MISS MAUDE ROYDEN.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20288, 22 December 1927, Page 15

MISS MAUDE ROYDEN.

INTEREST IN NEW ZEALAND. HER WORK OUTLINED. A WOMAN OF STRONG VIEWS. (Feom Ooii Own Cobbespokdent.) LONDON, November 19. Miss Maude Royden will leave England at the end of December op her approaching year’s tour, during which she will visit many countries. She has a long engagement list for the United States, where she will lecture and where she has had invitations to preach. This will be her second visit to America. New Zealand will not be reached until about May, and one regrets to learn that, as mapped out now, the programme will not allow her her to have more than a fortnight in the Dominion. This limited time seems likely to preclude the possibility of even a peep at the South Island, and this naturally is causing her disappointment. Unfortunately, though so brilliant and active mentally, Miss Royden suffers from, severe physical disability, which seriously handicaps her movements. She has congenital disease of both hips, and is very lame. The cause of the lameness was not discovered until it was too late to cure it. Walking at all causes her much pain, and she can do very little indeed in this way. Yet, strange as it may seem, motoring is her chief recreation, and she drives her own car. Deprived of the power of natural locomotion, she yet can sit at the wheel and exert with her feet all the strength needed to control and drive. The car she has was presented by a friend, and it has proved a great boon. She always journeys to and fro between her home in Hampstead and the Guildhouse, near Victoria, where she conducts the Sunday services and presides over the numerous week-day activities which take place at this centre, renowned for its many interests, intellectual, and cultural in character. An ardent motorist, she finds that her health benefits from being out of doors in her car, and there is a resultantly healthy bronze on her face. In build, Miss' Royden is small and very slender. She has a magnetic personality, and eyes of a deep warm brown. These dominate her face, which quickly changes from an expression of intense thought to one of sparkling animation. She is quick to see a point and to return a thrust; she is an interesting speaker, and her ready wit is a useful possession. Now that she has passed the half-century mark, her dark hair is tinged with grey, but being naturally of a bright and interested disposition she does not look her years. Nature, truly, has badly hampered her movements, but as a consolation there are the mental faculties which have been bestowed with liberality, and these must be regarded as compensating for the disability which makes her almost a cripple. Naturally, the black ground and black buckled shoes which she wears in her pulnit make her look more sedate than the neat jumper suit of light stockingette and snakeskin shoes that become her well in every-day life and emphasise the youthful line of her figure. Miss Royden has had years devoted to a variety of interests, and sh e has I; useful experiences in many walks of life. The younger daughter of the late Sir Thomas Royden, Bart., so well known in Lancashire, she had a university education, going to Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, from Cheltenham. Her brother, the present baronet, is chairman of the Cunard Steamship Company, and is_ also prominent in banking and other business circles.

INTENSE ZEST FOR WORK. As an ardent feminist, she is very keen to visit New Zealand, th e country which first gave women the vote and which has been progressive in a number of ways. Sbe wants to learn on the spot what women have done with their power. Then, being very keen, too, about maternity work and infant welfare, she hopes to become more conversant with the principles of the Truby King system, which has done so much to lessen infant mortality and generally to rear such healthy and happy babies. 'She realises how astonishing arc comparative mortality figures now compared with those of years ago. She says that New Zealand will have many features to interest her, apart from its scenic attractions. She expects to give addresses in leading centres—probably a series of five in each place—and one of them will probably be connection with the League of Nations’ Union. A MAGNET WHERE MEN FAILED. A woman of such keen nature and men. tal ability, Miss Royden had to find congenial outlet for her powers. For three years she worked at a women’s settlement In Liverpool, where she gained much knowledge of maternity work and learned much about the capacity of women generally. Next, feeling that she had still much to express, she worked in the country parish of Luffenham, where soon she exercised considerable influence over the villagers. Indeed, according to one who know her well, it was here that her religious teaching made itself so undeniably felt. A mission had been arranged, with special preachers. But they did not succeed in rousing the people. Then it was suggested that Miss Royden should be asked to give addresses, with the result that the people flocked to hear her—s ie [succeeded where men had failed. A een student of Shakespeare, she roused the interest of the villagers by her addresses on the women of Shakespeare, and dramatic performances took place undo. 1 her direction. Then it was realised that Luffenham was too small for her scope, so she was appointed lecturer m English literature for Oxford University, deliverino- extension lectures for three yeais. Then came the suffrage : lavement, and Miss Royden was ardent in the cause, but she was non-mihtant She was Lie right hand of Dame Milliccnt Fawcett, and for several years sue edited Ihe Common Cause. She devotee* a considerable part of her time to the women s movement, especially on its economic, ethical, and religious aspects. lor six years she was on the executive Committee of the National Union of VV omen s Suffrage Societies. Then further work developed, for she became assistant preacher at the City Temple. THE GUILDHOUSE AND ITS PURPOSE. After that came her association with Dr P. Dearmor and Mr Marlin Shaw tho outcome being the in 1917, of the Fellowship Services at Kensington Town Hall. A little group of friends and admirers became interested, too, all of whom were keen to continue such services as (hey felt able to give to the irligions life of the people, but they wanted to use their position as—in sense —** free lances to make experiments and to try out ideas which tho organised churches were unwilling or unable to make. There was no desire o found a new sect; indeed, thev wore and are profoundly impressed with the ex tretire undesirability of even appearing ‘o do such a thing. For this reason they asked for the backing of ;■ ’limber of people belonging to different Christian communities T and for the same reason they decided to hold no service on Sunday mornings. They know that almost all Christian bodies that have a communion service celebrate 'hat service on Sunday mornings. They urged those of their congregation who belonged to such churches to attend their own church n tin; morning ami the Guildhouse if they liked, in the evening.

Now, of course, the uinldhou.se, is well-known centre. The founders have seen tli- realisation of their ipe that their experiment? would interest people i;f various denominations, "d ♦ sm of (heir ideas might prove practicable and fruitful and might ultimately be taken up by the churches. There is 10

wish that the congregation who heiongei to the various communion.? should sever liicir ronneeton with them. broadly speaking. the desire i? to associate with religion not onlv theology and philanthropy but politics, science.

and art—indeed, the whole of life. It is part of the Fellowship Creed that all art that is beautiful and true is religious. AFTER-SERVICE DISCUSSIONS.

From the pulpit at the Tuildhoiis* every kind of topic is freely dealt wicn by Miss Royden, including morality and politics, and at the conclusion of the service comes the discussion. The greater part of the congregation remains, and numerous are the questions asked having a bearing on what has been preached at the service. Miss Royden says that she herself hag suffered agonies because, as a churchgoer, she has had to isten silently to sentiments and statements from the pulpit with which she could not agree, yet none of the congregation was afforded opportunity for subsequent enlightenment. Her principle is to invite discussion so that the congregation can rigally grasp her meaning, and in this way, as she remarks, she has the greater liberty to express her own views when she is preaching. For there can b e a subsequent threshing out of points that 1 c r , been completely understood Miss Royden herself is a communicant member of the Church of England. Many are the people who attend the “ Five quarters ” these being the Sunday aft uoon addresses given by notable men and women usually on matters of miblic interest—-so-called because the time set apart extends to an hour and a-quarter. Miss Royden has preached before people in many walks of life—she has deliver- 1 addresses to congregations of men only on the subject of “Purity/’ She has preached in prison in mental institutions, and she has given addresses in church* up and down the land, at the invitation of those in charge. She has attended more than one Church of England Congress, and has spoken, by request, on a variety of subjects. Without asking Miss Royden exactly what are her political views, I formed the opinion from one of her discourses that she lias a leaning toward Socialism and Labour interests. She was speaking then on ‘ The Ministry of Women ”—a gigantic problem which she says the churches must soon seriously consider.

The first time she was asked to deliver an address on Purity was at a church congress meeting, held in the Winchester diocese. It was just before the war, when the women suffrage movement was at its height and a great outcry arose throughout the land objecting that a woman should talk to men on such a subject. However, last summer Miss Royden was asked again at a church congress to give another address on the same subject and before a men’s meeting, and there was not a dissentient murmur—“ not a dog barked, ’ to use her own expression. Among the churches where Miss Rovden has either preached or given special addresses by invitation may be mentioned M. Martm-in-the-Fields (the Rev. H R L. Sheppard), St. Botolph’s, Bishopsgatc Christ Church, Victoria street (Rev ,T E Campbell) ; St. Paul’s, Covent Garden (Canon the Hon. J. G. Adderley) ; St. Jude s, South Kensington; two or three churches in the Manchester diocese (wtih the express permission of Bishop Temple); and last, but not least, in Liverpool Cathedral

OCCUPANT OF CALVIN’S CHAIR. One of her most interesting recoilcctions in this connection was her ©ecupancy of Calvin’s pulpit at Geneva Cathedral. This was in 1920, during the Interational Suffrage Alliance Congress. She was taken to the cathedral the day before to accustom herself to her surroundings and to gauge the accoustics of, the building, where the pulpit is of very specious dimeralmost like a room, provided with a chair. On this chair she became seated, but from it she arose with dramatic haste °n kemg told that it was the chair on which Calvin always sat. This sudden surrismg surprised those with her, and when she explained reason she was assured that if Calvin had lived in the twentieth century all would have been well, for he would have moved with the times. So next day she occupied the pulpit and the chair, and, in French, apologised that she must deliver her, address in English. It was a very rare thing, she was assured, for the selection of a special preacher to be come to with complete unanimity, but such had been the honor paid her by those ■who had the_ responsibility of making the choice on this important occasion. , the bishops in the Church of Engand she seems to get on very well, but she has crossed swords publicly on a good many occasions with the Bishop of Lon- • don. Privately all seems serene. New Zealanders who attend her lectures should find her interesting even if they are not always able to agree with the view which she'so strongly'holds on so many matters.

Miss Royden declines to be interviewed, but, in view of her keen interest in New Zealand, she relented and talked for half an hour in her own home with the London correspondent of the' Otago Daily Times. Miss Royden leads a busy life. It is interesting to add that her postbag on Mondays is very heavy, for 100 correspondents at least write' to her about her Sunday discourse. The introduction may be: “I am the man who spoke to you from the gallery to-night.” Many men, by the way, go" to the Guildhouse in increasing numbers, but Miss Royden is ‘‘insulted ” if people congratulate" her on this score. For, as already stated, she does not think that men are in the least hit superior to women.