshots and Molotov cocktail) during the course that the World Fellowship Center has existed, reflecting the often strained tension World Fellowship has had with the nearby communities. During Uphaus's period of directorship, the sign included the words, "All Races Welcome",[6] thereby attracting numerous attendees of color passing through in an overwhelmingly white region. In decades subsequent, particularly the 1960s and 1970s, World Fellowship was seen both externally and internally as a safe haven for radicals who expressed socialist, Marxist, and/or other leftist viewpoints - this stood in stark contrast to the rest of Carroll County, which was solidly conservative. In recent years, tensions have eased and interactions between World Fellowship and the surrounding towns have been civil.

Program and offerings

The current weekly program typically features guest lecturers weekday mornings and evenings, a cookout Thursday evening, a talent show Friday night, musical and/or dance venues Saturday night, and a luncheon featuring a Thanksgiving-style turkey dinner every Sunday afternoon. Vegetarian, vegan and/or gluten-free options are available upon request. Over the years, a variety of activists, authors, scholars, organizers, artists, politicians, and story-tellers have attended. These have included Noam Chomsky, Aviva Chomsky (his daughter), Peter Marcuse (son of Herbert Marcuse), Scott and Helen Nearing, David Dellinger, Bernie Sanders (when he was mayor of Burlington, long before he gained national and international recognition), Mab Segrest, Lynne Stewart, Chuck Collins, Steve Schwerner (brother of slain civil rights activist Michael Schwerner), Steve Ellner, and several members of the Clamshell Alliance, an anti-nuclear organization that opposed the construction of the Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant in the mid-1970s. Some notable musical performers have included David Rovics, the Adam Ezra group, Pamela Means, Tomas Rodriguez and numerous other folk (and other genre) musicians predominantly, though not exclusively, from the greater Boston and New York metropolitan areas. The current mission statement of the World Fellowship Center is "to promote peace and social justice through education and dialogue inspired by nature", often shortened to the motto "where social justice meets nature."

References

  1. ↑ http://www.conwaydailysun.com/newsx/local-news/92154-a-quest-for-peace-former-world-fellow-center-s-directors-leave-their-imprint
  2. ↑ Steer, Daymond (June 24, 2016). "World Fellowship Center Celebrates 75 Years". The Conway Daily Sun. Retrieved July 6, 2016.
  3. ↑ Uphaus, Willard. Commitment. McGraw Hill, pp.119-120
  4. ↑ The New Hampshire Century, p. 199
  5. ↑ World Fellowship Center official website
  6. ↑ Commitment, p. 121

Coordinates: 43°55′52″N 71°13′10″W / 43.93111°N 71.21944°W / 43.93111; -71.21944

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