1 Introduction In its most comprehensive sense the Ecumenism is generally conceded to be the most important development in the church

history of the 20th century. It is a ground-swell which has found expression in the hundreds and thousands of organizations and institutions. Historians usually trace the beginnings of the modern ecumenism to the World Missionary Conference at Edinburgh.1 I. World Missionary Conference, Edinburgh 1910. The conference came just on the eve of mood change from the 19th century to the 20th century. However it was not the first time that a missionary gathering, international in its membership had been held. Edinburgh was the outgrowth and climax of earlier gatherings through which Protestants had been drawing together in their purpose to give the gospel to the world. National and regional Conferences of missionaries from 1854 onwards made more direct contributions to the ideas from which the Edinburgh Conference developed.2 The World Missionary Conference met on 14th -23rd June 1910 was a widely represented conference. The focus of its Ecumenism was on the Worlds need of Christ and the Fulfilling of the great commission. Unlike the previous missionary conferences, Edinburgh was important because of the consultative character. It made possible consultations through which different missionary agencies could unite and plan together for a joint action to achieve common mission goals. 3 The conference gave extensive attention to the issue of cooperation and unity, thus resulted in creating a new sense of unity among Christians from different Protestant traditions, national identities and cultural backgrounds. Even the Anglo-Catholic communion, which had neither shown interest nor participated in earlier conferences came up openly and actively took part in the Conference.4 Another impact was the creation of the continuation Committee under the leadership of R. Moth as the chairman and this committeeseerved as an instrument of

William Richey Hogg, Ecumenical Foundation (New York: Harper & Borthers, 1952) p. 141. Kenneth Scott Latourette, Ecumenical Bearings of the Missionary Movement and the International Missionary Council in A History of the Ecumenical Movements. Eds. Ruth Rouse and Stephen Charles Neill (Geneva: WCC, 1986) p. 366. 3 T. V. Philips, Edinburgh to Salvador: Twentieth Century Ecumenical Missiology. (Delhi: CSS &SPCK, 1999) pp. 27-28. 4 O.L. Snaitang, A History of Ecumenical Movement: An Introduction (Bangalore: BTESCC/SATHRI, 2004) pp. 97-98.
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2 missionary cooperation across national and denominational boundaries until the IMC was formed in 1921.5 Following the conference, R. Moth toured different countries and held conferences with missionaries and native leaders to create tremendous ecumenical awareness. Joseph H. Oldham Strengthened the work through the publication of the international review of mission in 1912. The move for the promotion of ecumenical understanding through the continuation committee began to gain substantial momentum world wide.6 II. International Missionary Council World Missionary Conference Edinburgh 1910 and its continuation Committee planned to set up a permanent international organization.7 However the world war made the progress slow and only in June 1920, there was an interim conference at Cranes, Switzerland. This conference unanimously agreed that national Christian council should from an international Missionary committee.8 The success of World Missionary conference (Edinburgh, 1910) and Interim Conference (Cranes,1920) paved the way for the formation of the international Missionary Conference (IMC) at Lake Mohonk, New York in 1921.9 The primary aim of the IMC was to bring together national Christian councils to a common sense of ecumenism for a united effort in world wide evangelism. a. IMC Conferences The second conference was held at Jerusalem in 1928. It emphasized on religious education mission and race conflict, missions and industrializations, mission and rural problems, values in other religions, younger churches, and social and international issues.10 The third conference at Tambaram in 1938, witnessed stronger representations from younger churches. This conference placed importance on the centrality of the church, church in mission and word of God. The fourth IMC conference at Whitby 1947 emphasized on the Christians oneness in Jesus Christ and partnership in mission. The Willingen Conference in 1952 emphasized on Mission in
Kenneth Scott Latourette, Ecumenical Bearings of the Missionary Movement and the International Missionary Council in A History of the Ecumenical Movements. Eds. Ruth Rouse and Stephen Charles Neill (Geneva: WCC, 1986) p. 366. 6 O.L. Snaitang. p107 7 Louise Pirovet Christianity World wide (New Delhi: ISPCK, 1993) p. 17. 8 Kenneth Scott Latourette. p366. 9 O.L. Snaitang,. p107 10 Kenneth Scott Latourette, p367.
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3 Unity, and there was a drastic shift of emphasis from the church-centric to the centrality of the triune God. In the Sixth Conference at Accra, 1957, the focus was on the integration with the WCC assembly in 1961.11 b. Formation of National councils The Edinburgh Conference 1910 was a source for the rise of Christian Councils in different countries. In England, mission organizations formed the conference of British missionary society in 1912 and the British Council of churches in 1942. In the US, National council of the Church of Christ was formed in 1950.12 Other similar developments also took place in different older churches in European countries, Australia and New Zealand.13 The World Missionary Conference of Edinburgh 1910 impacted even in the younger churches. Many types of councils were organized in China, India, Japan, Burma, and other countries. Similar Christian councils also emerged in Africa.14 c. Life and Work Movement The Universal Christian Conference on Life and work came out of church leaders long and continual search for Christian service in the society, for an understanding of causes of social problems and for bringing peace.15 Various bodies and committees Faith and Order Movement were formed by the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century such as the International Social service Council founded in England in 1911, the National Sozialer Verein, a political party started in 1896 in Germany aimed at strengthening national unity and bringing social reforms, and the formation the World Alliance for promoting International Friendship in 1914, to name a few. 16 Nathan Soderblom from Sweden played a very important role in the Life and Work movement. He was behind the organization of the World organization of the World Alliance of the Churches for promoting International friendship in 1914 and also in convening at Uppsala in 1917. He organized another conference in a greater scale at Geneva in 1920. It saw the organization of conferences like the Conference of Christian Politics, Economy and Citizenship and finally
O.L. Snaitang, p108-112. Samuel McCrea cavert, The American Churches in the Ecumenical Movement 1900-1968 (New York: Association Press, 1968) p. 209. 13 O.L. Snaitang,. p107 14 O.L. Snaitang,. p113. 15 O.L. Snaitang,. p114. 16 Nils Karlstorm, Movements for International Friendship and life and work 1910-1925 in A History of the Ecumenical Movements. Eds. Ruth Rouse and Stephen Charles Neill (Geneva: WCC, 1986) pp 510-511.
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4 culminating to the Universal Christian Conference on Life and work in 1925 at Stockholm. 17 This was the fruit of all the vision earlier seen by people agonized by the distress of the war torn humanity and the lamentable weakness of divided Christendom. More than 600 delegates from 37 countries assembled.18 The sessions considered the Christian task of life and service, ways and means of establishing wider international cooperation, to promote Christian unity by service, to form Christian councils so as to bring together different churches to a mutual understanding and so on. Church leaders such as Archbishop Nathan Soderblom, the patriarchs of Alexandria and Jerusalem, Bishop William Temple and other church leaders in England all agreed to the churchs moral responsibility to restore peace in the broken and divided world. The Life and work movement established its office in Geneva in 1928. The second Conference was held at Oxford in 1937 and in this conference decided to integrate with the faith and order movement toward the formation of a unified world ecumenical body, the world Council of Churches.19 IV. Faith and Order Movement Apart from the large scale representation of different churches, Edinburgh Conference did not really solve the problem of theological differences. Bishop Charles Brendt of Protestant Episcopal Church in the US felt the need to initiate a world conference for Faith and Order. Churches in the US and also in Britain responded positively. However this enthusiasm was dampened and slowed by the First World War. In 1916 churches in the US met and formed the North American Preparatory Conference. This paved way for the preliminary meeting for the conference which was held at Geneva in August 1920. The Orthodox Church gave a response though the Roman Catholic declined participation. Even German churches gave positive response. To keep the Movement alive and working, the conference created a continuation committee with 51 members.20 The first world conference on Faith and order was held at Lausanne in August 1927. 385 delegates, mostly official representatives from 108 churches attended the conference. The conference was filled disagreements and heated debates since the delegates came with their own theological beliefs and practices. However, the fact that they came together to express their mission and doctrines was itself a great achievement 21. The conference kept a continuation
O.L. Snaitang,. p115. O.L. Snaitang, p116. 19 Nils Karlstorm, Pp. 536-538. 20 Tissington Tatlow, The world Conference on Faith and Order in A History of the Ecumenical Movements. Eds. Ruth Rouse and Stephen Charles Neill (Geneva: WCC, 1986) p 407. 21 O.L. Snaitang, . p122.
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5 committee with Bishop Brendt as the head. They met at least once a year, producing study materials until their second conference in 1937 held at Edinburgh. This conference elected William Temple and the Chairman and Canon Hodgson as the Secretary. This movement like the life and work and the missionary conference also achieved its goal in bringing churches together and also in bringing the realization of the sin of division. Among the many important issues the most important was the proposal of merging together with the life and work towards the formation of the World Council of Churches (WCC). As it merged with the life and work movement, it ceased to exist as an independent body but as one of the major commissions of the WCC.22 V. Formation of the World Council of Churches (WCC) There had been various ecumenical and aspirations of unity and attempts by various people and bodies to bring about a permanent international body of churches, like the Ecumenical Patriarchate of the church of Constantinople, who became the first body to plan a permanent organ in the form of League of Churches for cooperation among the churches. 23 Individuals like J.H. Oldham and Archbishop Soderblom also had similar ideas of an ecumenical council of churches. Archbishop William Temple the able leader of the life and order movement also succeeded Bishop Brent as chairman of Faith and order. He advocated the creation of an international, interdenominational council representing all the churches with committees to carry out various projects.24 The Life and Work and the Faith and Order Movements met in London in 1937 before their individual meetings at Oxford and Edinburgh and discussed about merging together to form a World representative Ecumenical council of churches.25 The two movements approved on the merging and of constituting a committee of 14 to form the WCC and a provisional body was created in 1938 in Utrecht under the leadership of Archbishop William temple. 26 The IMC, in its Tambaram conference in 1938, considering the common intentions to bringing churches together approved of the idea of the WCC though it remained independent until its integrated with WCC in 1961.27
Tissington Tatlow, p 433-434. W. A. Visser t Hooft, The Genesis and the Formation of he World council of Churches (Geneva: WCC, 1982) p 1-2. 24 O.L. Snaitang, . p127-128 25 O.L. Snaitang , P 128. 26 W. A. Visser t Hooft, p 48-49. 27 T. V. Philips, Edinburgh to Salvador: Twentieth Century Ecumenical Missiology. (Delhi: CSS &SPCK, 1999) p 36.
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6 In spite of all the post war difficulties, along with the cooperation of the IMC, it was decided that the first Assembly of the WCC be held in 1948, and the assembly was established at the meeting in Amsterdam on 23rd August 1948.28 The message of the Assembly was that Christ has made us his own and he is not divided. In seeking him we find one another29 Conclusion The formation of the World Council of Churches was an achievement par excellence. This realized vision of a united ecumenical body was not mere historical coincidence but the longings and the efforts of various people. Though the Assembly came into being only in 1948, its concept had been in the minds of the people who were longing for an ecclesiastical unity and harmonious cooperation among the Christians towards fulfilling Gods purpose. Edinburgh Missionary conference became the catalyst towards various ecumenical accomplishments and almost all activities after the conference taken up by the churches looked towards the formation of an ecumenical body, culminating to the climax of the formation of the World Council of Churches and brought to existence an epoch making event in the history of Christendom.

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W. A. Visser t Hooft, p 63. W. A. Visser t Hooft, p 67.