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Taking as its starting point the 1966 World Conference on Church and Society in Geneva, which marked the beginnings of a fundamental change in the understanding of ecumenical social ethics within the World Council of Churches (WCC), this article discusses the role of the conference in this shift in perspective from the idea of the "responsible society" to the emergence of a form of postcolonial ecumenism. It traces the emergence of the responsible society as a guiding principle for the WCC and, in particular, the role in this of the US social ethicist Paul Abrecht, as well as how a focus on rapid social change helped strengthen and consolidate churches in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. These churches would then articulate the beginnings of a postcolonial understanding of ecumenical social ethics at the Geneva conference, which would in turn lead to the development of new programmes on social justice after the WCC's 4th Assembly in Uppsala in 1968. The article concludes by discussing the tension between the two guiding principles in the decade that followed the Uppsala assembly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the participation of Orthodox representatives in the Universal Christian Conference on Life and Work held in Stockholm in 1925. It highlights the contributions of Orthodox hierarchs and theologians to key themes such as social ethics, international relations, and cooperative efforts among Christian communions. Despite their active involvement, the Orthodox presence at the conference has so far been underresearched. The article emphasizes the significance of the Orthodox Church, particularly the Patriarchate of Constantinople, in shaping the conference's agenda and fostering ecumenical dialogue. It also discusses the urgent call for Christian unity in addressing contemporary societal challenges and underlines the importance of Orthodox participation in advancing the goals of the ecumenical movement during a critical period in world history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the organization of the Universal Christian Conference on Life and Work in Stockholm in 1925, its significance for the 20th‐century ecumenical movement, and the central role played by Swedish Archbishop Nathan Söderblom. It describes Söderblom's repeated efforts during the First World War to bring churches together to work for peace and how he originally hoped that what might become the Stockholm conference would be organized by the World Alliance for Promoting International Friendship through the Churches, as well as his determination that Orthodox churches should be present in Stockholm. The article then gives an account of the proceedings of the Stockholm conference and how it demonstrated the diversity of the unity of the church. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the legacy of the Universal Christian Conference on Life and Work, which met in Stockholm in 1925, for the contemporary ecumenical movement. It asks whether the World Council of Churches and the wider ecumenical movement can reconnect with the spirit of the Life and Work movement, especially that of its first decade or so, to inspire a comprehensive understanding of ecumenical social thought and action in response to contemporary challenges and opportunities. It argues that responses to today's global challenges can build on four foundational principles inspired by the Life and Work movement: creatively reimagining the spirits of the time; embodying an incarnational presence; mobilizing ecumenical efforts for meaningful and empowered action; and recommitting to the principles of life, peace, and justice that were central to the Life and Work movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the relationship between the two ecumenical conferences in Stockholm in 1925 and Lausanne in 1927, which led to the creation of the movements on Life and Work and on Faith and Order, and which merged in 1948 to form the World Council of Churches (WCC). The conferences took place following the First World War amid fears of a new outbreak of war, and in this situation, fellowship was an important aim of those who met in the two cities. The article examines the search for the fellowship that characterized Stockholm and Lausanne, using the vision of an "ecumenism of the heart," developed in connection with the WCC's 11th Assembly in 2022. The roots of such a search for unity inspired by deep mutual relationships can be found in the two movements that were inspired by the conferences in Stockholm and Lausanne. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on the fourth global gathering of the Global Christian Forum (GCF) held in Accra, Ghana from April 16 to 19, 2024. Topics include participants from Christian constituencies who include Reverend Merlyn Hyde Riley of the Jamaica Baptist Union and Reverend Dr Casely Essamuah, importance of global ecumenical movement, and call upon the churches throughout the world to continue the charism of GCF.

Ecumenical organizations have long agreed that human trafficking and modern slavery are consequences of human sin that, in the words of Pope Francis, have left "an open wound in the body of Christ and in all humanity." While the ecumenical consensus against human trafficking and other forms of modern slavery remains strong, the discourse lacks clear definitions and, thus, focused engagement. To enrich ecumenical reflection on these phenomena, the prevailing discourse could be reframed through the contextualized, case‐based, and comparative lens of asymmetrical dependency theory. Consequently, this article surveys recent ecumenical pronouncements, clarifies relevant legal and definitional considerations, and asks whether it is time to take a "dependency turn" in ecumenical discourse on human trafficking and other forms of modern slavery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the theme of the 11th Assembly of the World Council of Churches, "Christ's love moves the world to reconciliation and unity," this article analyzes the concept of "movement" as a theological category on the basis of the scripture. First, it argues that it is important for the churches to be attentive to the movements and transformations taking place in societies, recognizing in them the presence of the Spirit constantly working in the world. It then points out that the presence of the Spirit in the churches should be characterized by two actions: the denunciation of injustice as a prophetic action of believers, and the ecumenical character of synodality as a movement toward encounter with other Christians and a willingness to walk with them. Finally, the article proposes that this movement of the Spirit also requires dialogue with other religions as a necessary condition for building peace in society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some observers claim that ecumenism has entered the season of winter and that ecumenism does not flourish as it has done in other periods. This article proposes that queer theory, an academic field that in different ways addresses and challenges questions of identity, offers perspectives to respond to this challenge and allow ecumenism to enter springtime. One of the main elements within queer theory is the understanding that identity is not static or binary but rather fluid and moveable. Given that ecumenism is always dealing with identity and the longing to overcome an ecumenical winter, the article investigates how queer theory could be a useful tool within ecumenical relations and work. First, it will discuss what identity is. Second, it will present queer theory. And third, it will attempt to bring together identity and queer theory in an ecumenical effort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article takes as its point of departure the suggestion by the World Council of Churches (WCC) that the capitalist economic system is the root cause of current crises, in particular the climate catastrophe. In facing the world crises, the ecumenical movement has developed an approach called the "Economy of Life." Member churches of the WCC, as well as other institutions, are asked to engage with and promote this approach. This article investigates whether and how the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), a member church of the WCC, has adopted the concept of an economy of life with its notion of a necessary change of the economic system. The findings show that, in the period analyzed, the EKD did not mention the concept, nor did it oppose or assess the capitalistic and neoliberal economic system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article sets out the background to and the significance of the Global Ecumenical Theological Institute (GETI), an educational course for younger and emerging theologians, first organized by the World Council of Churches (WCC) to coincide with its 10th Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, in 2013. Further GETIs have taken place since then, most recently at the WCC's 11th Assembly in Karlsruhe, Germany, in 2022. The article finishes by setting out five statements about ecumenical education and formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article outlines some key steps and motifs for developing a decolonial relational ethics that will be vital not just to the work of decolonization but also to the practice of the ecumenical movement if it is to both add its weight to the calls for decolonization and itself be decolonized. The author interrogates key dimensions of her own field of study in Christian ethics and engagement in the ecumenical movement. She highlights some of the key spaces and often marginalized communities and persons who can shape the ecumenical movement's further engagement in decolonization. It offers a critique and a vision rooted in the author's lived experience and the scholarship of decolonization while seeking application in methodologies for colonial systems, relationships and mindsets to be challenged and reset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From 1958 to 1965, J. E. Lesslie Newbigin worked for the International Missionary Council and then the World Council of Churches, specifically leading the integration of the organizations. Newbigin had a profound impact on the importance and role of mission within the ecumenical movement during the early transition of decolonialism around the globe. This article will reflect upon the history, contribution, and legacy of Newbigin in the conversation of mission in the ecumenical movement, specifically the World Council of Churches Commission on World Mission and Evangelism and the International Review of Mission. This reflection comes at the 25‐year mark since Newbigin's death and addresses part of Newbigin's legacy that recent books, The Church and Its Vocation and Becoming a Missionary Church, could only briefly discuss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores how pivotal the kingdom of God has been and still is to the identity of the ecumenical movement. The discussion of the biblical vision of the kingdom, which is coming and yet is also present, offers a motif which not only forms the life of the church and gives it hope but also forms the life of the oikoumene, giving hope to all of life. The ensuing discussion shows how, historically, the ecumenical movement has practised its calling of unity and mission as one which offers salvation to all life and to all aspects of life and goes on to outline how the kingdom continues to inspire ecumenical engagement today. Fundamental to this is the realization that the kingdom lays claim not on the church but on the whole world. This turns the ecumenical movement away from self‐service so that the life of the world is shifted, challenged, and transformed through the work and witness of the ecumenical movement. This is especially and urgently needed where the powers, systems, and structures of our world cause injustice, inequity, and catastrophe. In this mission ecumenism reaches its fullest unity, in which all are saved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses how Finnish hegemonic nationalism was contested by peace movements in Finland from 1919 to 1932. First and foremost, Finnish peace movements contested hegemonic Lutheran‐patriotic discourses, which they perceived to have been maintained especially by the Lutheran Church of Finland. Thus, hegemonic Lutheran‐patriotic discourses were contested by peace movements through three church‐related discursive contexts: (1) biblical‐doctrinal interpretations, (2) Christian revivalism and (3) churches' peace ecumenism. Results of this article imply that contesting happened especially through religious discourses, which considered a nationalist state church idolatrous. Peace activists depicted themselves as true Christians and patriots, arguing that peace ecumenical cooperation with them and other churches enabled state churches to renounce hegemonic nationalism. Based on these results, I suggest that when hegemonic nationalism is intertwined strongly with Christianity and the state church, nationalism is challenged through questioning its alleged Christian basis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the background of the document Called to Transformation – Ecumenical Diakonia, published in June 2022 by the World Council of Churches and ACT Alliance, this article argues for a comprehensive approach to diakonia in which community projects and programmes, education, and training should emphasize social justice, people's participation, and the role of people's movements and the need for networking between them. This approach also stresses that diakonia must go beyond mere service, charity, and relief and engage in radical transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a tribute to Lay Canon Dr Agnes Abuom, who served as Africa president of the World Council of Churches (WCC) from 1998 to 2006 and as moderator of the WCC central committee from 2013 to 2022. Dr Abuom died in Nairobi on 31 May 2023, nine months after moderating the WCC's 11th Assembly in Karlsruhe, Germany, in 2022. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the World Council of Churches (WCC) celebrates its 75th anniversary, the world faces many challenges, including ecological crises, violence, pandemics, systemic poverty, racism, gender‐based violence, human rights violations, and the war in Ukraine that began in 2022. Taking as its basis the Unity Statement agreed at the WCC's 11th Assembly in Karlsruhe, Germany, in 2022, which met around the theme "Christ's love moves the world to reconciliation and unity," the article argues for an "ecumenism of the heart," of which the statement spoke, as a path to unity. It underlines that this is a "public theology" based not on political abstinence but on a passion for and renewed commitment to the world. The article concludes by exploring the challenges of such a public theology for justice, peace, and the integrity of creation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the title Walking, Praying, and Working Together: An Ecumenical Pilgrimage, the Joint Working Group (JWG) of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) offered its tenth report to the most recent WCC assembly in Karlsruhe in 2022. This report recounts many instances of cooperation between the RCC and the WCC. This fact raises the question of whether the relations between the RCC and the WCC have changed and, if so, in what way. This article goes back to the roots of the JWG and tries to imagine the ecumenical atmosphere of those days to adequately understand the present situation. It critically assesses selected instances of cooperation mentioned in the tenth report and draws conclusions from the assessment. What does this mean for the work of the JWG? And what does this mean for the relationship between the JWG's parent bodies: the RCC and the WCC? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article, by one of those involved in the process that led to the 1973 Leuenberg Agreement between Lutheran, Reformed, and United churches, considers the significance of the agreement and its methodology, often described as "differentiated consensus," for ecumenical efforts aimed at church unity. The article begins by reviewing the Leuenberg Agreement against the background of other models of church unity and the significance of the aim of church fellowship or communion. It then reviews how the agreement stimulated theological conversations between Lutherans and Roman Catholics, and the contribution of the insights of the Leuenberg Agreement to the process of the mutual recognition of churches, in which the communion in Jesus Christ founded in baptism plays a central role. In this process, the churches are on a pilgrimage together whose ultimate goal is the coming of the kingdom of God. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, Odair Pedroso Mateus imagines himself as a participant at the founding assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in 1948, writing a set of short notes about the proceedings of the gathering and setting out the main issues facing the newly founded WCC in its search for the visible unity of the churches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This book is the first outcome of a global online study process related to the 100th Jubilee of the foundation of the International Missionary Council (IMC). This collection of studies from various regions provides fascinating summaries of developments within the IMC and its influence on mission and mission cooperation regionally and on the world level. Fruitful contacts with the IMC included New Zealand participation in Edinburgh and later in other IMC conferences after the establishment of the New Zealand National Missionary Council (NMC) in 1926. [Extracted from the article]

This article offers a discussion of the Assembly Message, 'A Call to Act Together', which unpacks, reframes, critiques and amplifies some key texts and concepts and explores their missiological relevance from an Indian and indigeneous perspective. The Assembly Message highlights love as the moving force for mission, but the article questions if the Ecumenical movement has the boldness and inclusiveness required by love rooted in Christ. The call for reconcilitation is unpacked through reflections on the Ao Naga practice of Aksü, which is a tradition and custom for enabling reconciliation and peacemaking. The article offers Aksü as an illustration of the practices that could ground the Message's claim for reconciliation and names dimensions of the spirituality needed to sustain the Ecumenical movement's future direction. Love and reconciliation point to interrelationship, which the article insists must be inclusive of commonality and difference, but also move forward against the systems of marginalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A striking feature of the 11th Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC), held at Karlsruhe in Germany in 2022, was its lack of attention to the "Arusha Call to Discipleship" issued by the WCC World Mission Conference held in Tanzania four years earlier. Further ecumenical amnesia was evident in the Assembly's neglect of the centenary of the formation of the International Missionary Council (IMC) in 1921. It is therefore timely to recall the purpose of the integration of the IMC and the WCC in 1961. This was driven, above all, by the theological imperative that mission and unity can never be separated from one another in the ecumenical movement. On the contrary, these two essential evangelical impulses must continuously inform and energize one another. It was in expectation of such synergy that the integration of the IMC and WCC was enacted. Today, a new opportunity to fulfil this ecumenical hope presents itself. Currently, the "unity strand" in the WCC has a preference for the language of pilgrimage when it comes to expressing the nature of the ecumenical journey, while the "mission strand" has opted for the language of discipleship. The opportunity missed at Karlsruhe was to draw the two into conversation with one another. Enabling the two motifs of disciple and pilgrim to inform and enrich one another could prove to be a vital source of renewal for the ecumenical movement in the next phase of its journey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The World Council of Churches' (WCC's) 11th Assembly in Karlsruhe in 2022 issued, among other things, an assembly message. André S. Musskopf concludes the reflections on the assembly message in his article, "Sexuality as Integral Part of the Church's Being and Mission: The Movement Is Sexy." Ecumenical missiology is not the preserve of the WCC; the second half of this edition is focused on scholars working in spaces beyond the WCC and its recent assembly. [Extracted from the article]

This is an edited version of a lecture given by Ioan Sauca in February 2023 at the Study Centre for the Eastern Churches at the Institute for Ecumenical Studies of the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, at the invitation of Professor Barbara Hallensleben. The lecture takes stock of Sauca's experience as a World Council of Churches (WCC) staff member, professor, and director of the Ecumenical Institute at Bossey and, more recently, as the first Orthodox to serve as acting general secretary of the WCC; from that experience and learning, Ioan Sauca draws conclusions about the future of the ecumenical movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely recognized that the Council of Nicaea marks a watershed in relations between Christians and Jews – both specifically the Ecumenical Council itself and also more generally the decades around and following 325. It was at this time that the separation between Christians and Jews, and between Christianity and Judaism, can be said to have reached a definitively final form, the conclusion of the long, drawn‐out process referred to as the "parting of the ways." Despite periods of co‐existence and mutual enrichment, the history of Christian–Jewish relations has too often been marked by toxicity and tragedy. Christians have not only distinguished themselves from Jewish peoplebut have treated them with disparagement, exclusion, and, at times, persecution; moreover, Christian anti‐Judaism prepared the ground for a still more deadly secular antisemitism. Against this background, this article approaches the question of how to mark the 1700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea in terms of its significance for Christian–Jewish relations in our own time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In February 2022, the central committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC) agreed the proposal for a World Conference on Faith and Order to be held in 2025 to coincide with the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea. This will be the sixth such world conference since the First World Conference on Faith and Order was held in 1927 in Lausanne, Switzerland. Against this background, this article reviews the history of the World Conferences on Faith and Order from the origins of the Faith and Order movement to the Fifth World Conference on Faith and Order in 1993. Although created autonomous and self‐governing, organized around regular world conferences, with the creation of the WCC in 1948, the Faith and Order movement became a commission of the WCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the message from the meeting of Indigenous Peoples held before the 11th Assembly of the World Council of Churches, which met in Karlsruhe, Germany, in August–September 2022. The Indigenous Peoples Pre‐Assembly Meeting gathered participants from 40 different Indigenous nations who called on the WCC and its member churches to support them in their journeys to recover their God‐given identities, stating in the message that "the road to reconciliation leads through restoration of justice, because without justice, we cannot stand as equals." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the message of the meeting of the Ecumenical Disability Advocates Network held before the 11th Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Karlsruhe, Germany, August–September 2022. The network recognized the God‐given gifts of people with disabilities and the importance of making available those gifts for the body of Christ to function fully. It called on churches to continue to develop and encourage more people with disabilities to be involved in church leadership at local and denominational levels, and for wider representation in WCC assemblies and activities, especially for non‐speaking people: people who communicate through alternative and augmentative devices and people who are neurodivergent, have learning disabilities, or have invisible disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the message of the Ecumenical Youth Gathering held in advance of the 11th Assembly of the World Council of Churches, which met in Karlsruhe, Germany, in August–September 2022. In their message, the youth voiced a series of laments, and recognized and prayed for justice, forgiveness, and reconciliation of the wounds the church has inflicted and continues to inflict in the world, and they called on the WCC to provide a meaningful space for an equal representation of young people in all its processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the message of the meeting on the Just Community of Women and Men held prior to the 11th Assembly of the World Council of Churches, which met in Karlsruhe, Germany, in August–September 2022. The pre‐assembly noted the continuing and even exacerbated tragedy of gender‐based violence and abuse in multiple forms, in all regions, and within and outside churches. The report acknowledges that sociocultural realities that impose themselves on religious lives distort God's vision of life in fullness, abundance, and love. In this context, patriarchy hurts and exploits women, men, and people of all genders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the text of the address of Federal President Frank‐Walter Steinmeier at the opening of the 11th Assembly of the World Council of Churches on 31 August 2022, in Karlsruhe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents reports presented at the first meeting of the executive committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC) held in Geneva, Switzerland in November 2022. Topics addressed by the reports include budget and program plans, the 11th assembly of the WCC, the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace, as well as partners in a single ecumenical movement.

This is the text of the address on 31 August 2022 of the moderator of the central committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC) to the WCC's 11th Assembly, which took place in Karlsruhe, Germany, from 31 August to 8 September 2022. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the text of a Unity Statement approved on 8 September 2022 by the 11th Assembly of the World Council of Churches, which met in Karlsruhe, Germany, from 31 August to 8 September 2022. Successive WCC assemblies have offered a statement to inspire the churches to reflect on why they have chosen to journey together and the significance of the call to unity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the text of the report on 31 August 2022 of the acting general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC) to the WCC's 11th Assembly, which took place in Karlsruhe, Germany, from 31 August to 8 September 2022. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers an overview of the 11th Assembly of the World Council of Churches, which met in Karlsruhe, Germany, in August–September 2022. It sets out the context in which the assembly took place, the main issues discussed, and perspectives for the future. The article argues that the assembly in Karlsruhe demonstrated that the ecumenical movement still is alive and can offer enormous potential in a world at the brink of a new East–West divide, facing a significant weakening of multilateral structures of cooperation, and even the threat of nuclear war. Moreover, the Karlsruhe assembly demonstrated that on subjects such as the Middle East, peace ethics, and nationalism, and in the deep commitment and spiritual life of its participants, the ecumenical movement is vital and vibrant and represents a countercultural force against rigid nationalisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the face of growing tensions between nations, communities, and individuals, it is necessary to build understanding and dialog between them. Political, economic, and cultural activities are not always sufficient and effective, due to the fact that attitudes toward other people depend less on systemic solutions, laws, and procedures than on what is inside human beings, their empathy and solidarity. Pope Francis has therefore proposed a platform for understanding and peace‐building between people that relates to people's interior development, that is, the idea of universal fraternity. This term, used after Pope Francis, is understood as fraternity of both men and women, brothers and sisters. The article analyzes this concept and indicates how religious education in a broad sense can contribute to the promotion of this idea. The problem hereof can be expressed in the questions: How to understand the idea of universal fraternity, how to realize that we are all sisters and brothers, what concrete fruits could the realization of this idea bring? What role does religious education play in acceptance and understanding, and then implementation as well as promotion of this idea that cannot be reduced to the transmission of knowledge alone? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I see my journey to ecumenicity as having significant similarities to that of my church, from a spiritual ecumenism to a more structured ecumenism. PEFA ecumenicity (1940s-70s) As mentioned above, the theology of William Seymour, father of the Azusa Street revival, was paramount in shaping how ecumenism within PEFA would be perceived and practised. Some of the notable classical Pentecostal members of the Evangelical Alliance of Kenya are the Redeemed Gospel Churches, Christ Is the Answer Ministries, and Deliverance Churches of Kenya. As a member of a classical Pentecostal church in Kenya, the Pentecostal Evangelistic Fellowship of Africa (PEFA), I am a testament to the significant changes that have happened as far as ecumenicity is concerned. [Extracted from the article]

Taking into account the global and local challenges that we are going through, and from a theological‐historical perspective, the working hypothesis in this article is that the ecumenical movement (as part of missio Dei) helped to produce a scenario in 20th‐century Latin America that we could call "mission incarnated." This is argued using two historical examples: the interaction and mutual enrichment between Latin American liberation theology and the theology of the Wesleyan tradition; and the ecclesial example of the Methodist Church in Argentina. Finally, some theological and missionary challenges that stem from this history are discussed, being important for the ecumenical movement and the Christian faith communities in Latin America at this key point in time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the ministry of cross‐cultural, long‐term missionaries was at the heart of the work and reflection of the International Missionary Council (IMC), the meetings of its successor, the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism, paid much less attention to the role of missionaries and even fell virtually silent on it for some decades. This article traces the shift in the perception of missionaries in the ecumenical movement in the era of decolonization, especially in the 1950s and early 1960s. It contends that with the bathwater of colonial ecclesiastical domination, the baby – the cross‐cultural missionary – was also thrown out. At the Ghana assembly of the IMC, one delegate compared the missionary societies to David and the local churches to Solomon and argued that the time had come for David to give way to Solomon. While many in the ecumenical movement were inclined to go along with this idea, the voluntary principle that had fuelled the Protestant missionary movement of the 19th and early 20th centuries could not be quelled. Missionaries continued to be sent, often outside the mainstream ecclesiastical bodies, and increasingly from countries in Asia, Latin America, and Africa. This article ends with a plea for fresh ecumenical reflection on the role of missionaries in churches and missions. The illustrations are drawn from the context of the Middle East, where mainstream Protestant missionaries helped birth the ecumenical movement but steadily decreased in number over the course of the 20th century. As elsewhere, new waves of non‐mainstream and non‐Western Protestant missionaries have come to the Middle East, a development that necessitates renewed ecumenical reflection and new forms of cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adequate research has been done on the relationship of evangelism to non‐Christian religions, church mission, and culture. These topics have been studied and addressed when ecumenical organizations like the International Missionary Council (IMC) – now the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism (CWME) of the World Council of Churches – develop the theory of evangelism in their evangelizing enterprises. The China Continuation Committee was one of the founding members of the IMC in 1921, and thus proactively participated in the IMC's mission. Chinese Christians inevitably encountered the same challenges in their early evangelizing attempts. This article examines Chinese Christians' early efforts to self‐propagate the gospel in the social environment of the first half of the 20th century in China. Chinese Christianity has demonstrated distinctive approaches to the above three key relationships, as Chinese Christians dedicate themselves to national salvation and liberation. It can even be said that in the first half of the 1900s, Chinese churches made more progress than other churches in the ecumenical world in such respects as indigenization and self‐propagating ministry – even though some of the efforts were mingled with narrow‐minded motives of converting Chinese people. It was not until the launch of the Three‐Self Patriotic Movement that Chinese Christianity became an authentically autonomous Christian church, which has severed its ties with colonialism and started pursuing all‐round self‐reliance, including church evangelism. After analyzing the challenges that Chinese churches still face today in terms of evangelism, this article calls for Chinese Christianity to learn from IMC‐CWME's experience of evangelism for the further contextualization of Christianity in China. This aims at making the gospel proclamation carry more Chinese characteristics and eventually form an evangelism theology of Chinese Christianity. In this way, the outcome of the early efforts can be consolidated and the gospel message will better fit today's Chinese context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intended as a review of the first volume of the new multi‐volume publication A History of the Desire for Christian Unity, this article also considers approaches to the writing of ecumenical history, which can, it asserts, quickly become contested history, and on two fronts. First, ecumenical history cannot isolate itself from the modern, secular approach to historiography, where historical developments are accounted for within the framework of human, social, psychological, economic, and cultural forces without regard to specifically religious factors (still less, divine involvement). Second, advocacy for Christian unity takes different forms, promoted variously by particular churches and traditions, or by the ecumenical organizations themselves, or by certain interest groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article emphasizes the quarterly periodical "The Ecumenical Review," published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. for the World Council of Churches and it also covers diverse topics related to the views and perspectives of authors, addressing global issues within the context of ecumenism.

For those of us who have lived through the past 70 years as hopeful ecumenists in search of a solution to the vexed questions dividing these two Christian communions, this series of essays provides welcome insights into the reasons for the collapse of the Anglican-Methodist Union scheme of the 1960s, with the consequent waning of ecumenical enthusiasm and growing disillusionment. The lessons of living with anomalies which the scheme for the formation of the Church of South India had raised were learned with difficulty within the context of an established Church of England. Anglican-Methodist Ecumenism: The Search for Church Unity, 1920-2020. [Extracted from the article]

This article underlines the need for theological education to be ecumenical if it is to be genuine theological education, an injunction that applies to Orthodox churches as much as the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches. The article highlights the 1920 encyclical of the Ecumenical Patriarchate that encouraged "relationships between the theological schools and the professors of theology" but states that an exchange of professors and students is not enough, since studying theology under a confessional prism is often reducing and impoverishing. Drawing on experiences such as the Higher Institute of Ecumenical Studies in Paris and the Institute for Higher Studies in Orthodox Theology in Chambésy, Switzerland, the article asserts that it is desirable to undertake theology together, in an ecumenical way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theological education is facing a number of advances and setbacks. Among the advances are the globalization and transformation of Christianity, the evolution of communication tools, and the striving for formal theological education by groups that customarily shunned it as well as a generalized awareness for the contextuality of theological education. Setbacks can be seen in the reconfessionalization of theological education in many parts of the world and the end of significant ecumenical initiatives as well as the continuous difficulty of guaranteeing sustainability both to models of theological education and to the institutions that offer them. Mindful of these trends, this article seeks to provide a panoramic analysis of theological education in the context of an ever‐growing diversity of Christianity and to offer reflections and proposals on what is needed for a sustainable ecumenical and contextual theological education today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the response to the review of the book "Dogmatic Ecclesiology Volume 1: The Priestly Catholicity of the Church". Rachel Muers' review of the book offers a tremendously perceptive account of the ecumenical horizons and possibilities of the book, as well as the extent to which the book flows against most ecclesiological work, especially in the ecumenical sphere. book's approach offers the theological foundations and precursor to the ecumenical project itself.