Oxford Group

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 237, 7 October 1938, Page 2

Oxford Group

GREAT HOUSE PARTY IN SWITZERLAND LONDON, Sept. 8. Two trains from London carried GOO members of the Oxford Group for the assembly at Interlaken, Switzerland, wither they were preceded a week ago by Dr. Frank Buchman, the leader, and presented in the Interlaken gathering, 250 members. Some 45 nations are rewith altogether about 5000 members. In his inaugural address Dr. Buchman said that a just and lasting peace in the world could only be achieved by creating such a spirit throughout Europe that nations, even in times of decisive decisions, would be guided by qualities over and above those of human wisdom, which had so often failed. To do this was to bridge a seemingly impossible and humanly hopeless situation. It meant giving satisfaction and security to all, and a sense of justice that would enable each to see, not only his own difficulties, but the difficulties of others as well. Such qualities must range above party, class, and faction, and above nations. To drive away tho clouds which were hanging over the whole of Europe it was, said Dr. Buchman, necessary to reach a whole new level of thinking, willing, and living. The aim of the Oxford Group ever since the war had been to give a new pattern for statesmanship and a new level of responsible thinking. But this could only be given to those who were living under God’s guidance, and whose spirit had been changed by daily contact with and obedience to God. Lesson of History. The particular genius of the Group, which had made it effective in so many countries, was that it went to the root of the problem—the need for a change of heart. A wave of absolute unselfishness throughout tho nations would be the end of war. Moral re-armament was a reality, and under it every nation would find its own prestige maintained because of the new responsibilities it would undertake. The Oxford Group had set itself the difficult task of trying to liquidate the cost of bitterness and fear, which mounted daily. The odds were seemingly against it, but in the past, history showed that nations had been delivered by one man. Nothing, then, was impossible to a group of people operating in every nation and giving a new level of thinking to all. j Such, a group might well prove that man’s extremity was God’s opportunity. They could, and they would, generate a moral and spiritual force ml was powerful enough to remake the world.