Frank Buchman
| Frank Buchman | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Franklin Nathaniel Daniel Buchman June 4, 1878 Pennsburg, Pennsylvania |
| Died |
August 7, 1961 Freudenstadt, West Germany |
| Nationality | American |
| Known for | Founding leader of the Oxford Group |
| Official name | Frank N.D. Buchman |
| Type | Roadside |
| Designated | October 19, 1991 |
| Location | 772 Main St. (PA 29) near 8th St., Pennsburg, across from church |
Franklin Nathaniel Daniel Buchman (June 4, 1878 – August 7, 1961), best known as Dr. or Rev. Frank Buchman, was a Protestant Christian evangelist who founded the Oxford Group (known as Moral Re-Armament from 1938 until 2001, and as Initiatives of Change since then). He was decorated by the French and German governments for his contributions to Franco-German reconciliation after World War II.
Frank Buchman was born in Pennsburg, Pennsylvania, United States, the son of a wholesale liquor salesman and restaurateur and a pious Lutheran mother. When he was sixteen he moved with his parents to Allentown. Buchman studied at Muhlenberg College and Mount Airy Seminary and was ordained a Lutheran minister in June 1902.
Buchman had hoped to be called to an important city church, but 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 (called a “hospice”) in Overbrook, along the lines of Friedrich von Bodelschwingh’s colony for the mentally ill in Bielefeld and inspired by Toynbee Hall. However, conflict developed with the hostel'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 Ministerium of Pennsylvania, 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. Still in turmoil over his hospice resignation, Buchman attended the 1908 Keswick Convention hoping to meet the renowned Quaker-influenced, Baptist evangelist F. B. Meyer (1847–1929) who he believed might be able to help him. Meyer was not there, but in a small half-empty chapel he listened to Jessie Penn-Lewis preach on the Cross of Christ, which led to a religious experience.
...
Wikipedia