John Raleigh Mott (May 25, 1865 – January 31, 1955) was an evangelist and long-serving leader of the Young Men's Christian Association (

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams in London, originally ...

) and the

World Student Christian Federation The World Student Christian Federation (WSCF) is a federation of autonomous national Student Christian Movements (SCM) forming the youth and student arm of the global ecumenical movement. The Federation includes Orthodox, Protestant, Catholic, ...

(WSCF). He received the

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiolo ...

in 1946 for his work in establishing and strengthening international Protestant

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι� ...

student organizations that worked to promote peace. He shared the prize with

Emily Balch Emily Greene Balch (January 8, 1867 – January 9, 1961) was an American economics, economist, sociologist and Pacifism, pacifist. Balch combined an academic career at Wellesley College with a long-standing interest in social issues such as pov ...

. From 1895 until 1920 Mott was the General Secretary of the WSCF. Intimately involved in the formation of the

World Council of Churches The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a worldwide Christian inter-church organization founded in 1948 to work for the cause of ecumenism. Its full members today include the Assyrian Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, most ju ...

in 1948, that body elected him as a lifelong honorary President. He helped found the

in 1895, the

1910 World Missionary Conference The 1910 World Missionary Conference, or the Edinburgh Missionary Conference, was held on 14 to 23 June 1910. Some have seen it as both the culmination of nineteenth-century Protestant Christian missions and the formal beginning of the modern Prot ...

and the

in 1948. His best-known book, ''The Evangelization of the World in this Generation'', became a missionary slogan in the early 20th century.

Biography

Mott was born in Livingston Manor, New York,

Sullivan County, New York Sullivan County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 78,624. The county seat is Monticello. The county's name honors Major General John Sullivan, who was labeled at the time as a hero in the A ...

on May 25, 1865, and his family moved to Postville, Iowa in September of the same year. He attended

Upper Iowa University Upper Iowa University (UIU) is a private university in Fayette, Iowa. It enrolls around 6000 students and offers distance education programs that include 15 centers in the U.S., an online program, an independent study program, and centers in ...

, where he studied history and was an award-winning student debater. He transferred to

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

, where he received his

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to si ...

in 1888. He was influenced by

Arthur Tappan Pierson Arthur Tappan Pierson (March 6, 1837 – June 3, 1911) was an American Presbyterian pastor, Christian leader, missionary and writer who preached over 13,000 sermons, wrote over fifty books, and gave Bible lectures as part of a transatlanti ...

one of the forces behind the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions, which was founded in 1886. In 1910, Mott, an American Methodist layperson, presided at the

, which was an important milestone in the modern

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

missions movement and some say the modern

ecumenical movement Ecumenism (), also spelled oecumenism, is the concept and principle that Christians who belong to different Christian denominations should work together to develop closer relationships among their churches and promote Christian unity. The adjec ...

. Mott and a colleague were offered free passage on the ''

Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, Unite ...

'' in 1912 by a

White Star Line The White Star Line was a British shipping company. Founded out of the remains of a defunct packet company, it gradually rose up to become one of the most prominent shipping lines in the world, providing passenger and cargo services between ...

official who was interested in their work, but they declined and took the more humble liner the SS ''Lapland''. According to a biography by C. Howard Hopkins, upon hearing of the news in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, the two men looked at each other and remarked that, "The Good Lord must have more work for us to do." After touring Europe and promoting ecumenism, Mott traveled to Asia where, from October 1912 to May 1913, he held a series of 18 regional and national conferences, including in Ceylon, India, Burma, Malaya, China, Korea and Japan. He also worked with Robert Hallowell Gardiner III to maintain relations with the Russian Orthodox Church and Archbishop Tikhon after the Russian Revolution. From 1920 until 1928, Mott served as the WSCF Chairperson. For his labors in both missions and ecumenism, as well as for peace, some historians consider him to be "the most widely traveled and universally trusted Christian leader of his time".

Personal life and legacy

Mott married twice. His first wife was a teacher, Leila Ada White. They married in 1891 and had two sons and two daughters, including Irene Mott Bose, a social worker in India, and wife of Indian Supreme Court justice Vivian Bose; John Livingstone Mott, who received the Kaisar-i‐Hind silver medal in 1931, for his work with the

in India; and Frederick Dodge Mott, who worked in healthcare planning in Canada, and was Canada's representative to the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level o ...

. After Leila Mott died in 1952, Mott remarried in 1953, to Agnes Peter, a descendant of

Martha Custis Washington Martha Dandridge Custis Washington (June 21, 1731 — May 22, 1802) was the wife of George Washington, the first president of the United States. Although the title was not coined until after her death, Martha Washington served as the inaugural ...

. He died in 1955, in

Orlando, Florida Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures re ...

, aged 89 years. The papers of John R. Mott are held at the Yale Divinity School Library.

Veneration

In 2022, John Raleigh Mott was officially added to the Episcopal Church liturgical calendar with a feast day on 3 October. Mott's homestead, located adjacent to the Van Tran Flat Covered Bridge, is listed on the State and

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

. The high school of the

Postville Community School District Postville Community School District is a public school district headquartered in Postville, Iowa. It operates Cora B. Darling Elementary School, named after a teacher, and Postville Junior-Senior High School, also known as John R. Mott High S ...

in Postville, Iowa is named after him. - The link for Mot
goes to this page
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Writings

* The Evangelization of the World in This Generation (1900) * The Decisive Hour of Christian Missions (1910) *

(1920) * Cooperation and the World Mission (1935) * Methodists United for Action (1939) * The Larger Evangelism (1945)

References

External links

*
World Student Christian Federation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mott, John YMCA leaders 1865 births 1955 deaths Methodists from Iowa American Nobel laureates Cornell University alumni Nobel Peace Prize laureates People from Livingston Manor, New York People from Rockland, New York People of the World Council of Churches Anglican saints Upper Iowa University alumni People from Postville, Iowa American Methodist missionaries World Christianity scholars Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Burials at Washington National Cathedral

Biography

Personal life and legacy

Veneration

Writings

See also

References

Further reading

Primary sources

External links