letter from the
EDITOR
100 years of Methodist Scouting In 1920, 8,000 Scouts from 34 nations attended the first World Scout Jamboree in London. During this 10-day summer gather, Baden Powell, the founder of Scouting, was acclaimed the “Chief Scout of the World.”
REV. RICH PECK Editor
I would guess that some of the 8,000 Scouts and leaders attending the July 30 to Aug. 8 event were from Methodist churches in the U.S. We know there were Scout troops in Delaware, Ohio; Brentwood Tenn.; Park Ridge, Ill., and Mt. Vernon, N.Y. Doubtless there were hundreds of other troops meeting in Methodist churches across the U.S. A few months earlier, James West, the chief executive of the Boy Scouts of America, had signed an agreement with James Thompson, superintendent of Young People’s Sunday School of the Methodist Church, formalizing the relationship between the church and the scouting organization. There is no record, but I’m guessing the two Jims hooked up in London It is likely that our 2020 attention on COVID-19 and events in the denomination have distracted us from observing the 100-year anniversary in any significant manner. Scouting, as almost all other activities, has changed in the past few months, but we hope this issue of the UM Men magazine will allow us to celebrate this remarkable 100-year relationship. It is evident that Scouting would not have had any prominent place in this denomination without the support of Methodist and United Methodist Men.
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