The World Opens Up, 1900-1924

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jurjen A. Zeilstra
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Karl Barth ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
The World ◽  
World Council ◽  
Student Society ◽  
Early Influences

This chapter traces Wim Visser ’t Hooft’s life from his birth at the beginning of the twentieth century in Haarlem in the Netherlands to his move to Geneva as international secretary for the YMCA in 1924. The chapter stresses his patrician and Remonstrant background, pointing out how this background shaped his worldview and taught him to think and act independently and on his own initiative. The chapter also traces important early influences on his thinking and theology, such as the NCSV (Dutch Christian Student Society) and Karl Barth. His work in student relief after the war showcased his networking and problem-solving capabilities. The qualities he developed were decisive for his career in the World Council of Churches.

Liturgy

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen B. Westerfield Tucker
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Liturgical Music ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
Christian Life ◽  
Liturgical Movement ◽  
Ecumenical Movement ◽  
The World ◽  
Liturgical Texts ◽  
World Council

From their emergence early in the twentieth century, the liturgical movement and the ecumenical movement, the latter particularly represented by the deliberations of the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches, both called for and shaped ecumenical discourse on the nature of worship, the content and shape (ordo) of liturgy, sacraments and sacramentality, the practices of worship, and liturgical leadership and participation. This chapter highlights the history and contributions of both of these movements and notes the confluence of the two streams in the recognition of the centrality of worship for Christian life and mission. Attention also focuses on the ecumenical sharing of liturgical music, common liturgical texts, and lectionaries, and the ongoing question of ecumenical worship.

Church

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam DeVille
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
The World ◽  
World Council ◽  
Geographical Scope ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Trinity

The chapter traces developments in ecclesiology through the twentieth century, as the ecumenical movement unfolded, and raises questions about the relationship between the church and the communion of the Persons of the Trinity, and about the nature of the Church as eucharistic and sacramental. Further more practical questions about authority, primacy, and synodality (or conciliarity) are also examined in light of the work of multilateral ecumenical dialogues (especially within the World Council of Churches), and bilateral dialogues, particularly the Anglican–Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) and the international Roman Catholic–Orthodox theological dialogue. Considerable progress has been made on all these questions, but new issues have recently arisen, and these are briefly treated, including questions of imperfect communion, of the ordination of women and of those in same-sex relationships, and questions of geographical scope relative to jurisdiction and canonical territory.

Pentecostal and Charismatic

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Telford Work
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
First Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
Ecumenical Movement ◽  
The World ◽  
World Council ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Charismatic Christianity

Accounts of Pentecostal ecumenism tend to take two basic shapes. In one, the story of Pentecostal and charismatic ecumenism is subsumed into the wider course of twentieth-century ecumenism, whose centre has been the World Council of Churches. The other regards Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity as an ecumenical movement in its own right, expressed in innumerable informal relationships and recently embodied in the Global Christian Forum. These two popular visions often keep Pentecostals, charismatics, and mainstream ecumenists talking past one another. An inventory of the gifts offered, gifts received, and gifts withheld or rejected among these parties in twentieth- and twenty-first-century ecumenism leads to a different interpretation of their interrelationship. The ecumenical movement at large and Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity itself are both among the renewing tides in Christ’s ecclesial ecumene. The most significant Pentecostal/charismatic contribution to ecumenism may be its own spirit, and vice versa.

Mission Today and Tomorrow: A Conversation with Emilio Castro

1981 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 108-111 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Pastoral Ministry ◽  
Associate Editor ◽  
Karl Barth ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
Methodist Church ◽  
The World ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
World Council ◽  
One Year ◽  
World Mission

Emilio Castro is Director of the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism of the World Council of Churches. Born in Uruguay fifty-three years ago of a Chilean father and a Spanish mother, Castro graduated from Union Theological Seminary in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and studied for one year under Karl Barth in Basel, Switzerland. He began his pastoral ministry in Bolivia with the Methodist Church in the 1950s, arriving soon after a revolution that had totally shaken the nation. This was a period of great upheaval and growth in the life of the Methodist Church, which until 1952 numbered only five hundred members after fifty years of work in Bolivia, but suddenly—due to various factors—grew to more than four thousand members. In this context the young pastor witnessed the power of the gospel of the kingdom to provide the basis for living in society with meaning, justice, and responsibility. In 1957 Castro took up a pastorate in Montevideo, Uruguay, where he developed a popular—and controversial—TV program dealing with these themes of the gospel Before coming to Geneva and the World Council of Churches in 1973, Castro worked for seven years in the continentwide ministry of UNILAM, an ecumenical agency concerned with the development of Protestant unity in Latin America. Today Emilio Castro is one of the most influential—and still controversial—leaders in the world mission of the church. While teaching a seminar at the Overseas Ministries Study Center, Ventnor, New Jersey, in January 1981, he shared some of his thoughts on recent developments and directions in world mission with Editor Gerald H. Anderson, Associate Editor Norman A. Horner, and Research Assistant Robert T Coote of the International Bulletin.

Faith and Order

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Wainwright
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
Moral Issues ◽  
Ecumenical Movement ◽  
Consensus Document ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
The World ◽  
World Council ◽  
The Church ◽  
Common Vision

Generically, ‘faith and order’ designates the contents of doctrinal belief and the patterns of social and governmental structure that mark the historically varied communities that claim the name and status of ‘church’. Concern with these closely connected areas has been central to the worldwide ecumenical movement since the early twentieth century. The chapter focuses on the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches, which has the overall aim of calling the churches to the goal of visible unity in order that the world may believe. It considers the activities and organization of the Commission, and various fruits of its work across a range of issues, including the apostolic faith, anthropological and moral issues, tradition, and ecclesiology. It particularly highlights the consensus document on ‘Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry’ (1982), and the process culminating in the report: ‘The Church: Towards a Common Vision’ (2013).

John Baillie and Donald Baillie

2019 ◽  
pp. 119-131
Author(s):  
George M. Newlands
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
Reinhold Niebuhr ◽  
Reformed Tradition ◽  
Presence Of God ◽  
The World ◽  
World Council ◽  
In Christ ◽  
Orthodox Theology ◽  
Private Prayer

John and Donald Baillie were theologians and churchmen in the Scottish Reformed tradition, active and widely influential in Britain and America in the first half of the twentieth century. Together with American colleagues Reinhold Niebuhr and Pitney Van Dusen they developed what they regarded as a liberal orthodox theology, mediating between Barthian theology and more distinctively liberal traditions. Characteristic works included John Baillie’s Gifford Lectures, The Sense of the Presence of God, Donald Baillie’s God Was in Christ, and perhaps most significantly John Baillie’s A Diary of Private Prayer, which sold millions of copies and is still in print. Both were much involved with ecumenical issues and in the World Council of Churches.

Is Christ Divided?

2019 ◽  
pp. 127-149
Author(s):  
Brian Stanley
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
Ecumenical Movement ◽  
The World ◽  
Common Strategy ◽  
World Council ◽  
Protestant Christians ◽  
The Church ◽  
India And China

This chapter examines the ecumenical movement. The twentieth century has sometimes been denominated by historians of Christianity as “the ecumenical century.” Narratives of the ecumenical movement typically begin with the World Missionary Conference, held in Edinburgh in June of 1910, which assembled some 1,215 Protestant delegates from various parts of the globe to devise a more effective common strategy for the evangelization of the world. Viewed with the benefit of hindsight, the Edinburgh conference has been widely identified as the birthplace of the formal ecumenical movement. Without it, there would be no World Council of Churches. Yet serious attempts to bridge divisions between Protestant Christians were already under way in India and China before 1910. Furthermore, the World Missionary Conference was precisely that—a gathering of mission executives and missionaries convened to consider questions of missionary policy. Delegates represented missionary agencies rather than churches, and discussion of questions of doctrine and church order was forbidden, in deference to the Church of England, whose endorsement would not have been given if the conference had been expected to discuss matters of faith and order with Nonconformists. The chapter then looks at the failure and success of the ecumenical movement.

Visser ’t Hooft, 1900-1985

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jurjen A. Zeilstra
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Early Age ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
Ecumenical Movement ◽  
The World ◽  
World Council ◽  
Student Christian Movement ◽  
General Secretary ◽  
The Church ◽  
Formal Establishment

God’s diplomat, the pope of the ecumenical movement, but also an acerbic theologian and a difficult person: this is how journalists characterised Willem Adolf Visser ’t Hooft (1900-1985). He was one of the best-known Dutch theologians outside the Netherlands and he left his mark on the world church. Even at an early age, he made profound efforts in support of international ecumenical youth and student organisations (Dutch Student Christian Movement, YMCA and World Student Christian Federation). He led the World Council of Churches during its formative stages (from 1938), and after its formal establishment in 1948 became its first general secretary, serving until 1966. To Visser ’t Hooft, the unity of the church was both an article of faith and a pragmatic organisation of church influence in a disunited world.

THE EMERGENCE OF RESISTANCE TO ECUMENISM IN THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH (ROC) IN THE POST-PERESTROIKA PERIOD OF RUSSIA

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 74-93
Author(s):  
V.A. LIVTSOV ◽  
◽  
A.V. LEPILIN ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Russian Federation ◽  
Russian Orthodox ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
International Level ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
Russian Orthodox Church ◽  
The World ◽  
World Council ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
Emergence Of Resistance

The main purpose of the article is to analyze the emergence of opposition to ecumenism in the Rus-sian Orthodox Church (ROC) in the post-perestroika period of Russia. The article examines the issues of interaction between the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) and the World Council of Churches (WCC), the aspects of opposition to the ecumenist movement in the Russian Federation in the post-Soviet realities. The author comes to the conclusion that in the post-perestroika period, a number of representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church were negatively disposed towards ecu-menism and considered this movement a heresy. The issues of this kind caused disagreement not only at the international level, but also within the structure of the ROC itself.

Presbyterian Ecumenism

2019 ◽  
pp. 251-264
Author(s):  
Louis B. Weeks
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
Biblical Authority ◽  
The World ◽  
World Council ◽  
Reformed Churches ◽  
Federal Council Of Churches

Most Presbyterians possess an ecumenical spirit. They recognize other denominations as parts of the Body of Christ just as surely as their own. They cooperate enthusiastically in service, worship, and witness with Christians in many different denominations. Their reliance on biblical authority and agreement with Christians in other communions on many theological issues have led American Presbyterians to be involved in practically every major ecumenical endeavor. Many Presbyterians have been leaders in these enterprises as well. The Old Light and New Light Presbyterian reconciliation, major revivals in America and Europe, the mergers of denominations and comity arrangements for mission have provided energy and vision for ecumenism. The planting of newer Reformed churches—in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and predominantly Catholic countries in Europe—embodied this ecumenism. Mainstream Presbyterians played an important role in numerous ecumenical organizations including the Evangelical Alliance, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, the Federal Council of Churches, the Faith and Order and the Life and Work movements, and the World Council of Churches. Those who left the larger Presbyterian denominations to create new Reformed bodies have likewise engaged in ecumenism. In recent years, however, the extensive formal ecumenical ties have been eclipsed by the extensive ecumenism of local Presbyterian congregations and their individual officers and members.

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