The future of ecumenism.

• Author: Swomley, John W.

ECUMENISM or its adjective, ecumenical, is a term applied to the movement for Christian unity and isn't necessarily linked to church mergers. There is a continuing controversy about how to achieve Christian unity, although the leaders of most national and international denominations are devoted to it as a concept.

Ecumenism comes from the Greek word oikoumene, meaning "the inhabited world" or "universal." When applied to the Christian church, it denotes unity and is used to describe everything that relates to the task of the churches to take the gospel to the entire world.

If any one person could be said to have started and personify the modern ecumenical movement, it is John R. Mott. He was a traveling secretary of the Student YMCA who participated in a gathering at Vadstene, Sweden, in 1895, out of which the World Student Christian Federation was born. Mott was its general secretary from 1895 to 1920 and chairman from 1920 to 1928. He chaired the 1910 world missionary conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, creating a committee that later became the International Missionary Council, with which he was involved closely for the rest of his life. Mott not only saw the importance of Christian witness in peace and social justice issues, but made a contribution to international concord. In 1946, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

The ecumenical movement as it evolved in the early 20th century first of all was an effort to bring cooperation and unity among Protestant and Orthodox churches. This began with decisions among major Protestant churches not to compete in mission fields abroad, but to assign certain countries or areas to specific denominations. Another result was the formation of local, national, and world federations of churches, such as the Federal Council of Churches in the U.S., which later became the National Council of Churches, and the World Council of Churches. Orthodox and Protestant groups were involved in such councils.

Thus, one view of ecumenism is cooperative activity among equally valid churches organized in an ongoing federation or council. This concept did not prevent mergers of churches with similar roots or polity, as occurred with three branches of American Methodism in 1939. However, there was no assumption that all churches necessarily would become one ecclesiastical body.

A series of ecumenical conferences took place on the world scene beginning with Edinburgh in 1910 and continuing through Stockholm in 1925; Lausanne, France, in 1927; Jerusalem in 1928; Oxford, England, in 1937; Edinburgh in 1937; Tambaram, India, in 1938; and a Christian Youth Conference in Amsterdam...