THE OXFORD GROUP

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22777, 10 July 1937, Page 25

THE OXFORD GROUP

OVERSEAS LEAGUE ADDRESS POWER OF FELLOWSHIP An address on the Oxford Group Movement was given to members of the Overseas League yesterday afternoon by Mrs. W. F. Bull, wife of the Canadian Trade Commissioner. Mrs. F. Bauer was in the chair. The hostess was Mrs. E. L. Burton, and guests of honour wero Mrs. Newland Fletcher (England) and Mrs. F. J. Carter ' (Taranaki), who were presented with bouquets. The league rooms,, where the function was helfl, had been attractively decorated with bluo and green hydrangeas, brightly-tinted poppies and ferns. "The keynote of the Overseas League is fellowship," Mrs. Bull said, "and that of the Oxford Group is also a fellowship which unites the nations of the world." Many people to-day were selfsatisfied and complacent, and hence powerless in the face of strife. To many, Christianity represented a wonderful idea, rather than a way of life, but if put into practice it would solve all the problems of to-day. The Oxford Group stood for the four principles, absolute honesty, aboslute purity, absolute unselfishness and absolute love. The spirit of- unselfish cooperation and of giving .rather than getting was the only way in which peace could be attained. Peoplo who harboured fear, hatred, greed or resentment, the speaker said, wero keeping alive the root causes of war. It was no use working for peace while something within ourselves was antagonistic toward it. Members of the Oxford Group movement felt that in the process of measuring oneself according to its principles it was a good thing to sharo one's life with some other person whom one trusted implicitly. In this way only could wo really get to know ourselves. Spiritual force was the saving power in the world to-day, the speaker concluded, and everyone was able to contribute toward it.