Fred Blum

By 1938 he could see no future in Hitler's Nazi Germany and in 1939 he left his family behind, emigrating to the United States to undertake a doctorate at the University of California and later becoming an American citizen.

[2] In 1967, Blum founded the charitable organisation The New Era Centre, developing his thinking and writing on spiritual aspects of social witness and action.

They became friends, “like brothers”, and Verney became a trustee and significant supporter and contributor to the creation and work of The New Era Centre at The Abbey, which became a registered charity on 20 December 1979.

[3] The residential community of The New Era Centre in The Abbey was dedicated on 4 October 1981 as a space to explore and work towards the synthesis of Christianity and more contemporary understandings of societal transformation.

Stephen Verney extensively discussed, and believed in, the role Buddhist practice and philosophy could play in increasing connectivity with a Christian deity, and it was this belief which led many of The New Era Centre's early pursuits.

Upon the purchase of The Abbey by The New Era Centre in 1980, a monumental effort was required to source volunteer labour, both locally and from abroad.