Birth of a Society
On October 16, 1974, some sixteen enthusiastic readers of C. S. Lewis met in the Conference Room of the Hollywood Presbyterian Church to inaugurate the Southern California C. S. Lewis Society. Led by Brother Peter Ford, they drafted a charter, and the Society was born.
It was conceived, however, during the Lewis workshop at St. Andrew's Priory, Valyermo, California, July 8-14, 1974. Called "A Week with C. S. Lewis," this first annual workshop was led by Ford and Gary Oliver. Those attending it found the experience so valuable that they wanted more opportunities to talk together about Lewis. Thus was engendered the idea for a society. And thus the group, made up mostly of those from the July workshop, came to meet on October 16.
Besides drafting a charter, they heard Bro. Peter speak on Lewis's sermon "The Weight of Glory" in a way that made it clear that the Southern California C. S. Lewis Society was not to be a literary fan club. One charter member recalls, "The atmosphere throughout was warm, enthusiastic—everyone seemed delighted with our first gathering together." At the second meeting, November 20, 1974, the charter was signed. Since then, the Society has met once a month, eight months a year (omitting June, July, August and December ), growing in numbers and stature and, we trust, in favor with God and man.
Our Weight of Glory
When the Society was founded in October, 1974, Bro. Peter Ford, O.S.B., of St. Andrew's Priory, gave the Inaugural Address on "The Weight of Glory." Lewis delivered the sermon in the Church of St. Mary the Virgin in Oxford on June 8, 1941. Bro. Ford began by speculating that the Scripture text that might have been read at that service was 2 Cor. 11:17, or perhaps Gal. 6:2.
But Lewis's unique contribution in his sermon was the juxtaposition of the one with the other, of "this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison" (RSV) with "bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ" (RSV). Lewis's original insight of the evening was that we must bear one another's burden or weight of glory.
In his opening, Bro. Ford used Eric Routley's (NYCSL Society, Bulletin Jan. 1973) and Clifford Morris's (Portland CSL Society, Chronicle Nov. 1973) accounts of the sermon. He went on to rehearse what others had also noticed: the marvelous rhetoric, the reverence for Scripture and obedience to its guidance, the reference to the incantation process of modern skepticism which itself must be broken by the spell Lewis weaves.
One of Lewis's fears, Bro. Peter also reminded his audience, one which assisted Lewis's exit from the church, was of the bribery of immortality, hence the disquisition on "the promise of reward" in paragraphs 2, 3, and 11. It was only after his conversion to Christianity (a few years after, in fact) that he came to believe again in heaven.
Lewis argues so tellingly with the modern doubter because at one time he was such himself. But the key contribution Lewis makes in the sermon is contained in the 15th and final paragraph. There he comes to the practical use for all these exalted and exalting considerations about the life of the world to cone: "It may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter; it is hardly possible for him to think too often o' too deeply about that of his neighbor."
"Our love of C. S. Lewis," Bro. Peter concluded, "our gratitude for the clarity he has brought to many difficult Christian truths, our joy over his enchanting stories—all of this can, if we are not careful, turn to mere aesthetic pleasure, commanding the applause and even the 'bravos' of the audience but leaving them essentially unchanged.
"That is why we run the danger of degenerating into a fan club (something over which Lewis would have waxed indignant) if we don't incorporate into our Charter our willingness to act upon what we have heard, hence the phrase 'conscious that, as Lewis says, "There are no ordinary people." God brings no two people together, let alone sixteen, by chance; it is His providence that has called this Lewis Society together. Let us try so to treat one another here in these meetings as possible gods and goddesses that this attitude will percolate back into our daily lives. Otherwise it isn't worth the effort to inaugurate a Lewis Society."