A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism,Christian view religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus and interpreted by Christians to have been prophesied in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament....
movement which rose to prominence in Europe and America in the 1920s and 30s. It was initiated by Dr. Frank Buchman. Buchman was an American Lutheran minister of Swiss descent who in 1908 had a conversion experience in a chapel in Keswick, England Keswick, Cumbria
Keswick is a market town within the district of Allerdale, Cumbria, England. With a population of 4,281, according to the 2001 census, it is situated just north of Derwent Water, and a short distance from Bassenthwaite Lake, both in the Lake District National Park....
. As a result of that experience he initiated a movement called A First Century Christian Fellowship in 1921, and by 1931 this had grown into a movement which was attracting thousands of adherents, and became known as the Oxford Group.Buchman made the cover of Time Magazine as "cultist Frank Buchman -God is a Millionaire" in 1936.
The Oxford Group achieved popularity for a time but it was a minority voice in America and left little permanent mark on society. It was a religious movement that was in reaction to the mainstream churches that emphasisized liberal and social gospels. The liberal Christian churches considered social systematic problems. The Oxford Group focus was on personal concerns and placed the entire problem of human existence on personal sinfulness, that individual sin was the key problem and the entire solution was in the individual's conviction, confession, and surrender to God. The Group revived the older 19th century approach, the focus was on sin and conversion, it practiced a form of ethical and religious perfectionism that was reduced to a call for a renewed morality
Buchman, who had little intellecual interest or interest in theology, believed all change happens from the individual outward, and stressed simplicity. He summed up the Group's philosophy in a few sentences: all people are sinners , all sinners can be changed, confession is a prerequest to change, the change can access god directly, miracles are again possible, the change must change others.
By the 1930s the Group had fallen into public disfavor, the public associated it with revitalist Protestantism which many mainstream Protestants and most Roman Catholics rejected. It began to be ridiculed in in popular plays and books.
In 1938, a time of military re-armament, Buchman proclaimed a need for "moral and spiritual re-armament" and that phrase - shortened to Moral Re-Armament - became the movement's name. Protest grew towards the group grew after it underwent the name change and its style became less religious and more political. It fell from favor and lost respect. The group later became identified with anti communism stance during the Cold War.
The group lack of interest in theology made it easy for persons of different beliefs to work together. The group did not oppose specific doctrines of the Church, the group's anti-intellectual stance allowed "Groupers" to simply consider theology a waste of time for the changed person..
By the 1950's the Group was banned by the Catholic Church . Ildefonso Cardinal Schuster, Archbishop of Milan, stated that the Moral Rearmament Movement endangered both Catholics and non-Catholics, He called the movement dangerous for non-Catholics because it presents a "form of religion cut in half and suggestive, morality without dogma, without the principle of authority, without a supremely revealed faith —in a word, an arbitrary religion, and therefore, one full of errors." The Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano stated that secular and regular clergy were forbidden to attend any meeting of Moral Re-Armament and that lay Catholics were forbidden to serve it in any responsible capacity.."In a report concerning MRA by the Social and Industrial Council of the Church of England Church of England
The Church of England is the State religion Christianity Ecclesia in England, the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the oldest among the communion's thirty-eight independent national and regional churches....
criticized M.R.A. on three counts: theology, psychology and social thinking. Theology it finds woefully wanting in M.R.A. "A certain blindness to the duty of thinking is a characteristic . . . We have at times been haunted by a picture of the movement, with its hectic heartiness, its mass gaiety and its reiterated slogans, as a colossal drive of escapism from . . . responsible living."." It did receive some support from members of the churches, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cosmo LangCosmo Lang
Cosmo Gordon Lang, 1st Baron Lang of Lambeth , was a bishop in the Church of England. He was the Archbishop of York and, later, Archbishop of Canterbury ....
, in summing up a discussion of the Oxford Groups with his Diocesan Bishops, said 'there is a gift here of which the church is manifestly in need'. Two years later William Temple, Archbishop of York, paid tribute to the Oxford Groups which 'are being used to demonstrate the power of God to change lives and give to personal witness its place in true discipleship.'
God control
In various speeches given by Frank Buchman the Group's purpose were detailed :
The Oxford Group seeks to be living Christianity. It builds on the accomplished work of Jesus Christ as set forth in the New Testament. Its aim is to bring to life and make real for each person the articles of faith with which his own Church provides him.
The international problems are, at bottom, personal problems of selfishness and fear. Lives must be changed if problems are to be solved. Peace in the world can only spring from peace in the hearts of men. A dynamic experience of God’s free spirit is the answer to regional antagonism, economic depression, racial conflict and international strife.
The secret is God control. The only sane people in an insane world are those controlled by God. God-controlled personalities make God-controlled nationalities. This is the aim of the Oxford Group. The true patriot gives his life to bring his nation under God's control. Those people who oppose that control are public enemies.... World peace will only come through nations which have achieved God-control. And everybody can listen to God. You can. I can. Everybody can have a part.
There are those who feel that internationalism is not enough. Nationalism can unite a nation. Supernationalism can unite a world. God-controlled supernationalism seems to be the only sure foundation for world peace!"
I challenge Denmark to be a miracle among the nations, her national policy dictated by God, her national defense the respect and gratitude of her neighbors, her national armament an army of life-changers. Denmark can demonstrate to the nations that spiritual power is the first force in the world. The true patriot gives his life to bring about his country's resurrection."
The name
The name "Oxford Group" originated in South Africa
The Republic of South Africa, also known by Official names of South Africa, is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa....
in 1929, as a result of a railway porter writing the name on the windows of those compartments reserved by a travelling team of Frank Buchman followers. They were from Oxford and in South Africa to promote the movement. The South African press picked up on the name and it stuck.It stuck because many of the campaigns of the Oxford Group were undergirded by Oxford University students and staff. And every year between 1930 and 1937 house-parties were held at the University. In the summer of 1933,for instance, 5,000 guests turned up for some part of an event which filled six colleges and lasted seventeen days. Almost 1,000 were clergy, including twelve bishops.
In 1937, £500 was left to the Oxford Group in a legacy, but there was no legal body of that name. The Oxford Group applied for incorporation, The Oxford Union passed a resolution condemning Dr. Buchman's proposal, the proposal was debated both in Oxford and in the House of Commons as opponents claimed Buchman was trying to capitalize on the name of Oxford. 232 Members of Parliament signed a petition supporting the incorporation, while 50 signed a motion opposing it. In June 1939 the Board of Trade decided in the Group’s favour.
Unrelated to the Oxford Movement
International impact
The Oxford Group conducted campaigns in many European countries. In 1934 a team of 30 visited Norway at the invitation of Carl Hambro, President of the Norwegian Parliament. 14,000 people crammed into three meetings in one of Oslo's largest halls, and there were countless other meetings across the country. At the end of that year the Oslo daily Tidens Tegn commented in its Christmas number, 'A handful of foreigners who neither knew our language, nor understood our ways and customs, came to the country. A few days later the whole country was talking about God, and two months after the thirty foreigners arrived, the mental outlook of the whole country has definitely changed.' On 22 April 1945 Bishop Fjellbu, Bishop of Trondheim, preached in the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields, London. 'I wish to state publicly,' he said, 'that the foundations of the united resistance of Norwegian Churchmen to Nazism were laid by the Oxford Group's work.'
In 1935 a team of 250 people were welcomed to Switzerland by the President, Rudolf Minger. 'A vast number of meetings took place. On one night in Geneva, Calvin's cathedral and one of the city's largest hall both overflowed. 'For many, these meetings were a turning point in their lives,' wrote Theophil Spoerri, Professor of French and Italian Literature at Zurich University. 'It was almost as if something new was penetrating between the chink of the shutters. A businessman, alone in his office, would feel a faint sense of unease if he was planning to cheat his fellow citizens. The public conscience became more sensitive. The Director of Finance in one canton reported that after the national day of thanksgiving and repentance, 6,000 tax payments were recorded, something which had never occurred before.'
While in Geneva Prime Minister Eduard Beneš of Czechoslovakia invited Buchman and his colleagues to address a luncheon at the League of Nations, attended by 32 of the League's Ministers Plenipotentiary. They listened to Hambro's account of the Oxford Group's impact in Norway. 'No man who has been in touch with the Group will go back to his international work in the same spirit as before,' he told them. 'It has been made impossible for him to be ruled by hate or prejudice.'
Similar stories can be told of campaigns in Denmark, where the Primate of Denmark, Bishop Fuglsang-Damgaard, Bishop of Copenhagen, said that the Oxford Group 'has opened my eyes to that gift of God which is called Christian fellowship, and which I have experienced in this Group to which I now belong.' When the Nazis invaded Denmark, Bishop Fuglsang-Damgaard was sent to a concentration camp. Before imprisonment he smuggled a message to Buchman saying that through the Oxford Group he had found a spirit which the Nazis could not break and that he went without fear.
In 1937 Buchman visited the Netherlands. 100,000 people attended gatherings in Utrecht over Whitsun that year. 'The greatest surprise was the appearance of Dr J Patijn, our Ambassador in Brussels,' reported the Socialist paper 'Het Volk'. 'Only those who know him as Burgomaster of The Hague, a sound but unapproachable man and averse to any public show, will be able to appreciate fully what it must have cost him to speak about his inmost self before many thousands. "It is not for everyone," he said, "to speak in public about his faith, and it is not easy for me to do so. Every man, however, must have the courage of his convictions.. Through the Oxford Group I have learnt to see my fellow men, the world and my whole life in a new perspective".'
There was also much activity in America. In 1936 5,000 people attended an Assembly entitled 'America Awake' in Massachusetts. The New York Times carried a column about the Assembly every day for almost two weeks.
Not a religion
The Oxford Group literature defines the group as not being a religion, for it had "no hierarchy, no temples, no endowments, its workers no salaries, no plans but God's plan." Their chief aim was "A new world order for ChristChrist
Christ is the English language term for the Greek meaning "the anointing", which is a title given to the Reigning Messiah in the given age of the Zodiac....
, the King." In fact one could not belong to the Oxford group for it had no membership list, badges, or definite location. It was simply a group of people from all walks of life who have surrendered their life to GodGod
God is a deity in theism and deism religions and other belief systems, representing either the sole deity in monotheism, or a principal deity in polytheism....
. Their endeavor was to lead a spiritual life under God's Guidance and their purpose was to carry their message so others could do the same.
The group was more like a religious revolution, unhampered by institutional ties, it combined social activities with religion, it had no organized board of officers. The Group declared itself to be not an "organizationOrganization
An organization is a social arrangement which pursues collective goals, which controls its own performance, and which has a boundary separating it from its environment....
" but an "organism
In biology, an organism is any life thing . In at least some form, all organisms are capable of response to stimulus , reproduction, growth and developmental biology, and maintenance of homeostasis as a stable whole....
". Though Frank Buchman was the group's founder and leader, group members believed their true leader to be the Holy spiritHoly Spirit
In Christianity, the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit is the spirit of God. The term Christ , is also used to refer to this presence. That is, the Spirit is considered to act in concert with and share an essential nature with God the Father and God the Son ....
and relied on God Control, meaning guidance received from God by those people who had fully "surrendered" to God's will. By working within all the churches, regardless of denomination, they drew new members. A newspaper account in 1933 described it as "personal evangelism -- one man talking to another or one woman discussing her problems with another woman was the order of the day". In 1936, Good Housekeeping described the Group having no membership, no dues, no paid leaders, no new theological creed, nor regular meetings, it is simply a fellowship of people who desire to follow a way of life, a determination not a denominationDenomination
Denomination may refer to:*Religious denomination, such as a:**Christian denomination**Jewish denomination**Islamic denomination**Hindu denominations...
.
The Four Absolutes
Moral standards of absolute honestyHonesty
Honesty is the human quality of communicating and acting truthfully, in accordance with a sense of fairness and sincerity. This includes all varieties of communication, both verbal and non-verbal....
, absolute purityPurity
Purity is the absence of impurity in a substance.Purity may also refer to:* in Buddhism, Purity in Buddhism refers to a spiritual purity of character or essence....
, absolute unselfishness, and absolute loveLove
Love is any of a number of emotions and experiences related to a sense of strong affection and attachment . The word wikt:en:love can refer to a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes, ranging from generic pleasure to intense interpersonal attraction....
, though recognized as impossible to attain, were guidelines to help determine whether a course of action was directed by God. In Oxford terms sin: "anything that kept one from God or one another", "as contagious as any bodily disease". "The soul needs cleaning "... We all know ‘nice’ sinless sinners who need that surgical spiritual operation as keenly as the most miserable sinner of us all.. Buchman obtained use of the four absolutes through his teacher Robert E Speer and his book "the Principles of Jesus".
Spiritual practices
To be spiritually reborn, the Oxford Group advocated four practices: 1. The sharing of our sins and temptations with another Christian life given to God. 2. Surrender our life past, present and future, into God's keeping and direction. 3. Restitution to all whom we have wronged directly or indirectly. 4. Listening for God's guidance, and carrying it out.
Guidance
The central practice to the Oxford/MRA members was guidance, which was usually sought in the "quiet time" of early morning using pen and paper. The grouper would normally read the Bible or other spiritual literature, then take time in quiet with pen and paper, seeking God's direction for the day ahead, trying to find God's perspective on whatever issues were on the listener's mind. He or she would test their thoughts against the standards of absolute honesty, purity, unselfishness and love, and normally check with a colleague.
Guidance was also sought collectively from groupers when they formed teams. They would take time in quiet, each individual writing his or her sense of God's direction on the matter in question. They would then check with each other, seeking consensus on the action to take.
Some church leaders criticised this practice, for example Rt. Rev. M. J. Browne, Bishop of Galloway wrote: "Groupists actually speak of "listening -in" to the Holy Ghost: whenever they run up against a difficulty they stop for guidance. Such an idea of God is crudely anthropomorphic, derogatory to God's honour, and contrary to natural moralityNatural morality
Natural morality is a form of morality that is based on how humans evolved rather than a morality imposed by Norm or religious dogma.Charles Darwins theory of evolution is central to the acceptance of a natural morality....
."
Buchman would share the thoughts which he felt were guided by God, but whether others pursued those thoughts were up to them. He sent one member of the group a wire sharing his thought that the member should bring John D. Rockefeller III to New York to have a chat with Queen Marie of Rumania. The member wired back that this might be Frank Buchman's guidance but it was not his. When some of Buchman's followers booked a second-class passage, he told them rather sharply that he had been guided that they should change to first class to form more significant contacts.
Oxford theologian, Dr B H Streeter, stated that , throughout the ages, men and women have sought God's will in quiet and listening. The Oxford Group, he wrote, was following a long tradition.
Sometimes groupers were banal in their descriptions of guidance. The cook for a large Oxford group gathering told reporters that the menu was planned by God, another individual at a group gathering, who despite being a proud Englishmen, was guided by God to completely surrender his national pride, and hoist the Stars and StripesFlag of the United States
The flag of the United States consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the Flag terminology bearing fifty small, white, Star s arranged in nine offset horizontal rows of six stars alternating with rows of five stars....
.
However, The Oxford Group books and publications gave examples can be given of groupers discovering creative initiatives through times of quiet seeking God's direction. ,
Sharing
In the Oxford Group, sharing was considered a necessity, it allowed one to be healed, therefore it was also a blessing to share.Sharing not only brought relief but honest sharing of sin and of victory over sin helped others to openness about themselves. Sharing built trust. The sharing of our sins and temptations with another Christian life given to God, and to use Sharing as witness, to help others, still unchanged, to recognize and acknowledge their sins. The message one brings to others by speaking of one's own experiences, the power of God in guiding one's life would bring hope to others that a spiritually changed life gives strength to overcome life’s difficulties.
Some regarded this approach with cynicism. Time magazine wrote: The first public confessionConfession
The confession of one's sins is a religious practice important to many faiths, e.g., Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy....
can be stirring, but the tenth is likely to strike one as the same old thing And the fatal suspicion arises that confessions are made not through humility but to persuade. They sound a little too much coached, perfected to the point where they seem artificial...
Beverley NicholsBeverley Nichols
John Beverley Nichols , was an author, playwright, journalist, composer, and public speaker....
stated "And all that business about telling one's sins in public.... It is spiritual nudism!" Margaret Rawlings, an actress, stood up at a 2000 member Group gathering and said, "this public exposure of the soul, this psychic exhibitionismExhibitionism
Exhibitionism, known variously as flashing, apodysophilia and Lady Godiva syndrome, is the psychological need and pattern of behavior involving the exposure of parts of the body to another person with a tendency toward an extravagant, usually at least partially sexually inspired behavior to attract the attention of another...
, with its natural accompaniment of sensual satisfaction', was 'as shocking, indecent and indelicate as it would be if a man took all his clothes off in Piccadilly CircusPiccadilly Circus
Piccadilly Circus is a famous junction and public space of London's West End of London in the City of Westminster,built in 1819 to connect Regent Street with the major shopping street of Piccadilly....
".The act of Public Confessions, brought criticism from outsiders who believed the Group had an undue interest in sex.
Queen Marieof Rumania stated "I have met Buchman. I did not like him. He spoke of God as if He were the oldest title in the Almanach de GothaAlmanach de Gotha
The Almanach de Gotha was a respected directory of Europe's highest nobility and Royal family. First published by Justus Perthes in 1763 at the duke court of Frederick III, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, it was regarded as an authority in the classification of monarchies, ducal houses, families of former ruler...
. And all that business about telling one's sins in public -- He wanted me ... me ... to get up before my children and confess everything I had ever done! Ça se ne fait pas."
However Cuthbert Bardsley, who worked with Buchman for some years and later became Bishop of Coventry, said, 'I never came across public confession in house parties - or very, very rarely. Frank tried to prevent it - and was very annoyed if people ever trespassed beyond the bounds of decency.' Buchman's biographer, Garth Lean, a supporter of Buchman and promoter of the group, wrote that he attended meetings from 1932 on 'and cannot recall hearing any unwise public confessions.'
Five C's and Five Procedures
The five C's: confidence, confession, conviction, conversion, and continuance was the process of life changing undertaken by the life changer. Confidence, the new person had to have confidence in you and know you would keep confidences. Confession, honesty about the real state of a persons life. Conviction, the seriousness of his sin and the need to free of it. Conversion, the process had to be the persons own free will in the decision to surrender to God. Continuance, you were responsible as a life changer to help the new person become all that God wanted him to be. Only God could change a person and the work of the life changer had to be done under God's direction.
Funding
Though it was claimed by members that the Oxford group did not solicit funding, others have observed that the Oxford Group/MRA did in fact solicit funding from members.
In 1933, Alan Thornhill, Fellow and Chaplain of Hertford College, Oxford, wrote in response to questions about the Oxford Group’s financing:
"The Oxford Group never asks for funds either by private or public appeal. The mythical millionaires who are supposed to finance the work do not exist and never have existed. The gifts received are given by friends who know that those gifts will be wisely spent in God’s service. Where members of the Oxford Group undertake any corporate activity, scrupulously careful accounts are kept. These are fully supervised, and open to anyone’s inspection. At the recent house party, at which some 5,000 people were present, the average inclusive cost to each individual was under 10 shillings a day. The Group has no paid secretaries. All the business arrangements for this house party were carried out by a team of young people, mostly undergraduates. The charge of extravagance is ill founded. And this is true also of the travelling team. Overseas teams, which include the elderly as well as the young, travel either third class or tourist third in Atlantic liners. Those who hld it against the Groups that the teams sometimes stay in large hotels have not thought the matter out as a business proposition. These hotels not only make drastic cuts in their prices for a large party, but also provide, free of charge, private sitting rooms and large halls for big public meetings. Those who give up safe jobs or precious vacations to go on such travelling teams do so always without salary and without security of any kind."
A. J. Russell in his book For Sinners Only stated Frank Buchman solicited help in written correspondence:
"One of the stiffest letters Frank permitted himself to write was to some persons who were refusing to support him in a certain courageous action for the help of someone in need. Frank said their refusal to extend the help where greatly needed might involve them in a crop of cares they did not foresee at the moment. But it was a friendly warning, nevertheless, free from pique and resentment. Never does Frank mince matters where his correspondents show blindness or compromise. If the man is living an undisciplined life, he tells him so in plain words. Fearless dealing with sin all the time. Honesty demands it. Spiritual growth is impossible without it.
Fifty or sixty letters a day are nothing to Frank. ...
