OXFORD GROUP.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 134, 8 June 1936, Page 6

OXFORD GROUP.

HOW IT WORKS. AND WHAT IT STANDS FOR. What is tlie Oxford Group Movement? What are its aims and what are its achievements? These questions are being asked in all parts of the Dominion. The influence of the group has (spread in a remarkable manner. It began in 1!)21 in the rooms of an undergraduate at Christ Church College, Oxford. The undergraduate was Loudon Hamilton. Since its birth fifteen years ago the movement has steadily gained in strength, and supporters of the group are now to be found in more than fiftv countries. One of those supporters has compiled the following brief outline of the way in which the Oxford Group Movement works and what it stands for. You cannot belong to the Oxford Group. It lias 110 membership list, subscriptions, badge, rules or definite location. It is a name foi a group of people who, from every rank, profession and trade in many countries have surrendered their lives to God and who are endeavouring to lead a spiritual quality of life under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The Oxford Group is not a religion. It has no hierarchy, no temple, 110 endowments. Its workers have no salaries and no plans but God's plan. Every country is their country, every man their brother. They are Holy Crusaders in modern dress wearing spiritual armour. Their aim is a new world order for Christ the King. The Oxford Group is often confused in the minds of strangers with the Oxford Movement. The group, which by accident rather than by design, uses Oxford as the nominal centre for its activities in England, is a campaign for the renaissance of the practice among men of the truths of simple Christianity. The Oxford Movement is a Catholic renaissance within the Church of England. Fundamental Basis. The Oxford Group works within Churches of all denominations, planning to bring those outside back into the folds and to reawaken those within to their responsibilities as Christians. It advocates nothing that is not the fundamental basis of all Christian Faith and takes no side in sectarian disputes. It seeks to enable men and women to use their beliefs to their best advantage for themselves and for the world in general. This means living as near as possible, by God's help, to the life He mapped out for each individual. When we diverge from His plan for us we can, by surrendering our lives to Him, get back to that plan again, and, by our Christian endeavours, to live as parallel as possible to Christ's life on earth and with God's guidance to show us the best way to do that, we can continue on that plan and bring it to fruition. Sharing. Sharing of sins as practised by the Oxford Group is sharing in the ordinary sense of the word. In plain language, it is telling or talking over our sins with another whose life has already been surrendered to God, or, if we have already surrendered, assisting others to surrender openly—as we are guided—laying our past sins or present temptations alongside theirs so that they may be able better to recognise and bring to light those sins which have stood between them and God. Surrender means giving all you know of yourself to as much, as you know of God. Surrender to God is our actual passing from a life of sin to a life God-guided and Christconscious. In other words, it is the giving up of our old ineffective spiritual lives and taking on life of spiritual activity in everything we think, do or "say. By making complete restitution for wrongs done to others, by ensuring that all debts are paid and by ending nil wrong associations a changed life renounces entirely all the faults of its spiritual past.

Anything that comes between God and you, or between you and your neighbour, is sin. Write down these four standards: Absolute honesty, absolute purity, absolute unselfishness, and absolute love, and check by them. Remember, to think a tiling is as sinful as to do it. Absolute love is the motive power for absolute honesty, purity and unselfishness. We can have none of these qualities in the .absolute without absolute love. If we have absolute love for God, we have all those qualities for the world. The House Party. The name of "the house party" has held because it best describes the atmosphere of these gatherings which, in their general setting, more, closely resemble a secular house party than the usual religious conference or convention. They vary *11 size from a few people, in a private residence or hotel, to thousands. When we surrender to Jesus Christ it is merely the acknowledgment that He who bought us with a price owns us and all that He has entrusted to us. A surrendered life means a life in which every possession of whatever kind is held in trust to be administered under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The principle of stewardship is the answer to the two materialistic philosophies abroad to-day. Jesus Christ believed in team work. He gathered a small .group about Him and set the example for all His followers in this respect. A united front made up of varied personalities presenting a single message carries conviction where one individual may not appeal. The Oxford Group believes that only by putting into action its standards of absolute honesty, absolute purity, absolute unselfishness and absolute love can an answer be found to the problems confronting the world. It claims that it is tackling the world's problems at the root of the disease.