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Service of Thanksgiving and Dedication

01 January 1989

In his address, Bishop Wheeler spoke of meeting Frank Buchman, the initiator of Moral Re-Armament, in Oxford in the 1930s. `And, God forgive me, I did not take to the man,' he said. `Looking back, I think this must have been my loss... I began to see things in a different light when I read of the extraordinary achievement of postwar reconciliation brought about by his establishment and labours in the Mountain House at Caux in Switzerland.

The Rt Rev Gordon Wheeler, Bishop Emeritus of Leeds; the Rev Dr Donald Gray, Canon of Westminster and Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons; Bernard Weatherill, MP, Speaker of the House of Commons, and Cardinal Franz Konig of Vienna, standing outside St Margaret's Church, Westminster, before the service of thanksgiving and dedication.

In his address, Bishop Wheeler spoke of meeting Frank Buchman, the initiator of Moral Re-Armament, in Oxford in the 1930s. `And, God forgive me, I did not take to the man,' he said. `Looking back, I think this must have been my loss... I began to see things in a different light when I read of the extraordinary achievement of postwar reconciliation brought about by his establishment and labours in the Mountain House at Caux in Switzerland. Assuredly the hand of God was there and the guidance of His Spirit clearly continues.'

Meditating on Buchman's call -`we can, we must, and we will generate a moral and spiritual force that is powerful enough to remake the world'the Bishop said, `participation in the remaking of the world must always begin with a personal renewal, a turning to God... Absolute honesty, absolute purity, absolute unselfishness, absolute love must surely, and without question, be the programme to be pursued by anyone who takes up his or her cross to be a genuine follower of Christ. This will surely be achieved only rarely in its fullness. But with the constant help of God it is achievable for anyone, as we know from the lives of all the saints.'

The Bishop commented that he saw `a wonderful enrichment of the original movement itself', and concluded with a challenge: `Surely we need to do something special for our poor Western world (naturally rich, spiritually deprived) which has drifted so far from its Christian origins.'

Prayers of intercession were led by Prof Robert Craig, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland 1986 - 87; Bernard Weatherill, MP, read the first lesson; and Canon Donald Gray delivered the blessing.