Mission to America

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Rev Gwilym Davies’ conveyed the Welsh Churches Peace Appeal to from Cardiff to Detroit, Michigan in December 1925, to be presented at the US Congress of the ‘Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America‘. He kept a diary of his trip, and on return wrote up “A Welsh Approach to the Churches of America,” recounting the experiences of his voyage.

‘SS George Washington’, Southampton to New York

Wednesday 25th November to Thursday 3rd December 1925

“The choice of the George Washington was fortunate. It was in this ocean liner that [WW1 US President] Woodrow Wilson came to Europe to attend the Paris Peace Conference.” Gwilym Davies Diary

New York – Federal Council of Churches National Office

Thursday 3rd – Tuesday 8th December 1925

On his arrival, Gwilym Davies spent days either side of the weekend visiting the national offices of the Federal Council, whose Congress he would be addressing the next week.

New York to Detroit on the ’20th Century Limited’

Tuesday 8th – Wednesday 9th December 1925

Detroit – Churches of America Congress

Wednesday 9th – Friday 11th December 1925

Presentation of Wales’ Peace Appeal

Thursday 10th December 1925

Washington DC – US Congress and President Calvin Coolidge

Week of 14th – 20th December 1925

Christmas 1925

Week of 21st – 27th December 1925

Woodrow Wilson Dinner, New York

28th December 1925

Voyage home on ‘SS Orduna’, Royal Mail Line New York – Southampton

Wednesday 30th December 1925 – Thursday 7th January 1926

Gwilym’s voyage included participating in an onboard ‘Eisteddfod’ on the Friday, presumably marking New Year’s Day 1926.

The ‘Orduna’ was built in the shadow of Titanic and her 2 sisters at Belfast’s Harland & Wolff shipyards. As an interestingly aside, she seems to have had a particular association for Welsh travellers: “In 1923, the Orduna made her first Welsh speaking cruise from Liverpool to the Norwegian fjords. A chart of the voyage can be found in the Welsh National Museum at Cardiff.”