Dear YMCA Family:
A combined inauguration of President Obama and celebration of Martin Luther King Day has made this week tremendously reflective. Today, we pause for reflection on the witness, the work, the life and the struggle for justice of Martin Luther King, Jr. Through the historic Butler Street YMCA in Atlanta and generations of members, professional leaders and volunteers, the YMCA movement has a special connection to Dr. King. I love the past YMCA poster that exclaimed, “Once Martin Luther King was just a kid at the Y!”
Dr. King and his circle knew the character, history, hospitality and reach of the YMCA. He also knew the larger story of the YMCA and its struggles to be all it promised to be and for all who knew it in their communities. He challenged then and would challenge now the efforts of the Y to be all it should be…to live up to its promise to be a place in which the hospitality of his “beloved community” is known and experienced. He knew that America and her institutions like the YMCA had to change in order to realize the promise of the American dream.
In a complex and increasingly diverse America, the YMCA is still called to change itself for the better. We are likewise called to continue to commit ourselves to be an agent for change in the lives of all we touch. In this work, we are compelled by faith and history, as well as experience and conviction to affirm what we know to be true – we are called at our best to do the work we are created to complete.
Jesus teaches us that we will find the right “spirit” in our work when we: Preach good news to the poor; Proclaim release to the captives; Seek recovery of sight to the blind; and Set at liberty those who are oppressed.
When we study these texts we learn that of course, we are all in some way poor, captive, blind and oppressed. The reversal of these conditions and the realization of our full and blessed potential as individuals depend on the unified development of our physical, intellectual, and physical personalities. This has been and must remain the work of the YMCA as it touches the lives of men and women, boys and girls in the times in which we serve.
This is the kind of work Dr. King would have been proud to see in the YMCA he knew as a kid. It is the promise of this kind of YMCA in which we will find significance and relevance in the 21st century.