A year after the SCM mission the evangelical OICCU (Oxford Inter-Collegiate Christian Union) mounted their own missioin. OICCU was characterised by fervent evangelising by people with vacant faces shining with an inner light – or perhaps you could just see straight through them. OICCU was totally concerned with saving souls and supremely unconcerned about the affairs of this world – hence the OUHG line of attack with 250 posters (no copy available) and 3,000 leaflets:
Cherwell (5 February 1964) reported the OUHG plans:
The Guardian picked this up, and their religious columnist Christopher Driver referred to it in his weekly column (both 7 February 1964):
The Oxford Mail also reported the OUHG campaign on 7 February 1964:
The Birmingham Post also had the story (11 February 1964):
Cherwell had two letters (12 February 1964):
In the same issue Bishop Ambrose Reeves added his criticism of the OICCU mission:
and the religious column in Cherwell (probably also 12 February 1964) picked this up:
Running in parallel with the opposition to the OICCU mission was a riposte from OUHG to a claim in a sermon that Oxford was a Christian university: the Oxford Mail (5 February 1964) printed the OUHG statement almost complete:
This was picked up in the national press next day: in the Daily Telegraph (6 February 1964):
and the Daily Express (6 February 1964):
and the Yorkshire Post (6 February 1964):
and the New Daily (6 February 1964):
OUHG ex-president Leonard Evans responded to a letter (Oxford Mail, 12 February 1964):
and there was a prolonged correspondence in the Birmingham Post – starting on 8 February:
then 11 February 1964:
and 13 February 1964:
14 February 1964:
and finally 18 February 1964:
The Humanist (April 1964) also reported on the matter:
ITV even had a debate on the motion that “Oxford is no longer a Christian university”, as reported in the Oxford Mail (22 and 24 February 1964):
Leonard Evans now adopted his pseudonym J C Pini and wrote to the New Daily (2 March 1964) after some OUHG members took part in the independent television religious programme referred to by The Times:
But Pini’s best effort was still to come!
As the term came to an end, the Sunday Times (1 March 1964) took stock:
