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TWO ATTACKS AND A WARNING

Buchman's last call on his journey back from India was at Istanbul and his last date there was with the Ecumenical Patriarch of the Orthodox Church, Athenagoras of Constantinople. The Patriarch was a towering figure, six feet seven inches and topped by a tall mitre. He had spent thirteen years in America and was, in fact, an American citizen.

'I welcome you as the new apostle,' were his first words to Buchman. He seated his guests and then continued with a smile, 'I follow you, Dr Buchman, on my own personal "television" everywhere you go. I read all you write. I receive your inspiration. Many more people than you know are your followers and belong to your brotherhood and army. I belong whole-heartedly to your programme, not only because of my office, but because I personally believe in it. Something told me you would come, but your stay is much too short.'

The Patriarch had, he explained, been impressed by a move made towards him by Ahmed Emin Yalman, the editor of the major Turkish newspaper Vatan, after his visit to Caux in 1946. Yalman had first become reconciled with his old enemy, the then Prime Minister, and started to work for better understanding with Greece. Then he had approached the Patriarch. Together they had entered a mosque, a former Christian cathedral. 'Here I am moved to pray,' the Patriarch had said, casting the unity of faith in one God over the divided group which accompanied them.

'It is all so simple,' Buchman commented when Athenagoras had finished his story.

'Truth is simple,' replied the Patriach, 'but unfortunately people don't like simple things. They want them complicated. At the Last Supper there were no creeds and no doctrines, but one commandment - unity in love.'

When Buchman left an hour later to catch his plane, the Patriarch looked at him severely: 'I would like to keep you here as a prisoner, but you are a free bird and you fly away. God bless you. You are a modern St Paul.'

'No, no,' said Buchman. 'I am a very simple man.'1

It was perhaps ironic that this interview should have taken place just as Buchman was returning to Europe to face severe attacks. In India, soon after the strongest yet propaganda offensive from Moscow against his work had begun, he had heard rumours that two dissimilar bodies in the West - the Secretariat of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU)* and the Social and Industrial Council of the Church of England - were producing reports on his activities.

(* Created in 1944 as a breakaway from the Communist-led World Federation of Trade Unions.)

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