|
Friends United Meeting |
 |
July 1998
Home and Haven
This tribute to Clyde Johnson is reprinted by permission from Class Chronicles of Earlham College, Summer 1997. Clyde is a recorded minister in Indiana Yearly Meeting and a member of Richmond First Friends.
Hospitality and Grace by Clyde Johnson
Sooner or later most Earlham students hear about the white frame house at 215 College Avenue, Richmond, Indiana. Though owned by the genial, soft-spoken man who lives there, the place, it seems, belongs to everybody. It's Ichthys House-a library, sanctuary, study retreat, place of worship, snack bar, and almost everything else anybody would want in a home away from home.
Quaker minister Clyde Johnson's various residences in Richmond evolved into Ichthys House which he envisioned as a haven for comfort, conversation, and conviviality for Earlham and Earlham School of Religion students and townspeople. The place continues to live up to that dream.
Ichthys House, as Johnson explains, "is a ministry of a home of hospitality and welcome. It has a Christian intention, and it is welcoming to everybody as a person, meaning we forget about labels."
Located across the street from the Earlham School of Religion, the House is open to visitors whenever house residents are home and up and about. Each evening at 9:30 p.m. the place quiets down for a half hour's silent worship in the Quaker style. The event usually finds between four and a dozen people gathered in Johnson's spacious living room, and the occasional dog that someone has brought along.
Periodically, Ichthys House hosts a "Day of Solitude" when the whole house is quiet. Even the phone is unplugged. Students take advantage of the tranquillity for study or napping, prayer and meditation. And, of course, the kitchen with its well-stocked refrigerator and the freshly baked bread is always available to visitors.
With all that stillness don't get the idea that Ichthys House is a mini monastery. "The house has some very lively nights, especially when we have community dinners," says Johnson. "All kinds of people drop in and the conversation can get pretty spirited."
A number of celebrities visiting Earlham have also dropped in on the fellowship at Ichthys, among them writer Madeleine L'Engle and classical guitarist Christopher Parkening. Other guests have included not a few noted religious writers, activists, and theologians. Those would include Henri Nouwen, Philip Berrigan, Mary Cosby, and Douglas and Dorothy Steere. The house has also hosted visitors from the Taizé and Bruderhof communities.
Johnson says, "I try to avoid taking public stands on hot-button issuesnot that I don't have strong opinions about some thingsso as to keep Ichthys a safe place for people of diverse backgrounds and convictions."
What Johnson is doing now is a long way from his original plans for his life. After graduating from Indiana University he became a Certified Public Accountant and started a professional career in Chicago, then moved to his native Indianapolis. Although he achieved the highest score in Indiana on his CPA exam (and the third highest in the nation), he began to consider that he was really cut out for other thingsthat God was calling him into other vocations.
In 1960 Johnson drove to Richmond to attend a weekend session of the Yokefellow Institute, D. Elton Trueblood's newly created Christian study and retreat center. "That retreat was the continental divide in my life," Johnson said. Months later, Johnson was asked to join the Yokefellow staff and he moved to Richmond.
Over the next 30 years, Johnson maintained an ebbing and flowing accounting career while he worked for such Quakerly organizations as Yokefellow, Friends United Meeting, and Friends World Committee, as well as business and professional organizations in Richmond.
The idea for opening Ichthys House was born in 1966 when Johnson heard an address by Christian leader John Oliver Nelson [during the triennial sessions of Friends United Meeting]. Nelson pointed out the need "for places of concern, acceptance...relaxation, worship, and quiet study."
For 33 of his 36 years in Richmond, Johnson has lived near the intersection of College Avenue and National Road West. Students have always found his home a place to hang out. For a while in the 1960s Johnson and students had meals and nightly worship together and also taught Sunday School at Richmond State Hospital.
In 1973, Johnson moved to 229 College Avenue to an apartment which he officially named Ichthys House. In September 1976, nightly worship began at the house (with very few nights missed since then)at the suggestion of an ESR student, and this led to the more formal Ichthys House ministry.
In 1982, Johnson moved to his present, and larger, home at 215 College Avenue. The house continues to be a magnet for people. Among other contacts with Earlham, the house serves as a meeting place for campus groups such as Earlham Christian Fellowship and Earlham Young Friends.
His contributions to Earlham earned Johnson the surprise of his life in September 1996. He was called one evening to ESR to attend a "a small reception for Madeleine L'Engle," and arrived to find a throng of people awaiting and the place set up for a banquet.
"Everyone knows why we're here tonight except one, and that one is Clyde Johnson," professor of Religion Tom Mullen told the crowd, revealing to the shocked Johnson that he was not merely a guest but the guest of honor.
The particular honor was the presentation of the Board of Earlham Trustee's Distinguished Service Award to Johnson. "I was overwhelmed," he recalls. "I still think it was a case of mistaken identity, but I was so immensely grateful."
Johnson's constant hope for Ichthys House is that it remain a place where people can be listened to. "There is a powerful hunger in people to be heard. Not that they are expecting others to give them answers or advice; they just crave the chance to be listened to while they speak their hearts."
Ichthys House regulars tend, after graduation, to become Ichthys House alums, and they keep in touch with Johnson.
"Hardly a day goes by that I don't get letters or phone calls or visits from people who feel the house and the fellowship meant something important to them," Johnson says.
The letters often include family and baby photographs. Quite a few Ichthysites, it appears, met their future spouses at house gatherings, and Johnson allows that he has attended or performed quite a few weddings around the country. Johnson is the designated godfather to a number of children of Ichthys couples around the world.
Johnson gazes off and chuckles, "I have quite a large extended family. That is one of the many great blessings for me in this ministry."
Hospitality and Grace
By Clyde Johnson
Significant in the ministry of Ichthys House is the name itself. "Ichthys" is the Greek word for fish, and it is the word formed from the initial letters in Greek of the affirmation: "Jesus Christ, God's Son, Savior." The fish was adopted by the early church as a central identifying symbol, and has remained through the centuries a symbol of Christian faith and hospitality. The Ichthys House ministry, since its beginnings in the 1960s, has been unapologetically Christian in its base and inspiration. The Ichthys Houses themselves have been answers to prayers and have been intentionally dedicated to the Lord; and His living, loving presence is daily invited. The special prayer of the House is Ephesians 3:14-21.
It is interesting to remember how much of Jesus' ministry took place in homes, as in those of Jairus, Peter, Mary and Martha and Lazarus. Paul, in his letter to his Christian sisters and brothers in Rome, calls them to "practice hospitality," as one way to share the love of Christ. We believe hospitality is especially the call of Christ for Ichthys House. As in the monastic Rule of St. Benedict, we seek to welcome all guests as Christ.
Among the resources of the House is a very large library. Books have
been special friends for me since my father started taking me to the library
when I was in the second grade. Authors whose writings have especially
touched my life include Henri Nouwen, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, C.S. Lewis,
William Barclay, Helmut Thielicke, Elizabeth O'Connor, Gerald May, Thomas
Keating, Madeleine L'Engle, Frederick Buechner, and, of course, Quakers
John Punshon, Elton Trueblood, Douglas Steere, Richard Foster, Howard
Macy and Thomas Kelly. A very major book in my life is Oswald Chambers'
My Utmost for His Highest, which I've read almost daily since Keith Miller
(another favorite author) gave me a copy 36 years ago.
back to top
Copyright (c) 1998 Friends United Meeting
Return to July/August 1998 Contents page