Impact of Edinburg 1910 on the growth of WCC

Explain the Impact of Edinburg 1910 on the growth of the Ecumenical Movement with special reference to the Formation of World Council of Churches.

Introduction

The world mission conference held in Edinburgh in 1910 with its watchword of “the evangelization of the world in this generation” is considered the symbolic starting point of the contemporary ecumenical movement. The World Mission Conference in Edinburgh, 1910 has become a landmark. As a result of Edinburgh’s far-reaching influence, it has become customary to speak of 1910 as the beginning of modern missionary co-operation, indeed, of the Ecumenical Movement itself. In this paper we will try to explain the impact of Edinburgh 1910 on the growth of the ecumenical movement with special reference to the formation of World Council of Churches. 

Factors leading to the World Missionary Conference, Edinburgh 1910

While Edinburgh, 1910 came into being because of the solidly fixed conviction that precedent for a missionary conference every decade had been established, there were additional justifying reasons. There were external and internal factors which led to the World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh, 1910.

 

      External Factors:

Abundant proof seemed to dictate the need for the new missionary conference. Enormous political

changes were everywhere seen. China’s Boxer Rebellion was being fought when Protestantism’s  

missionaries had last met in New York. In that land, too, the Manchu Dynasty was on the verge of collapse, presaging Sun Yat-sen’s Revolution of 1911. Japan in 1904 had defeated Russia, the first Eastern nation to overcome a Western power. All over the East and the near East, particularly in Turkey, nationalism was stirring. In many areas Islam was pressing head relentlessly. Some were asking whether Africa would become Moslem or Christian. The new flowing tides in the world were racial, national, economic, and social. This meant that in many lands the missionary movement would be affected, requiring in some areas, among other things, new adjustments with governments. The sum of these factors pointed to an assembly in which counsel could be shared and plans laid for the effective prosecution of the missionary task.[1] 

 

Internal Factors:

There was further warrant for conference in 1910. The Protestant missionary enterprise had entered its second century. A “native church” had been planted. It was growing rapidly and required wise adjustments. To some it seemed clear that missions were entering a different era that only broad-scale study, planning, and consultation could clarify the transition within the movement and in the shifting currents of the then contemporary world. Effective “generalship” required nothing less. Concern for cooperation had been growing, and church union was a recurring topic. Conference together could be a forward step in that development. Moreover, American secretaries shared with their German counterparts the hope that the meeting might create an international missionary committee for the benefit of societies on both continents. All these reasons were adduced as making the assembly necessary. Their earliest role, however, was to justify a conference motivated by the idea of decennial succession.[2]

 

The World Missionary Conference, Edinburgh, 1910

The modern ecumenical movement usually traces its roots to the Edinburgh Missionary Conference of 1910 which met under the leadership of John R Mott. This was the first really international conference of a multi-denominational character. The motto of the Conference was ‘the world evangelised in a century’.

In all, 159 missionary societies sent to Edinburgh more than 1200 delegates. Europeans were more in evidence than ever before, with forty-one Continental societies represented by 170 delegates. Seventeen conference members were from the churches of India, Burma, China, Japan, and Korea. American societies brought thirteen of the younger churchmen present. The remaining four came under British auspices. 

Edinburgh was more than a conference. It stands as an event in the life of the church. As such it is unique, for here in 1910 began a development that has distinctively characterized the ecumenical movement in the twentieth century. For the first time the missionary societies as such- and while not in fact, in principle the churches themselves- of America, Britain, and the Continent began to do certain things together and made organized provision for this. The process was evolutionary and began only in indirect fashion in 1910. Edinburgh marked the transition from the old to the new.[3]

 

The Impact of Edinburgh 1910 on the growth of ecumenical movement

For the first time, official representatives of Protestant societies had come together internationally. The very purpose and nature of the gathering provided a unifying core.

It was more than just “the greatest missionary conference ever held.” Edinburgh did not launch the ecumenical Movement, but it symbolized and hastened that movement’s emergence. Against that background one can discern three of its additional major contributions to the larger life of the church in recent time.

Three fundamental Principles: Edinburgh established three principles of fundamental importance for the future of ecumenical organization.

(1) Unlike its predecessors- simply assemblies of individuals- Edinburgh established the principle of bringing together officially appointed delegates, responsible to their boards. Edinburgh fixed the principle of officially-designated delegates for world Christian gatherings. In effect, this was soon to mean that the churches as such had begun to work together and were making provision for such activity- a distinctive feature of the Ecumenical Movement in the present century.

(2) Edinburgh instituted the principle of broad, denominational inclusiveness. Edinburgh deliberately sought to bring together people who disagreed with one another and to help them in establishing co-operation without compromising any of their own fundamental beliefs. This principle of broad inclusiveness, joining Catholic and Protestant elements, prevailed.

(3) and resulting from the second, Edinburgh launched international, co-operative Christian endeavor on essential tasks without demanding prior theological consensus and by agreeing to hold in abeyance theological differences. The outworking of this principle- wholehearted cooperation on essential tasks, without any compromise of theological conviction- in years to come helped mightily in holding together the Christian movement throughout the world.[4]

The International Missionary Council: Edinburgh Conference led to the International Missionary Council in 1921, created “to help coordinate the activities of the national missionary organizations of the different countries and to unite Christian forces of the world in seeking justice in international and inter-racial relation.

The council came into being officially in 1921, but its initiation came in 1910.

Ecumenical Organization: Edinburgh marks the twentieth-century beginning of the two most representative embodiments of the Ecumenical Movement, the International Missionary Council and the World Council of Churches.[5]

Edinburgh signalized the beginning of International Missionary Cooperation developed in the International Missionary Council. Edinburgh also appears to have been the first conference to create a continuing body and to invest it with a full time, paid secretary. Another of Edinburgh’s contribution, then, was the first full time, paid secretariat in interdenominational work- an example which has been followed hundreds of times since and which has provided the operating basis for interdenominational and ecumenical organization.[6]

Edinburgh is also uniquely responsible for the World Council of Churches, chief symbol of the Ecumenical Movement today. First, Edinburgh brought the younger churches into the thinking orbit of the older churches. It helped to establish them in the Christian world community. It prepared their ablest members for international and interdenominational leadership. That the world council of churches was founded as a world body resulted primarily from the extension of Edinburgh’s influence through four decades. Second, Edinburgh gave rise, through its impact on Bishop H. Brent, to the Faith and Order Movement, one of the two parent-movements of the World Council of Churches.

Third, the principle on which Edinburgh and its developing organization were established appealed to, and were used by, Nathan Soderblom. The devastastion of  World War I stirred Soderblom anew to the need for International Christian Cooperation in the social realm. Abundant evidence of the effective outworking of one of Edinburgh’s fundamental principles encouraged him to proceed with his efforts for The Universal Christian Council for Life and Work. It built on the same foundation: Cooperative Christian action on demanding common problems without immediate concern for theological unanimity and without requiring any compromise of conviction. Lie and Work became the other parent –movement for the World Council of Churches.

 

Fourth, Edinburgh first brought British, Continental, and American Christians together in the equality born of shared endeavor. By preparing the churches themselves- East and West- by stimulating the founding of the two constituent bodies, and by thrusting forth qualified leaders, Edinburgh led most influentially to the creation of the World Council of Churches.[7]

 

The Formation of World Council of Churches

Various other organisations grew from this Conference. In 1927 a world conference on “Faith and Order” was held at Lausanne with some ninety churches represented but not the Roman Catholics or the Russian Orthodox. It discussed the questions which divided the churches. In 1937 a second “Faith and Order Conference” was held in Edinburgh with 123 churches participating under the presidency of William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury. A Life and Order conference was held in Oxford the same year. Both these proposed to set up a World Council of Churches (WCC). This was delayed by the outbreak of war in 1939. After the war, the World Council of Churches held its first Assembly in Amsterdam in 1948 with the theme: Man’s Disorder and God’s Design.[8] JR Mott was appointed Honorary President. The first chairman of the Central Committee was the Bishop GKA Bell.

Bodies which made exclusive claims to the truth did not feel that they could join initially and so the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Churches and most Evangelicals stood apart. In the First Assembly of the WCC, delegates from 147 churches from 44 countries took part.[9] Immediately after accepting the constitution of the newly organized fellowship on 23^rd August, the Assembly promulgated its message thus, “Christ has made us his own, and he is not divided. In seeking him we find one another. Here at Amsterdam we have commited ourselves afresh to him, and have covenanted with one another in constituting the World Council of Churches. We intend to stay together”.[10]

The Basis of the Council read.

The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches which accepts our Lord Jesus Christ as God and Savior. In response to the criticisms the third assembly of the council in 1961 adopted a slight expansion.

The WCC is a fellowship of churches which confesses the Lord Jesus Christ as God and Savior according to the Scriptures and therefore seeks to fulfill together their common calling to the glory of the one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

                                                              

This character of the council’s Basis was reaffirmed at the second assembly at Evanston in 1954 in a statement which includes the following:

The WCC is an instrument at the service of the churches which enables them to enter into fraternal conversation with each other, to cooperate in various fields and to render witness together to the world. It is not new church (even less a super-church) and does not perform ecclesiastical functions.

 

The acceptance of the Basis is the fundamental criterion which must be met by a church which desires to join the council.

 

The Council works through an Assembly composed of the delegates appointed by the member churches and through a series of committees. Out of 147 churches at the beginning, only 30 churches came from Asia, Africa and Latin America. It increased to 293 in 1981 in 1989 drawing from all continents.

 

The first Assembly at Amsterdam adopted a resolution on “the authority of the Councils” which read:

The World Council of Churches is composed of churches which acknowledge Jesus Christ as God and Savior. They find their unity in him. They do not have to create their unity; it is the gift of God. But they know that it is their duty to make common cause in the search for the expression of that unity in work and in life. The Council desires to serve the churches which are its constituent members as an instrument whereby they may bear witness together to their common allegiance to Jesus Christ, and cooperate in matters requiring united action. But the Council is far from desiring to usurp any of the functions which already belongs to its constituent churches, or to control them, or to legislate for them, and indeed is prevented by its constitution from doing so. Moreover, while earnestly seeking fellowship in thought and action for all its members, the Council disavows any thought of becoming a single unified church structure independent of the churches which have joined in constituting the Council, or a structure dominated by a centralized administrative authority.[11]

 

The assumptions underlying the World Council of Churches

1. The member churches of the World Council believe on the basis of the New Testament that the Church of Christ is one.

2. The member churches recognize that the membership of the Church of Christ is more inclusive than the membership of their own church body. They seek, therefore, to enter into living contact with those outside their own ranks who confess the Lordship of Christ.

3. The member churches of the World Council consider the relationship of other churches to the Holy Catholic Church which the Creeds profess as a subject for mutual consideration. Nevertheless. Nevertheless, membership does not imply that each church must regard the other member churches as churches in the true and full sense of the word.

4. The member churches of the World Council recognize in other churches elements of the true Church. They consider that this mutual recognition obliges them to enter into a serious conversation with each other in the hope that these elements of truth will lead to the recognition of the full truth and to unity based on the full truth.

5. The member churches of the Council are willing to consult together in seeking to learn of the Lord Jesus Christ what witness he would have them to bear to the world in his name.

6. A further practical implication of common membership in the World Council is that the member churches should recognize their solidarity with each other, render assistance to each other in case of need, and refrain from such actions as are incompatible with brotherly relationship.

7. The member churches enter into spiritual relationships through which they seek to learn from each other and to give help to each other in order that the Body of Christ may be built up and that the life of the churches may be renewed.

 

Functions and purposes

The World Council of Churches is constituted for the following functions and purposes:

(1) to call the churches to the goal of visible unity in one faith and in one Eucharistic fellowship expressed in worship and in common life in Christ, and to advance towards that unity in order that the world may believe;

(2) to facilitate the common witness of the churches in each place and in all places;

(3) to support the churches in their worldwide missionary and evangelistic task;

(4) to express the common concern of the churches in the service of human need, the breaking down

      of barriers between people, and the promotion of one human family in justice and peace;

(5) to foster the renewal of the churches in unity, worship, mission and service;

(6) to establish and maintain relations with national councils and regional conferences of churches,

      world confessional bodies, and other ecumenical organizations;

(7) to carry on the work of the world movements for Faith and Order and life and Work and of the

      International Missionary Council and the World Council of Christian Education.[12]

 

Conclusion:

Indeed, Edinburgh may be best described as a lens- a lens catching diffused beams of light from a century’s attempts at missionary co-operation, focusing them, and projecting them for the future in a unified, meaningful, and determinative pattern. We have attempted here to assess Edinburgh’s significance. It marked the beginning of a new era in world missionary co-operation and thus became a singular event in the life of the whole church-the root-symbol of the Ecumenical Movement in the twentieth century. Its adequate appraisal and proper place in the history of Christianity, however, must be the work of future historians.

 

 

 

 Bibliography

 

Cycil. Ecumenical movement. Calcutta: n.p.,2007.

 

Hogg, William Richey. Ecumenical Foundations New York; n.p., n.y.

 

Kinnamon, Michael and Brian E. Cope, eds. The Ecumenical Movement. Michigan: WBE Publishing

Company,1997.

Snaitang, O. L., A History of Ecumenical Movement: An Introduction. Bangalore:

      BTESSC/SATHRI, 2004.

 

Webliography

 

http://www.freechurchseminary.org/Christian%20Unity%202.html     Date. 17/09/07

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       [1] William Richey Hogg, Ecumenical Foundations (New York: n.p., n.d.), 104. 

[2] Ibid., 104-105

      [3] Ibid., 98. 

[4] Ibid., 140.

       [5]  Ibid., 141.

6 Ibid.

7 Ibid., 142 

[8] Cycil, Ecumenical movement (Calcatta: n.p.,2007), 27.

[9] http://www.freechurchseminary.org/Christian%20Unity%202.html

[10] O. L. Snaitang, A History of Ecumenical Movement: An Introduction (Bangalore: BTESSC/SATHRI,2004)130-131.

      [11] Michael Kinnamon and Brian E. Cope, The Ecumenical Movement, (Michigan: WBE Publishing

          company,1997), 463. 

      [12] Ibid., 463.