My Faith My Life:A Place for Episcopal Teens and Their Mentors

Photo by Lotte Jacobi (1896-1990)

Margaret Mead was the author of twenty-three books during the course of her career. Though others have questioned her cultural determinism and some of the conclusions that she drew from her data, Margaret Mead was nonetheless was a pioneer in the study of the effects of cultural conditioning and cultural change. She was also an outspoken commentator on many issues of the twentieth century, including sexual ethics, women's rights, child rearing, nuclear prolif­eration, race relations, drug abuse, and world hunger. She was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1979—the highest civilian honor in the United States.

Margaret Mead held a variety of teaching and research posi­tions over her career, but was best known for her long association with the American Museum of Natural History. Her contributions to science were honored—she was elected to the presidency of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Mead made many field trips to Oceania, and is perhaps best known for her studies of peoples there. Mead and her third husband, Gregory Bateson, had one daughter, Mary Catherine Bateson.

What is less well-known about Margaret Mead is that she was a devout Anglo-Catholic, regular churchgoer, and religious leader on a variety of church committees and organizations. Though Mead's parents were agnostic, a friendship she had with a clergy­man's daughter resulted in Margaret's baptism a few days before her eleventh birthday. The decision was not popular with Margaret's parents, who had no idea "how to deal with a child who insisted on fasting during Lent."² Margaret Mead was drawn to the Episcopal Church through its ritual, which she believed was what she needed to counterbalance the cognitive faith of her mother. "What I wanted was a form of religion that gave expression to an already existing faith."³ Margaret Mead was baptized, first married, and ultimately buried at Trinity Church, Buckingham, Pennsylvania. She later advised, "Agnostic parents who wish their children to share in the wholeness of the human experience, including religious experience, should find ways of helping them...."⁴

It has been suggested that one the reasons Margaret Mead made little comment on her faith, though it and the Episcopal Church were very important to her, was due to her three divorces. Though she did not feel sinful about her divorces, she did not feel it was appropriate to publicize them, either. When she was asked to rep­resent the Episcopal Church on the Committee for Assembly for the World Council of Churches, she did not agree until she was sure the committee knew she had been divorced.⁵

Margaret Mead was also a member of the Subcommittee for the Revision of the Book of Common Prayer. A faithful member of the committee, Mead was also effective; she could see religion as both a conservative force, as well as a force for change.⁶ She was con­servative about language and ritual, and appreciated the King James Bible, yet she saw the church more in terms of its social mission than as a mystic. Margaret Mead originally opposed the ordination of women to the priesthood, however, she later believed that "men have so damaged the priesthood that women are needed to repair it."⁷

In her many years on Episcopal and ecumenical committees she rarely missed a chance to worship. For her the church and the sacra­ments were a glimpse into the transcendent. She was not overly fond of preaching, largely because of the congregation's inability to respond.⁸ Margaret Mead was active in local parishes in New York City, St. Luke-in-the-Fields and St. Matthew's and St. Timothy's, in particular. She attended the parish of St. Mary the Virgin, New York City, whenever it was possible on Good Friday.

Notes
1. A few of the sources on Margaret Mead that detail her religious life are the following: Jane Howard, Margaret Mead: A Life (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1948); Rhoda Metraux, Margaret Mead: Some Personal Views (New York: Walker and Company, 1979); James B. Simpson, "To Cherish the Life of the World": Margaret Mead, The Liv­ing Church (August 22, 1999): 10.
2. Howard, Margaret Mead, 31-32; 35.
3. Ibid, 32.
4. Metraux, Margaret Mead, 111.
5. Howard, 342-43.
6. Howard, 347-48.
7. Howard, 353; Simpson; To Cherish the Life of the World, 10.
8. Howard, 343, 353.