The Tell Scotland Movement’s Decision to Sponsor the 1955 All-Scotland Crusade

The decision of the Tell Scotland Movement’s leadership to sponsor Billy Graham’s All-Scotland Crusade of 1955 was controversial at the time and has since been considered a turning point in Scottish church life. There was a stark contrast between the declared objectives of the Movement, which advocated local initiative and the primary role of the laity in mission, and the Crusade’s focus on a visiting American evangelist. The availability of previously unconsidered papers enables a detailed reassessment of the motives of the leadership of Tell Scotland 1952–4. The narrow base of the founding group is examined and the contrast between their far-reaching objectives and their leverage in the Church of Scotland highlighted. Their policy of growing the Movement by personal contact and not via the courts of the church is seen as contributing to their institutional weakness when the 1954 General Assembly had to rule on an invitation to Dr Graham. The roles of the key leaders, Revds W.A. Smellie, R.H.W. Falconer, T. Ralph Morton and Tom Allan are examined and the collective responsibility of the group affirmed against a tendency in historiography to focus on the positions of either Allan or George MacLeod.