Noted Woman to Speak in Auckland

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 323, 7 April 1928, Page 16

Noted Woman to Speak in Auckland

Fv'liss Maude Royden

AN EMINENT LECTURER Miss Maude Royden, one of the wo?*ld r s most eminent lecturers, is to address Auckland audiences on May 23 and 24, on subjects that will be announced later. She is the British Maude Royden of cigarette and “cultivated Evangelist” fame, head of the London Guildhouse. and is touring the ' world for the purpose of seeking knowledge. THE daughter of a wealthy Lancashire man, Sir Thomas Royden, director of the Cunard Line, brought up to luxury and a full and happy family life, she has had the courage to step out of her surroundings and her whole intellectual background, and to make for herself a background of her own. Suffering all her Jife from the physical difficulty of lameness, she never gives the impression of a human being whose suffering has conquered herself. She does give a strong impression of one to whom the incidents of life, its beauty, pain and happiness, are all parts of a great whole, which in part at least, she understands.

Educated first at Cheltenham and then at Lady Margueret Hall, Oxford, she has had the best that England can offer. From Oxford she went directly to the slums of Liverpool as a member of the University Settlement. The strain on her health being too great, she looked round for another field of work and found it in a curious spot. The Rev. Hudson Shaw, now Rector of a large church in the City of London, offered her the opportunity of working as a kind of curate in what was then his cure, a tiny village backwater in the smallest county of England. FIGHTING FOR SUFFRAGE

This quiet life came to an end when at last it was felt that ' this active, eager mind, this woman with first-rate scholarship, a lovely voice and wonderful teaching capacity, ought to go out to other work. 'Her chance came as an Extension lecturer for Oxford, though not without a struggle was this appointment made. In three' years Maude Royden was one of the most popular speakers in England, and but for the struggle over women’s suffrage, she might have been lecturer .for Oxford still. When the struggle for suffrage began, Maude Royden used her influence in the cause. She edited, too, the “Common Cause,” which has had so great an influence on suffrage work in general. With the granting of a measure of franchise, Maude Roydsn might have gone to the House of Commons, but she refused* because at last she felt that her services and her faith could best be used as a Christian worker in the Christian ministry. FELLOWSHIP OF SERVICE The last development of her work has been in the founding with others of the Fellowship of Service and its establishment at the Guildhouse, in London. The Fellowship has as its basis the belief that service and not gain lies at the root of happiness and all beauty. Miss. Royden preaches on all kinds of subjects. She sometimes takes what is topical, a grave industrial crisis, a national catastrophe, a decision of the League of Nations, but sometimes she turns to religion and its deeper meaning. Religion to her is a matter of all life, and not of theology or ritual only. Those who have heard her speak say that she is an evangelist whose appeal is as much to intelligence as to the emotions.

According to report, she is not a bit worried because the Boston and Chicago women’s home missionary societies objected to her smoking and to her rumoured stand in favour of companionate marriages. Nor does she mind that other American women’s organisations retracted invitations because they feared that the Englishwoman might be too hoydenish. She frankly admits that she does not think religious bodies should x concern themselves with such trifles as cigarettes, and she insists that God has neither the time nor the inclination to worry about them. Maude Royden refutes the accusations that were made against her in America of upholding companionate marriage, by declaring that she is opposed to anything but permanent monogamy. A STAR DANCED She seldom uses theatrical gestures, has a sensitive face, quiet manner and is alert. Sl\e is now 51 years old. and on the occasion of her 50th birthday a charming scroll, bearing the legend: “Shakespeare said, a Star Danced and Under that she was Born,” signed by Margaret Ashton, Lady As tor, Margaret Bondfield, Dame Clara Butt, Dame Millicent Fawcett. Sybil Thorndike, and Mrs. Wintringham, was presented to her, showing the esteem which she has inspired in very different types of women. Pages have been written in the Press and by separate writers on her gifts and her experience. The famous “Gentleman with a Duster” writes a very sympathetic sketch in “Painted Windows,” and he says, among other things: “Miss Royden’s memoirs, if they are ever written, would have, I think, the unusual merit of pleasing both saints and sinners—the saints by the depth and beauty of her spiritual experiences; the sinners by her freedom from every shade of cant and by her strong, almost masculine sympathy with the difficulties of our human nature. One may affirm of Miss Royden that she is at once a true woman and great man.” TO WELCOME HER When Maude Royden arrives here it is anticipated that she will receive a great welcome, for all kinds of arrangements are being made in her honour. A welcome committee is being set up. consisting of clergy and their wives, with one or two representatives from each of the different local organisations, according to the size and membership of each body. Any church or society which desires representation and has not already nominated representatives is requested to apply as early as possible to Miss Alice Basten, 304 Victoria Arcade, city. This welcome committee will meet at the Y.W.C.A. at 2 p.m. on April 18. when it will be definitely decided what form of representative welcome shall be extended to Miss Royden.