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4 February 1884—13 September 1977

Episcopal Peacemaker

When the United States entered World War I in 1917, pacifists were generally loathed. They were ostracized socially, persecuted legally, and either forcibly inducted into the military or imprisoned. In both barracks and jail, they were frequently brutalized. As one Mennonite inductee recalled, “We were cursed, beaten, kicked, and compelled to go through exercises to the extent that a few were unconscious for some minutes.”

It took a brave person to object publicly to the treatment of pacifists. John Nevin Sayre, Episcopal priest, pacifist, missionary, teacher, and author, was one such person. He protested directly to Woodrow Wilson, describing in chilling detail the abuse that was going on and challenging the president to do something about it. Thanks to his efforts, Wilson agreed to the recognition of conscientious objection as a legal alternative to military service.

A native of Pennsylvania, Sayre came from an economically privileged background, attending all the right schools and meeting all the right people, and after his ordination it was expected that he would rise to prominence in the church hierarchy. But after serving as a missionary teacher in China for a couple of years, he came to the conclusion that his true calling was preaching the message of Christ’s peace. Following his defense of pacifists during World War I, he joined the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), working as editor, administrator, and public lecturer. He also cofounded and taught at Brookwood Labor College, an institute aimed at educating blue collar workers in order to strengthen labor unions. So far as Sayre was concerned, a great deal of the world’s violence was caused by economic injustice. He considered his work with Brookwood an extension of his pacifism.

In the years leading up to World War II, Sayre traveled around the world in the interests of peace. He toured Germany in 1921 as a FOR representative, speaking widely and collecting data on the destructiveness of war. In 1927 he traveled on horseback throughout Nicaragua, hoping to broker a peace agreement between Augusto Sandino, the guerilla leader resisting American military occupation of his country, and the United States government. Sayre never met Sandino, but his presence saved several Nicaraguan villages from bombardment at the hands of U.S. forces. During the 1930s he spoke widely on behalf of European Jews. In 1939 he helped found the Episcopal Peace Fellowship. Following the war, he traveled to a number of countries to urge the commutation of soldiers convicted of war crimes. Before ill health slowed him down, he was a frequent presence at rallies against the Vietnam War.

Two years after his death, Sayre’s devotion to peace was honored by the Episcopal Peace Fellowship’s establishment of the John Nevin Sayre Award, given every three years to a peacemaker who carries on his tradition of Christian pacifism.