The Making of Peace: From Brick Church Pulpit to Global Stage

Rev. William Pierson Merrill was a prominent Presbyterian minister and public advocate for peace in the early 20th century. He served as pastor of the Brick Presbyterian Church in New York City and was known for his preaching and leadership. On May 18, 1914, he delivered a sermon titled The Making of Peace at Brick Church, in which he posed the question, “How can we make peace?” Merrill presented answers from the perspectives of the militarist, statesman, and Christian. He rejected the militarist’s reliance on force, stating that he would not “keep a tiger chained in my yard” to feel safe. He supported the statesman’s call for arbitration and international law, and most strongly endorsed the Christian ideal of peace through brotherhood and the breaking down of racial and national barriers. He concluded with a vision of the United States taking down its fences and choosing to assume the naturalness of peace rather than the inevitability of war.

In February 1914, Andrew Carnegie established the Church Peace Union (CPU), endowing it with $2 million in five percent bonds. The CPU’s purpose was to unite religious leaders across denominations to promote peace, moral leadership, and alternatives to armed conflict. Suggestions for its activities included international exchanges between clergymen, peace conferences, and the distribution of peace literature and sermons. On the executive committee of the CPU was Dr. Charles E. Jefferson, and the trustees included Rev. William Merrill, who was elected as the first vice president. Shortly after Merrill delivered The Making of Peace, Carnegie’s wife Louise and daughter Margaret joined Brick Church, and Merrill was appointed the first president of the CPU.

The Church Peace Union’s first international event was scheduled for August 2–5, 1914, on Lake Constance at the border of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Delegates were already traveling to the conference when World War I began. On August 4, Germany mobilized its forces, and American and British delegates in Germany had to evacuate. They hired a private train car, endured extreme heat, and were warned by German police not to open windows for fear of bombs. They regrouped in London to continue their discussions and respond to the new reality of war. Although Andrew Carnegie died shortly after the war ended, his wife Louise Whitfield Carnegie continued to support the CPU and remained close to Rev. Merrill and his successor at Brick Church, Rev. Austin Wolfe.

The Constance Convention of 1914