Foundation OICCU was modelled after the
Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Christian Union (CICCU), founded two years earlier, but later incorporated a Daily Prayer Meeting established in
Brasenose College in 1867. Like
Wycliffe Hall (also 1877), it could be seen as a response to the University's abandonment of its previous officially
Protestant position. The initial members included
Francis Chavasse, subsequently
Bishop of Liverpool and founder of
St Peter's College.
Relations with the SCM OICCU was a founder member of the
Student Christian Movement and followed its lead in liberalizing its doctrine. In 1914 OICCU, along with the rest of the University, suspended its activities. After World War I, the Oxford SCM was reestablished under that name, but those who held OICCU's original doctrinal position established a separate
Oxford University Bible Union. In 1925 the two agreed to merge, and the OUBU became the
Devotional Union of the Student Christian Movement in Oxford. However, the merger was not successful and in Michaelmas 1927, the Devotional Union committee voted to secede. The SCM gave them permission to use the old (1879) name and so OICCU was born anew, adopting the Doctrinal Basis of the new Inter-Varsity Fellowship of Evangelical Unions (now
UCCF) in 1928. During much of this period, OICCU used some of the buildings later incorporated into
St Peter's College. However, after 1933 it had the use of the
Northgate Hall (just opposite the
Oxford Union on St Michael's Street).
The Oxford Groups During the 1920s and 1930s, an American preacher named
Frank N. D. Buchman drew a considerable following at Oxford. He emphasized the use of small groups (with Buchman-appointed leaders) where sins were publicly confessed and repented of. The movement taught that the
Holy Spirit was to directly guide Christians. These small groups became known as
Oxford Groups and later
Moral Re-Armament. The emphasis on small groups and personal belief was inherited by
Alcoholics Anonymous. Buchman was appealing directly to the OICCU constituency, and Julian Thornton-Duesbury (one of OICCU's supervising university teachers) became a noted Buchmanite. However, OICCU's student leadership distanced themselves from Buchman.
1940s: Problems and Packer The
International Fellowship of Evangelical Students, the worldwide body to which OICCU belongs, was planned at a conference in Oxford in the late 1930s.
World War II forced those plans to be delayed. The greatly reduced number of students in Oxford obviously interfered with OICCU itself; one medical student had to serve as President for much more than the customary one year of office. However, the Union maintained daily prayer meetings (in termtime) throughout the War. Afterwards, a Standing Committee of prominent past members was established to ensure the Union's long-term continuity in such circumstances and in 1948 they became trustees of the Northgate Hall. The Standing Committee also has some reserve powers regarding the Doctrinal Basis, although they have never been used. More positively, the prominent evangelical theologian
J. I. Packer was converted to evangelical Christianity at an OICCU meeting in the 1940s, during his first week at the university. While a student member he was not regarded as doctrinally sound enough to join the Executive Committee. However, he was appointed Librarian, taking a particular interest in OICCU's selection of out-of-print
Puritan books. In the following decade Packer, along with
Martyn Lloyd-Jones, led a revival of
Puritan studies amongst British pastors. He returned to Oxford in 2004 as the guest of honour at the 125th Anniversary celebrations.
Post-war era The 1950s saw OICCU at perhaps its greatest numerical strength, while the
SCM was seen to have moved towards
Marxism. One leading figure at this time was
Michael Green (President in 1952), who has been a leading evangelical in the
Church of England and then the
Anglican Communion since the 1960s. Green has taken a particular interest in promoting the
Charismatic Movement, including within OICCU. In a slightly later generation,
Tom Wright was the OICCU President (1970–71) and published his first book together with other members of his year's Executive Committee. The book was a plea for a conservative
Calvinist doctrinal position, a position he has since modified. A feature of the post-war years has been the custom of triennial missions which attempt to explain the gospel to every undergraduate. These missions can trace their history back to the visit of
Dwight Moody and
Ira D. Sankey in 1882, but the current model began with a 1940 mission led by
Lloyd-Jones. Subsequent main speakers have included
Michael Green,
Dick Lucas (long-time rector of
St Helen's Bishopsgate),
John Stott; one of Stott's series of talks was subsequently published as
Basic Christianity, and
Tim Keller. OICCU membership has diminished since the middle part of the century, and now usually stands in the low hundreds — however formal membership is not needed to participate, and as of March 2006 OICCU's group membership on
Facebook exceeded its official membership. The lease on the
Northgate Hall was given up in the 1980s, and the Union has returned to the peripatetic existence of its earliest years, meeting in various church and public buildings around the city. Its archives are now held in the
Bodleian Library and it has the use of a small store room at
St Ebbe's church and New Road Baptist Church. ==OICCU President==