Plymouth Magazine-Fall26-DIGITAL - Flipbook - Page 22
The Plymouth Church Story
Stoddard Lane
“We agree to differ, we resolve to love, we unite to serve”
The Rev. Stoddard Lane began his ministry
at Plymouth in 1929, navigating the
church through the Great Depression,
the beginning of World War II, racial
inequality, and rising questions of the place
of the church in a changing political and
economic landscape. Lane is credited with
proposing the Plymouth motto:
Rev. Stoddard Lane
“”
We agree to differ.
We resolve to love.
We unite to serve.
An ambulance driver in Europe during
World War I and exposed to the horrors
of war, Lane became a lifelong pacifist,
preaching his conviction with courage
even as the United States
entered World War II.
He initiated many progressive ideas
at Plymouth, such as changing the
constitution to include one or more
women on the Board of Trustees. He
established the Board of Religious
Education and helped to organize a
Plymouth Youth Choir.
One of Lane’s most significant missions
was nurturing interfaith education
and friendship. He frequently invited
church leaders to the Plymouth pulpit,
including a Catholic priest, a Jewish
rabbi, a Presbyterian minister, and a
Black Baptist minister.
Rabbi Eugene Mannheimer of Temple
B’nai Jeshurun was a close friend and
colleague. The two worked together with
the National Conference of Christians
and Jews, an organization founded in
1927 to address rising antisemitism and
anti-Catholicism in America.
In the late 1930s and early 1940s, the
two men were joined by a Catholic
priest, Father Robert A. Walsh of
Dowling Academy, to form what was
playfully known as the Des Moines
Brotherhood Trio or the Goodwill
Team. The three religious leaders
barnstormed the state going to small
town school gyms or other venues to
promote religious tolerance, confronting
prejudice with humor and civility.
Lane was dedicated to fostering racial
equality and encouraged connections
between Black congregations and
Plymouth. Fellowship services were held
with the Corinthian Baptist Church,
Estella Hitchcock Lane
Stained glass installed above the west entrance to the Sanctuary with Plymouth’s motto.
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