Bahá’í World/Volume 2/Green Acre and the Idea of World Unity
GREEN ACRE AND THE IDEAL OF WORLD UNITY
A Focal Center of Devotional and Humanitarian Activity
BY
HORACE HOLLEY AND LOUISE BOYLE
DURING the past thirty-three years the little tract of land in southern Maine, set apart in trust by Miss Sarah J. Farmer of Eliot for the Green Acre Summer Conferences, has witnessed one of the most significant expressions of practical idealism ever taking place in this country.
Viewed in the perspective of these thirty-three years—that wonderful era of world thought and progress, deepened by world suffering, inaugurated by the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 —the spiritual legacy left by Miss Farmer in Green Acre represents a truly astonishing achievement. To this woman of pure New England stock must be credited the glory of founding the first universal platform in America. To Green Acre have come representatives of every race, nation and religion, to mingle in fellowship and contribute each his best to a common end. The roll of speakers who have taken part in the Green Acre Conferences represent well-nigh the flower of modern liberal thought.
“Green Acre,” Miss Farmer declared some years before her death, “was established for the purpose of bringing together all who were looking earnestly toward the New Day which seemed to be breaking over the entire world. The motive was to find the Truth, the Reality, underlying all religious forms, and to make points of contact in order to promote the unity necessary for the ushering in of the coming Day of God.”
Only the older generation can appreciate the courage and magnanimity of this woman at their true value. The note of human solidarity and interdependence has penetrated life at many points during the past twenty years, but Miss Farmer arose as a consecrated pioneer to make a definite and practical application of ideals hitherto existing only in the minds of philosophers and the lives of saints.
The Fruit of New England Transcendentalism
Too frequently, students of that marvelous period of aspiring consciousness known as the “Transcendental Movement,” and associated with the greatness of Emerson, Thoreau and their fellows, have traced the continuity of the movement down the many dividing tenuous streams of so-called “New Thought.” This is a fundamental mistake. Great thoughts do not reach fulfillment in a multiplicity of little thoughts—their fruit is in permanently ennobled customs and institutions of daily life.
This significance of Miss Farmer in the history of American progress is that she stands as the actual fulfiller of Emerson in terms of applied influence. Miss Farmer can be considered as the feminine counterpart of Emerson, for she possessed his idealism to the full, but her nature was executive, practical and intensely human, desiring tangible results above abstract formulas and definitions.
Green Acre consequently arose as the effort to live out and apply the great American vision of truth, justice and righteousness, and throughout more than [Page 152]
thirty years of struggle, Green Acre has never lost sight of that essential purpose.
What Is Green Acre!
Physically, Green Acre is a tract of some two hundred acres, situated along the banks of the Piscataqua river in Eliot, Maine, only four miles up from the sea, and opposite the historic city of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. On this tract, and also round about the countryside, are magnificent pine groves; the combination of river, sea, pines and sunswept rolling farm lands making an environment of unsurpassed charm and healthfulness.
The buildings already erected at Green Acre include the Inn, Fellowship House, Arts and Crafts Studio, Little Theatre, Gift Shop, Tea House, cottages and sites for camping parties. All this property is administered under the supervision of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada. No restrictions exist to limit the attendance at Green Acre beyond basic considerations of character and suitability.
The Green Acre Conferences
The present year 1928 brings the thirty-fourth season of the famous Green Acre Conferences, which have resolutely stressed the independent investigation of reality in all the fundamental issues of human life. Such subjects as Comparative Religion, Religion and Science, The Unity of Mankind, and The Significance of the New Era, have been presented by leaders whose names are known throughout the world. It was typical of Miss Farmer’s large purposes, and also of her capacity to dramatize the ideal in the concrete, that the original ceremony opening Green Acre on July 4, 1894, culminated in raising a flag of World Peace.
Among those who have been associated with the development of Green Acre Conferences are: John Greenleaf Whittier, Edward Everett Hale, Edwin H. Markham, Ralph Waldo Trine, Helen Campbell, William Dean Howells, William Lloyd Garrison, John Fiske, Lester A. Ward, Paul Carus, Booker T. Washington, Edward Martin, Mírzá Abu’l-Faḍl, Edwin Ginn, Myron H. Phelps, Thornton Chase, Edwin D. Mead, C. H. A. Bjerregaard, Jacob Riis, Horatio Dresser, Joseph Jefferson, Anagarika H. Dharmapala, Nathaniel Schmidt, P. Ramanathan and Rabbi Silverman.
The audiences attending these Conferences have more than once had the distinction of hearing, in the form of an intimate address, some theme later to become famous as a public lecture or chapter in a book. For more than a decade, it was at Green Acre that Oriental philosophy and religion found their most hospitable open door into the consciousness of the West.
Green Acre a World-wide Activity
In 1896, two years after the opening of Green Acre, Miss Farmer found her objects and ideals expressed in their purest, most vital form in the Bahá’í Faith. Perceiving that the entire modern liberal movement of the West was but the direct reflection of the Light which dawned in Persia in 1844, and that the heroic lives of the Bahá’í martyrs had established an unshakable basis for every liberal and universal cause, Miss Farmer journeyed to ‘Akká, the prison colony near Mount Carmel, and offered her services to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. This action brought about no fundamental alterations in the policy or purposes of Green Acre, but related Green Acre to the modern world Movement at its spiritual source.
The Tablets addressed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to Miss Farmer during subsequent years expressed His unfailing guidance in all her great work. In some of them He wrote:
“O maid-servant of God! Trust in the grace of thy Lord. He shall surely assist thee with a confirmation whereat the minds will be amazed and the thoughts of the men of learning will be astonished.
[Page 153]
. . . Take the cup of the love of God in thy right hand and with thy left hand hoist the banner of universal peace, love and affection among the nations of the earth . . . .
“Verily ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was with you in Green Acre in his spirit, soul and in all his spiritual grades. . . . Verily I beseech God to make Green Acre as the Paradise of El-Abhá, so that the melodies of the nightingales of sanctity may be heard from it and the chanting of the verses of unity may be raised therein. . . .
“Blessed art thou, that thy heart is connected with the callings of the Kingdom of Abhá, so that thou hast dispensed with the telepathic wires of the world, because the terminal of the spiritual wire reached the centre of thy heart and the other is placed in the spiritual centre. . . .
“O thou artery pulsating in the body of the world. . . . I supplicate God to heal thee from all troubles and diseases and make thee a sign of guidance and a standard of the Supreme Concourse in those regions. . . . Verily thou art with me in spirit at all times.”
On August 16,1912, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Himself visited Green Acre and remained one week. His majestic figure became a familiar outline upon its grassy slopes and His presence a benediction. At this time Miss Farmer was ill at a sanitarium in Portsmouth. She was able, however, to spend a few hours at Green Acre in order to greet ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and extend to Him the hospitality of a spot already dedicated to His Cause.
The two addresses delivered by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá on the day of His arrival at Green Acre were significant of His later instructions regarding this centre. They were masterly discourses upon. “The Investigation of Reality” and “Love.” A divine joy seemed to fill the heart of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá at Green Acre for here were found many souls capable of responding to His message. His time was fully occupied with interviews and addresses.
Upon one occasion ‘Abdu’l-Bahá stood with the friends upon Mount Salvat, the noble elevation dedicated by Miss Farmer as the site for a spiritual university. He spoke of the future realization of this inspired idea—of the erection there of a University of the Higher Sciences—an institution where young men and women would be prepared for lives of true service and trained in the arts and sciences of a new age. Upon another occasion ‘Abdu’l-Bahá invited to a Feast all the residents of Eliot and Green Acre.
While sojourning in Paris, on His return from America en-route to Palestine, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá pictured to some friends interested in Green Acre the ideals on which its future should be built:
“In Green Acre you must concentrate your forces around the one all-important fact—the investigation of reality. Expend all your thought on this that the union of opinions and expressions may be obtained . . . .
“The chief objects of the Green Acre Conferences must be the furtherance of universal peace, investigation of reality, brotherhood, tolerance, sympathy to all mankind, the cultivation of a better understanding between the nations of the world, the elimination of dogmas and superficialities, the illumination of the hearts with the light of truth, mutual assistance and co-operation, social service, the study of the fundamental principles of all the religions and their comparative co-ordination. Green Acre must carry away this palm of victory . . . . ”
In July, 1925, at the invitation of the Green Acre Fellowship and Trustees, the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada gathered there in their Seventeenth Annual Convention and Congress, and this occasion signalized the visible fulfillment of Miss Farmer's pilgrimage to ‘Akká so many years before. An international touch was given the event by the presence of honorary Bahá’í delegates from France and Persia, and the receipt of messages of fellowship from the Bahá’ís of England, Germany, Caucasus, Egypt, ‘Iráq, South America, India and Burma, Australia and New Zealand.
The “War Period” and After
A development in the methods necessary for attaining the ideal of Green Acre could be noted from year to year under Miss Farmer's guidance, withdrawn forever shortly before the war. This development was away from days filled entirely with lectures and addresses (more than once the program included over fifteen lectures a day) to a more well-balanced program. The “war period” permanently altered the character of these Conferences by abruptly emphasizing reality as the criterion of truth as well as of usefulness. At present the expressed purpose of the Green Acre committee is to concentrate on fewer speakers, but give each one an adequate opportunity to develop his subject and leave premanent influences behind.
A Center—Not An “Institution”
Those who would compare Green Acre with any foundation which began from the material end—that is, with adequate equipment for public lectures, private instruction or even entertainment and general recreation—are unaware of its true spirit. Green Acre began with a vision rather than with a purse. Its appeal has been greatest to those who appreciate the rare opportunity of participating in a living, growing center rather than in a formally institutionalized regime. The material equipment necessary for Miss Farmer’s objectives is being slowly but surely provided, but Green Acre is still inspiringly fluid and informal, responding to every sympathetic and creative thought.
Green Acre, in fact, came into being at just about the time when American life began to create impressive “foundations” in the fields of education, art and science corresponding to the earlier bequests and gifts to churches. These great financial foundations have accomplished invaluable good. None of them, however, occupies the particular niche filled by Green Acre, whose supreme function is not to give opportunities to the exceptionally trained specialist, but to manifest the reality of world unity. Green Acre’s difficulty never has been the raising of funds, but the finding of people capable of remaining true to this vision.
Thus it was inevitable that Green Acre should, for a time at least, lose much of that brilliance characterizing its conferences during the earlier years, for this brilliance reflected the facets of individualism brought into the intense light of a world ideal. As the fruit slowly matures after the passing of the flower, so Green Acre has been learning how to discipline and unify its own workers rather than to attract the few leaders who tarry but for the passing day. More powerful than any financial budget is that foundation consisting of men and women rid at last of secret ambition, false pride and useless sensibilities. When this unity is thoroughly established, brilliance—so often the flickering torch—becomes illumination—the steady glow of dawn.
It is in the roll of Green Acre Fellowship, listing many friends and workers associated with Miss Farmer’s purposes for twenty, even twenty-five or thirty years, that Green Acre’s treasure and wealth must be sought, for their faithfulness has created the only condition wherein can be realized the logical conclusion of these Conferences: “a universal platform for all mankind, irrespective of race, religion or nationality . . . . that the influence of the confederation of religions and sects may permeate to all parts of the world from Green Acre, and Green Acre for future ages and cycles may become the standard-bearer of the oneness of humanity.”
The Green Acre Ideal
Briefly stated, the ideal of Green Acre is to afford a platform for the discussion of fundamental subjects from the point of view of reality—that is, as they affect mankind and not merely one limited group. This universal platform is to be founded on the firm basis of a community of loyal, unified and active workers[Page 155]
, some resident at Green Acre the year round, others spending only their summers there; people of different sect, race and class, and of different character and training, but agreeing in their mutual desire to serve one aim and participate in one all-inclusive purpose. As time goes on, the underlying harmony of Green Acre will be evidenced by more and more accessory institutions, each expressing some one phase of physical, mental or soul life. At Green Acre there must be fullness of life and richness of human comradeship—a community whose motive is service, not wealth, but at the same time consciously rejecting all those artificial schemes which promise to solve life’s material problems without relying upon self-sacrifice and spiritual love.
In New England, and throughout the United States, there are today untold thousands of people who know that they are capable of responding to finer enthusiasms and higher motives than touch them in their daily lives. The motive of mere material wealth leaves them cold; they find no true distraction in physical games, no true inspiration in abstract art and science, no profit in the clash of religious doctrines.
Green Acre exists entirely to serve these awakening souls of the new day. Green Acre will serve them first of all by using their capacities at their best, kindled by the vision of what remains to be done in the spot blessed by Miss Farmer’s life and work. Green Acre will draw them out of themselves, teach them the laws and principles of unity and reveal hidden sources of conviction and joy. For a day, for a week, for a season, for a lifetime, Green Acre needs workers— but Green Acre will give more than she takes.
Green Acre Gives Hospitality to Significant Educational Activity—The Institute of World Unity
The summer of 1927 witnessed a true flowering of the purposes and ideals of Green Acre, but partly disclosed in and through the programs of conferences and meetings held during previous years. The founder, Miss Sarah J. Farmer, ever visioned as the crown of attainment for this consecrated center, a University teaching not merely cultural and scientific subjects but inculcating above all the spirit of humanitarian service and brotherly love.
A definite beginning was made in the direction of this noble ideal by the hospitality which Green Acre extended to the Institute of World Unity, an activity of World Unity Foundation, in 1927.
The purpose of the Institute was announced as “an effort to supply a new basis of faith in brotherhood and world unity through the finding of modern science and philosophy.” From August 1 to September 3, five courses were offered, each in charge of a well-known educator. A total of nearly seventy registrations was enrolled, the students coming from many parts of the United States and Canada and representing a wide variety of races and religions. This group displayed such enthusiastic interest in the work of the Institute that its perpetuation and development in future years seems assured.
The natural beauty of Green Acre, and its powerful tradition of universal hospitality, provided a sympathetic environment for the discussion of subjects which necessarily involve a new quality of human association.
Program of Lectures—1927
NATIONALISM AND INTERNATIONALISM
BY
PROF. HERBERT ADAMS GIBBONS,
Ph. D., Lit. D.
Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and of the Ecole Palatine of Avignon.
Awarded the Gold Medal of the Societe de Geographie of Paris.
Member of the French Legion of Honor.
[Page 156]
August
- 1.—Nationalism before 1789.
- 2.—Nationalism vs. Internationalism from 1789 to 1815.
- 3.—Factors in the Development of Nationalism in Europe from 1815 to 1870.
- 4.—Nationalist Movements in Europe from 1870 to 1914.
- 5.—Nationalism vs. Internationalism from 1914 to 1919.
- 6.—The International Movement since the World War.
THE MAKING OF THE MODERN MIND
BY
PROF. JOHN HERMAN RANDALL, JR. Ph.D.
Columbia University.
Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Columbia University.
Author, The Problem of Group Responsibility, The Making of the Modern Mind, etc.
Co-author, Introduction to Reflective Thinking, and Columbia University Studies in the History of Ideas.
August
- 8.—The Building of the Christian Tradition.
- 9.—The Discovery of the Scientific Order of Nature.
- 10.—-The Romantic Call to a Larger Experience.
- 11.—The Growth of Faith in Evolutionary Science.
- 12.—The Adjustment of Religion to the Scientific Faith.
- 13.—The Emergence of the Ideal of a Functionally Unified World.
COMPARATIVE RELIGION
BY
PROF. SAMUEL LUCAS JOSHI, Ph.D.
Dartmouth College
Professor of Comparative Religion, Dartmouth College.
Professor of English Literature, University of Bombay.
First Indian Graduate of Columbia University.
First Carnegie Exchange Professor from India.
August
- 15.—Introductory lecture reviewing the main phases of development among leading religions.
- 16.—A Survey of the Concepts of God, Prayer and Sacrifice among different religions.
- 17.—The nature of the Soul and a comparative study of Eschatology among different religions.
- 18.—India’s contribution to the interpretation of the central problems of religion.
- 19.—Science and Religion among Western nations in the 19th Century.
- 20.—Some problems of today and the religious outlook for tomorrow.
SCIENCE and RELIGION
BY
PROF. KIRTLEY F. MATHER, PH.D.
Harvard University
Chairman of the Department of Geology and Geography, Harvard University.
Lecturer at Radcliffe and Wellesley Colleges.
Geologist, United States Geological Survey.
August
- 22.—The New World Revealed by Modern Science.
- 23.—Survival of Religion in the Struggle for Existence.
- 24.—Machines, Men, and Mystics.
- 25.—The Search for God in a Scientific Age.
- 26.—Miracles and Prayer in a Law-Abiding Universe.
- 27.—The Present Trend of Science and Religion.
THE RELATIONS OF THE EAST AND THE WEST
BY
PROF. WILLIAM R. SHEPHERD Ph.D., L. H. D.
Columbia University
Seth Low Professor of History, Columbia.
Honorary Professor, University of Chile.
American delegate, Pan-American Scientific Congresses.
Contributing Editor, Journal of International Relations.
Author of a classic Historic Atlas, books on Latin America, a history of New Amsterdam, and various papers on the expansion of Europe.
August
- 29.—The Meeting of East and West.
- 30.—Western Ways in Eastern Lands.
- 31.—Western Thoughts in Eastern Minds.
September
- 1.—Eastern Ways in Western Lands.
- 2.—Eastern Thoughts in Western Minds.
- 3.—Two Strong Men Stand Face to Face.
Program of Lectures-1928
THE WORLD TODAY in TERMS OF WORLD UNITY
BY
HERBERT ADAMS GIBBONS, Ph.D.
Historian
July
- 30.—The Problems of the British Empire.
- 31.—France and Germany in the New Europe.
August
- 1.—The Attitude of Italy and Russia Towards International Co-operation.
- 2.—Africa and Asia Repudiate the “White Man’s Burden.”
- 3.—A New Era in Pan-American Relations.
RACIAL RELATIONSHIP AND INTERNATIONAL HARMONY
BY
FRANK H. HANKINS, Ph.D.
Smith College
August
- 6.—Races and Nations: Their Meaning and Relations.
- 7.—Race Pride and Prejudice: Their Basis, Social Role and Modification.
- 8.—The Question of Racial Equality.
- 9.—The International Significance of Different Rates of Increase of Races and Nationalities.
- 10.—Stages and Processes in the Evolution of Social Organization and Integration.
SCIENCE, PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION
BY
E. A. BURTT, Ph.D.
University of Chicago
August
- 13.—The Human Significance of the Notion of Universal Law.
- 14.—The Empirical Method of Science.
- 15.—The Hypothetical Character of Scientific Explanation.
- 16.—Implications of the Scientific Attitude for Philosophy.
- 17.—Implications of the Scientific Attitude for Religion.
THE EVOLUTION OF RELIGION
BY
NATHANIEL SCHMIDT, Ph.D.
Cornell University
August
- 20.—Early Forms of Religion.
- 21.—The Rise and Fall of the Gods.
- 22.—The Function of the Prophet.
- 23.—Mutations and Survivals in Religion.
- 24.—The Present Outlook for Religion.
