GREAT BRITAIN: Return of the Prophet

The Buchmanites were excited. “Dr. Buchman’s return is naturally something we are worked up about,”explained one, frantically dusting the Oxford Group’s headquarters in Berkeley Square. The old “Soul Surgeon”—who looks like Gandhi fully clothed and well fed on the very best melted butter—was back after seven years.

Tom Driberg, cocky Daily Express columnist (pen name: William Hickey) and leftist M.P., was excited too. Buchman, he protested in the House of Commons, was nothing but a “soapy racketeer who never repudiated his admiration for Hitler and Himmler.” Before the war his MRA (Moral Re-Armament) had been surrounded by an odor other than that of sanctity. Buchman’s preoccupation with “key men” was believed to have made Hitler desirable in his eyes.

Yet, despite the dither. Britain provided enough rich, impressionable old ladies and idealistic young men to keep the movement going. In Hays Mews an office was always open where troubled souls could learn the trick of “two-way radio chats” with God.

Last week a group of the faithful were rapturously on hand to greet Founder Buchman as he landed to “cure . . . Britain’s and the world’s ills.” Tired and feeble at 67, surrounded by a company of 105 disciples, the Founder’s principal armament was a trunkful of plays “that answer the headlines.” With these he plans to tour the provinces for several months, then settle down in the Group’s newly purchased £165,000 Westminster Theater.

Asked where the money for this and other ventures came from, Buchman’s well-dressed followers answered: “Where God guides, the Lord provides.”