"It Works"

The Canadian Department of National Revenue received $12 in "conscience money" last week. Changed (converted), someone had been guided by God to make restitution. A small thing, this was only one of the many tangible results of a recent Canadian tour by the Oxford Groups, or First Century Christian Fellowship, of Rev. Dr. Frank Nathan Daniel Buchman. In Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, there had been quiet times, testimonials, sharing, guidance, luminous thoughts. Dr. Buchman lunched with Canada's pious Premier Richard Bedford Bennett. The Groups were welcomed to Montreal by Anglican Bishop John Cragg Farthing. In Toronto a minister of the United Church of Canada, Rev. Dr. James Little, was so changed that for the first time in 20 years he was able to pray successfully. A Toronto businessman and his wife joined in, soon changed their chauffeur.

To the U. S. religious world "Buchmanism," as it has conveniently been termed, is no new thing. Its beliefs and methods are well known, particularly in New York, Asheville, N. C. and Louisville, Ky., where successful meetings and house parties have been held (TIME, June 8, 1931, et seq.). Evangelizing by personal talks in friendly settings, the Groups do no preaching, emphasize personal guidance by God, confession of private sin.

Last week, Dr. Buchman and his 59 Group workers were well started on a great U. S. push. It had begun with a meeting in Manhattan's Waldorf-Astoria, a luncheon to the Press, a ten-day house party at Briarcliff Manor. To anyone who recalled how that stalwart Presbyterian John Grier Hibben drove Buchmanism off the Princeton campus in disgrace for over-zealous proselytizing in 1926, the extraordinary eminence of the Waldorf meeting's sponsors would have been a surprise. On the reception committee were not only such conservative and ultra-socialite names as Mr. & Mrs. Frederic William Rhinelander, Mr. & Mrs. Herbert Livingston Satterlee and Mr. & Mrs. William Fellowes Morgan, but also the most orthodox churchmen such as Bishop William T. Manning, John R. Mott, Princeton's Joseph Ross Stevenson. To be sure some of the namees were themselves surprised.

Absent from New York, Bishop Francis John McConnell had not given explicit permission to use his name, but he voiced no complaint. Later Rev. Dr. Cleland Boyd McAfee (Presbyterian missions) wrote the Groups that he had been listed "by mistake." Nevertheless, the array of sponsors showed that what was once "Buchmanism" and is now The Groups has at last found wide favor in high places.

Born 55 years ago in a Pennsylvania Dutch distilling family at Pennsburg, Frank Buchman studied at Muhlenberg College and Mt. Airy Seminary. Ordained a Lutheran Pastor, he founded at Overbrook, Pa. the first hospice in the U. S. for poor Lutheran boys. A difference with the trustees caused him to resign in bitterness and go abroad. To a religious meeting in Keswick, England in 1908 Dr. Buchman ascribes his first change, a heart-warming experience like the one John Wesley suddenly felt in 1738. Dr. Buchman at once wrote six letters of apology to the trustees. Next year he went to Pennsylvania State College, to be Y. M. C. A. secretary for six years. Thereafter, a sharp-eyed, sharp-nosed, well-tailored modern Wesley, he roamed the, world building up a practicable technique of personal evangelism. Frank Buchman has never married, "because I have never been guided to. . . ." Since the Group movement began to take form, he has held no official or salaried position, has never lacked for food, clothing or lodging.

Criticism of the Groups has become routine, centering chiefly in two aspects of their work. Many a theologian objects to the absence of thought-content in it. Typical is the criticism of Yale Divine Halford Edward Luccock in the current World Tomorrow: ": . . Superficial . . . a conception of a deity almost completely absorbed in sending down hourly directions to his favorites. . . ." Also, it is objected that the Groups work exclusively among the rich. At Briarcliff last fortnight it was observed that they paid much attention to Curtis B. Dall, the President-elect's son-in-law, who began showing a perfunctory interest last spring. But it was embarrassing to find that Rev. Warren Badenock Straton, son of the late loud fundamentalist, had also got in, and announced his conversion to the newspapers.

To such criticism, however, a strong case was made by Vice President Bernard M. Hallward of the Montreal Star, who was changed during the tour: "If there's any class in the world that needs a mission, it's the dinner jacket class, the up and outs. Moreover, as employers of labor, their influence spreads."

And to all objections there is another answer. Outsiders see a distinct possibility of the widespread revival for which the Groups work. They admit, in many cases grudgingly, what the Groups have repeatedly demonstrated: "It works."

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