OXFORD GROUP.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 56, 7 March 1934, Page 11

OXFORD GROUP.

MOVEMENT FOR YOUTH

CRITICAL ENGLISH CLERIC

CONTROVERSY IN N.S.W. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, March 1. Most people nowadays have heard something about the Oxford group movement, and many who have considered it seriously arc quite prepared fo believe that a religious revival which puts in the forefront of its creed such ideals as purity, honesty, unselfishness and love should possess immense potentialities for pood. When it was learned that some of the leading members in the movement were to visit Sydney, what may lie termed the religious section of the community looked forward with a. sense of pleasurable anticipation to personal contact with ono of the most impressive spiritual phenomena of the day. Perhaps, unfortunately, the more optimistic received something' of a shock when they read in the "Sydney Morning Herald" a statement by an Oxford cleric and theologian, to the effect that he had not been favourably impressed by the Oxford group movement, and that in his opinion "it has done more harm than good." The Rev. L. B. Cross, who is responsible for this opinion, is chaplain of Jesus College, Oxford, and vice-president of Ripon Hall. Oxford, lie lias come to Australia in the. course of a world tour, and ho evidently holds uncompromising views about Mr. Frank Buchman and those who have imitated or followed him. And though not all people will attach much importance to Mr. Cross' objection to the new movement as "divorced from any form of institutional religion or historical Christianity," there is obviously a certain amount of truth in his criticisms. Sort of Revivalism. Mr. Cross • reminds us, opportunely enough, that the Buchmanite group is American in origin, and that it has only a sort of accidental connection with Oxford. Moreover, it is undoubtedly true that the new movement is a sort of "revivalism," which has adopted some of tho methods popularised by the Salvation Army and by such "missionaries" as Moody and Sankev. Indeed, 'the Buchmanites have displayed quite cosmopolitan taste in their choice of method—adopting from the Methodists their "class meeting" with its personal admission and discussion of sin, from the Roman Catholic Church a modified form of confession, and from mystics of all schools the faith in the "inner voice," the inspiration which may seem at times the voice of God speaking through the lips of man. In spite of the rather acrid comments offered by the Kev. L. B. Goss—notably liis needless reference to "American boost"—there is a good deal of truth in liis remarks. A more dispassionate review of the movement was provided last week for the readers of the "Sunday Sun" by Bishop Moyer, of Armidale. Young Men and Women. The Bishop quoted at some length the criticism of the movement offered last year by the Bishop of Durham (Dr. Hensley Henson), who, while fully appreciating the sincerity and moral fervour of the Buchmanites, ventured to suggest that the movement prevents certain obvious defects and weaknesses. It is the work of young men and women, and therefore liable to be crude and superficial, and lacking in the wisdom that comes only with experience. It has no intellectual basis and on its emotional side it is liable to some defects and failures. But when all this has been said neither Bishop Henson nor Bishop Moyes would deny that a movement which inculcates purity in heart and life, charity to all men, and unselfishness even to the extremity of self-sacrifice is a very noteworthy and inspiring contribution to the spiritual experiences of the age. It still remains to be seen whether the Group movement is rooted deeply enough in the "eternal verities" of the moral and spiritual universe to live down its weaknesses and to endure.