The Oxford Group was a Christian organization founded by American Lutheran minister Frank Buchman in 1921, originally under the name First Century Christian Fellowship. Buchman believed that fear and selfishness were the root of all problems. He also believed that the solution to living without fear and selfishness was to "surrender one's life over to God's plan". It featured surrender to Jesus Christ by sharing with others how lives had been changed in the pursuit of four moral absolutes: honesty, purity, unselfishness, and love. Buchman said that he had a spiritual experience at a chapel in Keswick, Cumbria, England, when he attended a decisive sermon by Jessie Penn-Lewis in the course of the 1908 Keswick Convention. He resigned a part-time post at Hartford Seminary in 1921 to found a movement called the Moral Re-Armament (MRA) movement. By 1928, the Fellowship had come to be known as The Oxford Group or Oxford Groups. The Oxford Group enjoyed wide popularity and success in the 1930s. In 1932, Archbishop of Canterbury Cosmo Lang said, "There is a gift here of which the church is manifestly in need." Buchman encouraged participants in his group to continue as members of their own churches. Two years later, Archbishop of York William Temple paid tribute to The Oxford Groups "which are being used to demonstrate the power of God to change lives and give to personal witness its place in true discipleship". As a Protestant movement, it was criticized by some Roman Catholic authorities, yet praised by others. The tenets and practices of an American Oxford Group greatly influenced the steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. Ebby Thacher’s sobriety led to Bill Wilson's victory over alcoholism. Wilson's efforts to carry the "spiritual solution" of the Group to suffering alcoholics led to Dr. Bob’s sobriety in 1935. Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob shortly after founded Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). In 1938, Buchman proclaimed a need for "moral re-armament" and that expression became the Oxford Groups movement's new name. Buchman headed the Moral Re-Armament for 23 years until his retirement in 1961. In 2001 the movement was renamed Initiatives of Change.
Frank Buchman
Frank Buchman, originally a Lutheran, was deeply influenced by the Higher Life movement whose strongest contribution to evangelism in Britain was the Keswick Convention. Buchman had studied at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania and at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia and was ordained a Lutheran minister in June 1902. Having hoped to be called to an important city church, he accepted a call to Overbrook, a growing Philadelphia suburb, which did not yet have a Lutheran church building. He arranged the rental of an old storefront for worship space, and lived upstairs. After a visit to Europe, he decided to establish a hostel for mentally disabled in Overbrook, along the lines of Friedrich von Bodelschwingh’s colony for the mentally ill in Bielefeld, Germany, and inspired by Toynbee Hall charitable institution in East London. Conflict developed with the hospice's board. In Buchman's recollection the dispute was due to the board's "unwillingness" to fund the hospice adequately. However, the Finance Committee of the Lutheran church body of Pennsylvania, aka Pennsylvania Ministerium, which oversaw the budget, had no funds with which to make up an ongoing deficit and wanted the hospice to be self-supporting. Buchman resigned. Exhausted and depressed, Buchman took his doctor's advice of a long holiday abroad, and this is how, still in turmoil over his resignation, Buchman attended the Keswick Convention in 1908, hoping to meet pastor F. B. Meyer, one of the leading lights of the Keswick Convention and one of the main advocates of Quiet Time as a means to be "inspired by God". F. B. Meyer was not present, and Frank Buchman chose to attend the sermon by Jessie Penn-Lewis instead, which became "a life-changing experience" for him
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