Meanwhile, Signe’s parents were concerned for her. They had recently attended an Oxford Group meeting in Norway and bought a book there with the dubious title For Sinners Only. They found it fascinating and challenging and had a feeling that Signe would want to read it. She immediately read it from cover to cover and remembered later how ”This book really commanded my attention. It felt as though this was what I had been looking for all my life and I wanted to know more about the Oxford Group and the lifestyle that it told about!” She heard they were due to hold a conference in Visby on the Swedish island of Gotland. She managed to get an invitation and booked a ticket on the ferry to Visby, a ruined Hanseatic City situated in the Baltic Sea which can only be reached by boat or plane. But she booked a single room at the conference as she was a little cautious of sharing a room and getting too involved in something she might regret!
The visit to Visby was to become a turning point in Signe’s life in more ways than one. Arriving at Visby she was intrigued and apprehensive and yet eager to discover more about this man Buchman whose ideas were attracting people of all ages and backgrounds.
Buchman was deeply concerned that the world was once more on the brink of war. Large Nazi rallies were being held in Europe but also in North America. Arthur’s recent Gestapo experience at the Nazi Rally in Nuremberg had made the urgency of the situation obvious to him too and he joined Buchman at Visby to provide reports from the conference to the international press.
The scars from World War I had obviously not healed. The major European powers were engaged in an armaments race giving a clear sense that things were far from resolved in Germany, France and England. Buchman felt that spiritual and moral re-armament was what was needed most – not military re-armament and it was this that led to a series of conferences across Europe in an attempt to avert another war from breaking out. Thousands of people had attended meetings in Norway, Denmark and Britain and in 1938 they converged on Visby for a conference with a focus on the countries of the Baltic rim. These smaller European nations were still hurting from the last war and feelings could easily be ignited.
The conference was held in a huge, ruined cathedral, with no roof. Birds flew in and out but as the weather was perfect the ruins made a dramatic setting for the conference. A young Finnish soldier spoke about how he had suffered under Sweden’s occupation of Finland and how he had sworn never to speak Swedish again. Sweden had taken over administration of Finland. School had to be taught in both Swedish and Finnish and everything including street signs and notices had to be written in both languages. He felt the loss of their national pride and integrity keenly. But when he came to Visby and heard how change in people’s lives had created miracles of unity, he decided to give up his hatred of Sweden and he demonstrated this by telling his story in Swedish.
This brought Signe to think of her friend Hans. She wrote him a letter telling himnabout what she had learnt in Visby. She thought he would find something here that would satisfy him too. By return post she got a 19-page letter explaining why she was wrong and he was right. He sent her a copy of Mein Kampf, Hitler’s manifesto of what he was really out to do. Signe was shocked. She had realized that what was happening in Germany was very bad and this was why she had left. But as she read Hans’ letter she realized that what was happening in Germany was even worse than what she had grasped when she was there. It was horrifying and all encompassing.
Signe realized in Visby, that each individual has the responsibility to live in such a way that peace is possible. She felt she needed to ask forgiveness of people that she had wronged and once she had done this she felt as if she had touched an electric current and was walking on air and remembered how, ”I felt lit up inside. I realized that power comes from operating according to the natural laws that exist both in the spiritual and natural world. If you go against these laws or principles, you create trouble and this leads to chaos in the end.”
As there was no television then photos were essential to reporting as they contributed visual essentials to the written text. Arthur had been asked to enlist the press and needed nighty access to a dark-room. The only place that had enlarging equipment and a dark-room on this little island was the local chemist. Arthur used to go there with a Danish photographer around six pm and they worked through the night printing photos till three or four in the morning. Then they would catch a few hours of sleep till the first meeting of the conference at 7.30 when they would have stacks of prints for people to send home to newspapers in Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and Finland. These countries were all free at that point but the risk of war was in the air and there was a great sense of urgency. The Swedish press sent a plane daily to pick up the news reports and photos that Arthur had ready to send to Stockholm at 9 am. The news from Visby was published daily in the Swedish press throughout the conference. Arthur’s photos of Buchman’s work with the Oxford Group were also being distributed by Associated Press (AP), Reuters and Camera Press and eventually published all over the world.
The ruins at Visby gave a dramatic setting to the conference and Arthur planned to take a picture of young participants on a mound in the ruins of Visby. He was struck by Signe’s beauty and wanted to place her first in the row – but figured that someone might question his motives so he placed her as a safe number four!
Signe sensed that the overall picture that was being painted at the conference was something that could bring about change without violence, even without war, hatred or formal organization. She could see how this could achieve results and happen spontaneously when the simple guiding principles that Frank Buchman and the Oxford Group spoke about were put into action in personal and even public life. She met people who had come from many other parts of the world and heard firsthand about the changes that resulted in their countries from their personal steps in change. Signe soon got to know more about this man Buchman and what it was that led such vast numbers of people to follow his thinking and discover new purpose in life.
Once someone had taken personal steps of change Buchman liked to take them with him into action to gain perspective, just like he had invited Arthur to join him in Denmark and Visby. In 1930 a group sailed for South Africa where they travelled by train. The carriage that was booked for them was marked ”Oxford Group” and the name had stuck for many years! It was in 1938 that he launched a more appropriate name in light of the times calling it moral re-armament – or MRA.
During the winter of 1938-39 Signe joined other young people in Stockholm and Uppsala who were experimenting with the ideas they had learnt in Visby. Signe’s elation and new discovery soon led her to overdo it and she saw the old pattern of sleep deprivation and exhaustion repeating itself. Neither Signe or her family understood the cause of her health issues but her parents were always caring and thoughtfully met her needs. In the spring of 1939 they suggested that she come home to Norway and arranged for her to stay on a farm in the country to rest up. She had spent very little of her life in Norway and followed this up with family-time at Thomas Heftyesgate in Oslo. In hindsight this was the last time Signe spent with her family for 7 long years and these were precious times, particularly with her youngest sister Lillan who was now 12.
Most of the world was deeply aware of the dangers of authoritarianism after World War I. North America had on top of this been thrust into a 10-year drought and faced a massive environmental crisis that devastated their overfarmed and overgrazed lands. This dustbowl was the result of severe winds that had whipped across the plains and eroded the earth into billowing clouds of dust. The sky would darken for days and thick layers of dust were left everywhere. The ecology and agriculture of North America was severely damaged causing hunger due to a lack of food and work during the 1930s. America was now in the middle of a big industrial boom in an effort to restore the economic setbacks and food shortages of the dustbowl and had no thought of engaging in European affairs or fighting a new war. They had fought one war and they didn’t want to be pulled into another. Arthur remembered how ”They were very much for us in spirit, but that was about it. There was a large central-European population in America who flew the Nazi flag right next to the Stars and Stripes at their meetings. The Nazis also had quite a following in ’America First’ organizations.
America didn’t want to honour the Allies agreement to support each other in order to retain peace. But America didn’t want to risk going to war again. Buchman was concerned that Americans would, ’either listen to God or you will listen to guns.’
While America was fully embarked on an internal battle for expansion making materialism rampant in the States, massive Nazi rallies promoting Americanism were being held in major US cities including one on February 20 1939, at New York City’s Madison Square Garden attended by over 20 000 people. The event was held on a stage that featured a huge portrait of Washington in his Continental Army uniform flanked by swastikas. USA was rapidly becoming aware of its power as a world leader in car and aviation production and in the agricultural export market. But Buchman’s vision was that America could give Europe and the world the idea of a God inspired democracy. Communism and Nazism were already capturing the minds of the youth and the leadership of the country. Frank saw that dictatorship with materialism at its heart would mean the end of civilisation. Devastating industrial strikes, and bad land management had led to the dustbowls where rich green fields had previously existed. Enormous pressure was put on those who dared to challenge the ruthless drive for wealth and power which prevailed but Buchman’s vision and boldness captivated people of calibre. He was convinced that moral re-armament would be America’s way to meet the crisis and assert a positive influence in the world instead of concentrating solely on USA’s own welfare.
It was with this in mind that Buchman invited a large international team to come to America in the spring of 1939. Most of this team had experienced World War I first hand and were deeply committed to remaking the world and forging a pattern for peace. Together they were striving to influence the events that were escalating so horrifically in Europe and were keen to awaken the American people to the battle of good and evil going on in the world.
Signe was one of 100 Scandinavians who received an invitation to join Buchman in America. Signe’s parents had of course met Buchman in Norway and were understanding despite the fact that she had interrupted her career as a commercial artist which they had made possible by providing an extensive and expensive education. The family were there on the quay to wave them all off on the 8-day boat trip from Oslo to New York.
In those days it was quite an experience to travel on a steamship. There was a restaurant but if you needed to rest you could stay in bed and if you could stomach it could order a tray of food. Signe was very seasick but one day when she and her bunkmate were recovering, she ordered a breakfast tray but when the waitress came, she tipped the whole tray into Signe’s bunk – coffee, porridge and all! ”The poor girl was probably feeling sick herself!” That trip was a good way for these 100 Scandinavians to get to know eachother and arrive as a team. This was also the beginning of life-long friendships.
Meanwhile Arthur was about to start a photo holiday on a sheep farm in the Cheviots in England. He was there with his friend Bill and as they were having supper at the farm there was a knock on the door revealing a policeman who was obviously out of breath after pushing his bicycle up the hill for a couple of miles. He asked ”Is there a Mr. Strong here?’” In those days urgent messages or ’cables’ were sent as a telegram to a post office or police station. The policeman had a message for Arthur from Buchman asking if he would join him in America to help launch moral re-armament, now also known as MRA but it meant catching the ’Bremen’ from Southampton the following day!
The sheep-farmer drove Arthur and Bill to Berwick, where they caught the Night Scot train down to London. Arthur had been living in an apartment in the West End of London and friends went ahead and packed his bag for him and had vivid memories! ”I had been working on 5 photographic murals which I thought would be rather good to have at Frank Buchman’s birthday in June. Each mural was about 6 x 4 feet and I needed to bring them with me and I also had to get a visa from the American embassy. To cut a long story short my bags and photomurals made it to the train but I missed it! I caught the next train arriving about 40 minutes later in Southampton. In those days you took a tender from the dock to the liner – in this case the ’Bremen’ which was anchored out in the harbour. With much presence of mind one of those travelling in the party asked the skipper of the tender ’Could I have a farewell call to my fiancé in Belfast?’ Of course, he fell for that and when they eventually got through on the phone she had a long conversation with him in Belfast (no direct dialling in those days) and sure enough, she held things up long enough for my train to arrive just as she finished her call. So, I caught the tender and the boat and left for America. My family were very surprised to hear from me from New York! I didn’t see them again for seven years.”
Signe and Arthur would likely not have met and our family would probably not exist if it hadn’t been for Frank Buchman.
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