October 10: Vida Dutton Scudder, Educator, 1954

The Collect of the Day

Vida Dutton Scudder

Most gracious God, you sent your beloved Son to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near: Raise up in your church witnesses who, after the example of your servant Vida Dutton Scudder, stand firm in proclaiming the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Vida Dutton Scudder

Most gracious God, who didst send thy beloved Son to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near: Raise up in thy church witnesses who, after the example of thy servant Vida Dutton Scudder, stand firm in proclaiming the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Isaiah 11:1–10
Psalm 25: 1–14
John 6:37–51

Vida Dutton Scudder exemplifies the marriage of contemplation and action within an engaged Christian spirituality. As a contemplative laywoman, Scudder was a champion for peace, social action, and women throughout her life.

Scudder was born on December 15th, 1861, the child of Congregationalist missionaries in India. In the 1870s, Vida and her mother were prepared for confirmation in the Episcopal Church by Phillips Brooks, then Rector of Trinity Church, Copley Square, Boston, and later Bishop of Massachusetts. After studying English literatureat Smith College and Oxford University, Scudder began teaching at Wellesley College. Her love of scholarship was matched by her social conscience and deep spirituality. As a young woman, Scudder founded the College Settlements Association, joined the Society of Christian Socialists, and, in 1889, began a lifelong association with the Society of the Companions of the Holy Cross, a community living in the world and devoted to intercessory prayer.

In 1893, Scudder took a leave of absence from Wellesley to workwith Helena Stuart Dudley in founding Denison House in Boston, a “college settlement,” where wealthy college-educated women provided social services to poor immigrant neighbors, in conversation withthe local parish priest. Stresses from teaching and her activism ledto a breakdown in 1901. After two years’ recuperation in Italy, she returned renewed and became even more active in church and socialist groups; she started a group for Italian immigrants at Denison House and took an active part in organizing the Women’s Trade Union League. In 1911, Scudder founded The Episcopal Church Socialist League, and formally joined the Socialist party. Her support of the Lawrence, Massachusetts, textile workers’ strike in 1912 drew agreat deal of criticism and threatened her teaching position. Though she initially supported World War I, she joined the Fellowship of Reconciliation in 1923, and by the 1930s was a firm pacifist.

Throughout her life, Scudder’s primary relationships and support network were women. After retirement, she authored 16 books on religious and political subjects, combining her intense activism with an equally vibrant spirituality. “If prayer is the deep secret creative force that Jesus tells us it is, we should be very busy with it,” she wrote characteristically, adding that there was one sure way “of directly helping on the Kingdom of God. That way is prayer. Social intercession may be the mightiest force in the world.” Vida Scudder died on October 9th, 1954.

Lessons and Psalm

First Lesson

Psalm

¹To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul; my God, I put my trust in you; *let me not be humiliated, nor let my enemies triumph over me.

²Let none who look to you be put to shame; *let the treacherous be disappointed in their schemes.

³Show me your ways, O Lord, *and teach me your paths.

⁴Lead me in your truth and teach me, *for you are the God of my salvation; in you have I trusted all the day long.

⁵Remember, O Lord, your compassion and love, *for they are from everlasting.

⁶Remember not the sins of my youth and my transgressions; *remember me according to your love and for the sake of your goodness, O Lord.

⁷Gracious and upright is the Lord; *therefore he teaches sinners in his way.

⁸He guides the humble in doing right *and teaches his way to the lowly.

⁹All the paths of the Lord are love and faithfulness *to those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.

¹⁰For your Name’s sake, O Lord, *forgive my sin, for it is great.

¹¹Who are they who fear the Lord? *he will teach them the way that they should choose.

¹²They shall dwell in prosperity, *and their offspring shall inherit the land.

¹³The Lord is a friend to those who fear him *and will show them his covenant.

¹⁴My eyes are ever looking to the Lord, *for he shall pluck my feet out of the net.

Gospel

³⁷Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away; ³⁸for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. ³⁹And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. ⁴⁰This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day.” ⁴¹Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” ⁴²They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” ⁴³Jesus answered them, “Do not complain among yourselves. ⁴⁴No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day. ⁴⁵It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. ⁴⁶Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. ⁴⁷Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. ⁴⁸I am the bread of life. ⁴⁹Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. ⁵⁰This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. ⁵¹I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”