A Century of Ecumenism:
What Has Been Achieved?
What Are the Next Steps Forward?
A Seminar Commemorating
The Centenary of the World Missionary Conference
Edinburgh, Scotland, 1910
June 17-19, 2010
St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity
St. Paul, Minnesota
Owens Science Center, 3M Auditorium
During the 2000 year history of Christianity, the Gospel has been spread all over the world. But that history has at times also been marked by serious conflicts among Christians especially in the fifth, eleventh and sixteenth centuries, over which they have been divided even to our own day.
Starting especially with the twentieth century, however, separated Christians began to see that their divisions are a stumbling block to the spread of the gospel, and began to take steps toward unity. While the World Missionary Conference held in Edinburgh, Scotland, in June, 1910, was primarily an event to support missionary work, especially of Protestant and Anglican missionaries, it is generally understood that the Edinburgh Conference was the major catalyst of the modern ecumenical movement. There had been missionary conferences before, but this Conference arranged for structures of continuation which led to the foundation of the International Missionary Council (1921) helping missionary societies, thereafter, to foster ongoing cooperation. Some participants at Edinburgh initiated steps leading to the Faith and Order movement, which faces conflicts concerning doctrine and church order over which Christians have been divided. The Life and Work movement emerged around the same time, including efforts, during World War I and afterwards, to seek Christian cooperation in matters of peace and social justice. The Faith and Order, and Life and Work movements came together in the formation of the World Council of Churches in 1948, and the IMC merged with it in 1961. While Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox churches were involved to this point, with the Second Vatican Council, 1962-65, the Catholic Church became deeply committed to this one ecumenical movement. It began to develop strong relationships to the World Council of Churches, though not as a member church, and also initiated a number of international bilateral dialogues with many Churches and Christian World Communions which continue today. These dialogues have achieved important results, in some cases helping to resolve to a significant degree, certain theological conflicts which were at the origin of divisions centuries earlier. While there are other significant theological and non-theological conflicts still to be faced, much has been achieved through the ecumenical movement for which we can be grateful
The centenary of the Edinburgh World Missionary Conference thus gives an opportunity to reflect on the ecumenical movement which it helped to launch, and to ask what has been achieved in the century since then. The ecumenical movement and its achievements is obviously too vast to treat in a short seminar of several days. Therefore the aim of this seminar is to concentrate the attention of scholars on an assessment of the achievements of international dialogue, including the multilateral dialogue of Faith and Order, and some of the bilateral dialogues involving the Catholic Church since Vatican II.
The St. Paul Seminary is part of a consortium that exists in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area with other schools of theology representing different traditions. They are being informed of our program, and invited to take part. Furthermore, our planning includes having a prayer service of thanksgiving for a century of ecumenism which, with all its difficulties, has fostered new relations among separated Christians in so many ways after long periods of separation and mutual hostility. As we all know, we have a long way to go toward Christian unity. But we also know that in many ways, God has blessed the hard work of many people over many years and it has led to ecumenical achievements we might not have expected a few decades ago. The churches have much for which to be thankful.
The focus of the program is on the achievements of international dialogue, both multilateral and bilateral. On the multilateral level, it will include two presentations of the achievements of Faith and Order, and also two evaluations of the World Council of Churches. The work of the WCC is different from the specific dialogues. But as one of the main results of the process which started at
There will be evaluations of the achievements of ten International Bilateral dialogues which started after Vatican II. The majority of these bilaterals will be presented by one person, thought several bilateral dialogues will be presented by two participants. While there is a generous budget provided for the seminar, both budget and time limitations led to this approach. But I believe the program will include an unusually broad range of dialogues, not usually seen together in the same program.
