Never again was he to hold any paid position.

It was not a rosy prospect. Buchman had no regular income except a monthly payment of $50 from a family insurance, nor did he have a base from which to work. There were hundreds of people scattered around America, Britain and the Far East to whom he had brought a basic experience of Christ. He had shown, in miniature, that his idea of contagion through travelling teams worked. But the only cohesive groups which had developed were at Princeton and, in a very small way, at Oxford. His greatest needs, if his vision was to come true, were for the emphasis of his work to move to the team or groups in many countries, and for some to step out as his full-time companions. At present Sherwood Day was the only one. A man of singular charm, only a few years younger than Buchman, he in many ways complemented him: for example, where Buchman had creative thoughts, Day could often clothe them in compelling language. But clearly many more companions were now needed.

Some of those he had helped in America, hearing that he had resigned from Hartford, said they would raise $3,000 a year to support him, but the results were meagre: $1,000 collected in the first fifteen months. In the autumn of 1922, perhaps in an attempt to secure a broader base as well as to define his aims, Buchman and a few friends formed what they called 'A First Century Christian Fellowship'. 'It is', declared Buchman in a note to a supporter, 'a voice of protest against the organised, committeeised and lifeless Christian work' and 'an attempt to get back to the beliefs and methods of the Apostles'.1

The First Century Christian fellowship was never much more than a name, since it was composed mainly of supporters rather than people with a commitment equal to Buchman's. Within a few years it had faded away. The result was that, at this period, Buchman had to depend largely on gifts from a few wealthy New York women, of whom Mrs C. Richard Tjader, the widow of a Swedish-American business man, was the most generous.

Margaret Tjader had been a missionary in India as a girl, and she had decided to use a considerable inheritance to support Christian work in various parts of the world. In 1901 she had founded the International Union Mission, which by 1922 had its headquarters in a former Rockefeller home on West 53rd Street. Here she gave Buchman the use of a sizeable room which served both as office and, when he was in New York, as bedroom. Her interest in Buchman originated from help he had given to her son, and her gifts to Buchman began in January 1923. Others who assisted him financially at this time were Mrs Finlay Shepard, and Mrs William Woolverton, whose husband was one of the two men who installed the first telephone in New York City. Buchman had probably met her at Northfield, as she was in the habit of taking parties there. She and her husband knew of the events at Penn State, and had been struck in particular by the change in Bill Pickle.

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