To Stop the Weeping:
The Prophetic Lives of Davie and Joy Napier
by Paul M.. Minus and Anne Napier Caffery
(Claremont, CA: Regina Books, 2010).
As the Napier Center for Creative Change and the Napier Awards for Creative Leadership program emerge from distant shadows to soon-to-be-visible reality at Pilgrim Place, more questions are arising for newer residents and friends of Pilgrim Place who did not know Joy and Davie Napier. Who were they that so many people across the country whose lives they touched have banded together to raise funds to memorialize them at Pilgrim Place? Why has a program to foster leadership for social change among college and seminary students been linked to building renovation–in a retirement community, of all places?
A small book fresh off the press by Pilgrim Place resident Paul Minus and Anne Caffery, daughter of Davie and Joy Napier, will help enormously to answer these questions. Paul Minus has immersed himself in papers and documents assembled by the family, located others in archives, and interviewed key persons across the country to construct a narrative of the lives of Davie and Joy that can help us all understand better these two vibrant partners in a remarkable life of Christian service. Anne Caffrey has added insights from the perspective of her life in the family. Throughout a ministry Davie and Joy shared, where Davie was engaged in seminary and undergraduate teaching and chaplaincy at Alfred University,Yale University and Divinity School, University of Georgia at Athens, and Stanford University, presided as Master of a Yale undergraduate residential college, and served as President of Pacific School of Religion, a major mission of their lives was “to stop the weeping.” Davie found in the Hebrew Bible, especially the prophets, and the life and teaching of Jesus a compelling message about the oneness of the human family and God’s call to justice which he worked passionately to connect to contemporary life through exuberant preaching and teaching, so that the “weeping” from racial injustice, war, poverty, and environmental destruction could be stemmed. Joy brought to their partnership in justice-work her community involvement, her wide reading and study, and her skilled wordsmithing. Both had extraordinary gifts of hospitality, keeping perpetual open house for students, colleagues, and friends, where the message of God’s love was enacted in life-changing ways. Music, art, poetry, drama, and wit enlivened their work.
The energetic “transformative spirit” of the Napiers, their generous hospitality, and their loving skill in mentoring students are a legacy which Pilgrim Place today embraces. Read this beautifully written little book with pleasure to envision freshly what the Napier Center and the Napier Awards program might mean for Pilgrim Place.
- Jane Douglass
