Ecumenism – A brief history

A BRIEF history of ecumenism with particular reference to the ecumenical movement in Australia and to the Victorian Council of Churches

Psalm 133:1: “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!” (Psalm 133:1)

Maintaining “the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace” (Ephesians 4: 3)

Introduction
Ecumenism (Oikoumene in Greek) refers to the movement for the unity of the church. The Greek word oikoumene carries the sense of wholeness or completeness and can refer not just to the household but also to the whole of the inhabited world. In either case, it speaks of unity.

“Ecumenism” includes a focus on dialogue and mutual understanding between Christian Churches.

Ecumenism recognises that unity in Christ outweighs the diversity in practice and beliefs in Christianity and that there are many things the Churches can do together rather than apart. Through ecumenism, Christians can celebrate diversity whilst also embracing and honouring diversity.

Ecumenism creates opportunities to work, pray with and for each other, worship together, and dialogue together.

A common misconception is that Churches lose their distinctive identity and practice, and that the desired outcome is that denominations become one. This is not the intention of ecumenism, which values the integrity of each tradition, while learning from, with and alongside each other.

Ecumenism is quite distinct from interfaith dialogue.

NCCA Statement on Ecumenism (NCCA Faith and Unity 2021)

Resources by Ray Williamson here.

The history of the modern ecumenical movement appears, overwhelmingly in the accounts of scholarly ecumenists, to be a big story of leadership, conferences, meetings and milestone councils, notably the 1910 Edinburgh Missionary Conference, the founding of the World Council of Churches in 1948 and the Second Vatican Council of 1962–65.

A catalyst for the Christian churches in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s were many revivals across Europe and America. The intention was to evangelize the world in their generation.

Missionary work until this time was exclusively a denominational enterprise. But “the challenge of a common task in a context where confessional identity was something transplanted from afar convinced many missionaries that division among Christians was a scandal.”

Student Christian movements (and the establishment of the World Student Christian Federation in 1895), along with Church mission agencies, played a key role in the foundation of ecumenism at the turn of the 20th century.

***

July 10, 1895
Victorian Council of Churches – statement on Opium Traffic and Sweating (see reference on Trove)
The Council of Chamber continued their session today in the Assembly Hall. Dr Bowen presided. They discussed the opium traffic and agreed to approach the Government in favour of a repressive Bill. The sweating evil was mentioned and resolutions were carried in sympathy with lawful efforts for improving the remuneration of labour and a righteous amendment of the Factory Act, with a view to prevent labour from being exploited by middlemen, and to stop a depreciation of it. 

1896 Australian Student Christian Movement established

28 April 1898 Commonwealth Bill (see Trove)
Victorian Council of Churches accepts the Commonwealth Bill*
The Council of Churches, at a meeting held today, which was attended by some twenty members and presided over by the
Rev. T. Copeland, adopted an address to the Churches of Victoria in regard to the Commonwealth Bill. The Council accepts the Bill for itself, and recommend it to the Churches for acceptance as ‘if not the best conceivable Bill, it is the best that can at present be obtained. ‘ The Council also recommends Sunday, May 22, as a day to be ‘set apart for local prayer and preaching at this crisis in the national life of the colonies.’
(* The Constitution was the foundation for establishing a federal system of government).

January 1901 The federation of the Australian colonies to form the Commonwealth of Australia – a great political achievement.
At the time, there was a great deal of optimism about the human capacity for cooperation.
At the same time, church leaders were facing the challenges of modernisation and the pressures of theological liberalism.

24 July 1901 Federation of the various Presbyterian Churches of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia, which joined together to form the Presbyterian Church of Australia. The structure was similar to the Federation which formed the Commonwealth of Australia on January 1 of that same year. In his inaugural moderatorial address, John Meiklejohn made it clear that the ecclesiastical union consciously reflected the political union of the Australian colonies: “We have, by forming this Assembly, formed a Court whose jurisdiction is, as regards territory, equal to, and coterminous with that of the Federal Parliament, and like it, is representative in its character.”

This union linked churches of the same denomination in different locations into one body without forming a monolithic national church. The individual state churches also kept their individual identities, rights, and privileges.

1 January 1902 Five Methodist denominations in Australia – the Wesleyan Methodist Church, the Primitive Methodists, the Bible Christian Church, the United Methodist Free and the Methodist New Connexion Churches came together to found a new church, the Methodist Church of Australasia.

April 1902 Melbourne Simultaneous Mission
(see Trove article)
Historian Stuart Piggin describes the one-month Mission as “probably the greatest evangelistic campaign in Australia’s history prior to the 1959 Billy Graham crusade.” Instigated by the Evangelisation Society of Victoria, the Mission drew in 214 churches, along with a large number of parachurch organisations. In addition to the massive city-centre events at the Town Hall and Exhibition Building in its second week, it also included fifty mission sites across Melbourne. Over 117,000 participated in prayer meetings in the six weeks prior to the Mission, over 250,000 attended the Mission events themselves (about half of Melbourne’s population at the time) and 8,624 made a profession of faith. After the first two weeks, the suburban events gave way to the city events for the last two week. The meetings were held in the Town Hall and the Exhibition Building, the latter seating 8,000 people. Up to 15,000 were trying to get in nightly.
The Southern Cross editorial, immediately before the Mission began, reads: [S]o many different Churches – Anglicans, Presbyterians, Methodists, Congregationalists, Baptists – agreeing for a moment to forget the things in which they differ, and to remember only their own common and supreme duty. The fact is itself a concrete and luminous prophecy, a witness to the essential and permanent unity of all Protestant Churches, a pledge of combinations in the future even greater in scale and happier in promise than that which the world now witnesses. We have a right to believe that we are on the verge of a great spiritual movement. (‘Editorial: All Things Are Now Ready’, The Southern Cross, 11 April 1902, XXI.15 edition, National Archives of Australia, State Library of Victoria)

Church leaders were positive about the vast demonstration of ecumenical cooperation.

1908 The practice of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity was introduced by Fr Paul Wattson. Read about the history here.

August 1909 COUNCIL OF CHURCHES (Trove reference)
A meeting of the Victorian Council of Churches was held at the Independent Hall yesterday afternoon. The President (Rev. T. S. B. Woodfull) presided. Consideration was given to it proposal that the council take up the matter of evangelistic work at street corners and on the Yarra Bank on an extensive scale, and the evangelistic committee was deputed to go into the question and report to the next meeting of the council. It was pointed out
that there was urgent need for some such scheme, which could only be rendered effective by the earnest co-operation of all the
churches.With reference to the annual Church Congress, which was originally set down for September 30, some doubt was expressed as to the possibility of dealing with all the questions that would be brought up, and after discussion it was decided to extend the meeting over the second day, when special consideration will be given to the methods and meaning of the recent evangelistic campaign conducted by Dr. Chapman and Mr. Alexander. An effort will be made to secure the attendance of Messrs. Nicholson and Hemruinger (members of the Chapman-Alexander party who are at present touring Victorian country towns under the auspices of the Evangelisation Society of Australasia). At a public meeting in connection with the congress on September 30, Mr. G. H. Reid, MLA., will speak on “Some Phases of the duties of citizenship, and Mr. Fisher (leader of the Federal Labour party) will deal with “The Ethics of Labour.”

30 September 1909 Socialism and Religion (Trove reference P.5 here)
Victorian Council of Churches – Socialism and Religion
Address by the VCC President
The annual Congress of the Council of Churches in Victoria commenced today. The President of the Council, the Rev. T. S. B. Woodfull, who presided, in his annual address said: “Today the note of Collectivism or Socialism was being sounded, and the fear might be expressedt that in the propaganda of the doctrine the moral side was being lost sight of and the propagandists were forgetting that bodies had souls within them. If they got Socialism, with its colossal strength, its unlimited resources, and its absolute power of government, and they let it exist without a purified conscience they would get the worst form of Government the world had ever seen. (Applause,) If they were to have such a giant let them make him moral before they let him loose.” (Applause.)

September 1909
Council of Churches Resolution – use of noxious drugs (Trove)
At a special meeting of the Victorian Council of Churches yesterday (16th Sept) the President (the Rev. T. S. B. Woodfull) reported having interviewed the State Premier (Mr. Murray) on the question of the use of noxious drugs, and he had made arrangements for the Premier to receive a deputation, representing the Council of Churches, other Protestant churches not affiliated, and metropolitan social and philanthropic organisations After a lengthy discussion on the questions arising from the report, appreciative reference was made to the recent
speech of the Chief Justice (Sir John Madden), and the following resolution was unanimously carried:

That the Victorian Council of Churches desires to express its hearty approval of the statement of the Chief Justice (Sir John Madden), and, realising that such an outspoken address was a wise call to the community, urges the necessity of increased parental control and the enactment of a such legislation as shall remedy the very undesirable conditions at present surrounding the life of our youths.

A resolution was also carried, commending the State Premier for his public sympathy with the Council s crusade against the
cigarette habit amongst youths. On the recommendation of the evangelistic committee the question of holding open in services
at street corners and on the Yarra bank was remitted to a conference, to be held between the evangelistic committee,
representatives of the Evangelisation Society of Australia, and the Revs A R Edgar (Superintendent of the Central Mission)
and F C Spurr (of the Collins Street Baptist Church)

14 to 23 June, 1910 Edinburgh Missionary Conference held in Scotland, presided over by John Mott (future WCC Honorary President), beginning modern Protestant ecumenical cooperation in missions. This inaugurated another aspect of ecumenism by dramatizing the necessity of unity and international cooperation in fulfilling the world mission of the church. Participants were from mission-minded evangelical Protestant mission societies, not churches, and mainly focussed on work among non-Christian people. Some have seen it as both the culmination of nineteenth-century Protestant Christian missions and the formal beginning of the modern Protestant Christian ecumenical movement, after a sequence of interdenominational meetings that can be traced back as far as 1854. Edinburgh is described as “one of the great landmarks in the history of the church,” and is often cited as the birthplace of the ecumenical movement.

April 1910 COUNCIL OF CHURCHES (Trove reference)
At the ordinary meeting of the Victorian Council of Churches yesterday afternoon the Rev. Alexander Stewart reported that
satisfactory progress was being made with the movement for the establishment of a faculty for conferring degrees and diplomas in divinity. The Council resolved to remit the question of the observance of Labour Sunday to the public questions committee
to whom power was given to make all necessary arrangements.  Satisfaction was expressed at the response made by the churches to the appeal last year, and it is hoped that this year they will still be more generally observed. Satisfaction was expressed at the action of the Postmaster General (Sir John Quick) in placing further postal prohibitions on correspondence with Tattersalls and a resolution was also carried thanking the authorities in Queensland for allowing the successful referendum on the question of religious instruction in the Queensland State
schools. The Rev J P M Cann (president of the Methodist Conference) was welcomed as a new delegate.

October 1911 Rev Dr Fitchett, Methodist Minister and previous VCC President, attended an ecumenical conference in Toronto, Canada.

25 April 1918 Lotteries – Council of Churches Protest
The Victorian Council of Churches has carried a resolution protesting against the Govermment regulations by which permission has been given to certain business firms to
dispose of war bonds by lotteries. (Trove)

January 1920 The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, published an encyclical “addressed ‘To all the Churches of Christ, wherever they may be’, urging closer co-operation among separated Christians, and suggesting a ‘League of Churches’, parallel to the newly founded League of Nations“. This was the first official ecclesiastical proposal for an institution expressing a worldwide ecumenical collaboration and was instrumental in the foundation of the World Council of Churches (WCC).

[As a result of this initiative, almost all Eastern Orthodox churches are members of the WCC and “Orthodox ecclesiastics and theologians serve on its committees”. Kallistos Ware, a British metropolitan bishop of the Orthodox Church, has stated that ecumenism “is important for Orthodoxy: it has helped to force the various Orthodox churches out of their comparative isolation, making them meet one another and enter into a living contact with non-Orthodox Christians”]. 

1920 Joseph Houldsworth (known as J H) Oldham, a Scottish missionary in India, and unaware of the encyclical letter referred to above, issued a memorandum for a meeting of mission leaders which stated that for any organization to coordinate international Christian mission would “probably have to give way to something that may represent the beginning of a world league of Churches’.

J H Oldham became a significant figure in Christian ecumenism. 

1921 The International Missionary Council was established in London. J H Oldham served as IMC secretary from 1921 to 1938. The IMC had its roots in the 1910 World Missionary Conference in which J H Oldham was heavily involved, and which he helped found and make effective (along with John Mott, William Paton and Abbe Livingston Warnshuis). He then played a major role in the formation of the World Council of Churches.

The IMC was instrumental in building up the structures of regional and national ecumenism. The IMC joined the WCC in 1961 when it became the Division of World Mission and Evangelism.

1922 Australian Council of Christian Education formed representing Protestant and Anglican churches.

October 1924 (Trove)
“Revival of Godliness” – Victorian Churches Appeal
At the monthly meeting of the Victorian Council of Churches the following resolutions were passed:
That this meeting of the Council of Churches in Victoria
(1) Expresses its appreciation of the faithful and persistent efforts being made by ministers, members, and adherents of the respective denominations to further the Kingdom of God
and promote social and national righteousness.
(2) Solicits still closer consultation and co-operation between the churches on all questions affecting the moral and religious interests of the community.
(3) Requests one and all of the ministers and churches to unite their forces for a) For the conservation of the privileges and blessing of the Lord’s Day as a day for rest and worship; (b) for the right of the people to determine for or against the
abolition of the liquor traffic; (c) for the suppression of gambling, vice, and crime; (d) for the amelioration of poverty and distress; (e) for the equitable adjustment of industrial disputes; (f) for the promotion of national and international peace and goodwill.
(4) Deplores the insatiable craving for excessive amusements and pleasure amongst church members and adherents, especially the craze for dancing, which is regarded as a distinct menace to the spiritual life, influence, and power of the Christian Church.
(5) Urges ministers and church members to cultivate a greater love for the sanctuary, and to discourage all attempts to introduce these things into the courts of the house of the
Lord. It beseeches all Christians to maintain the highest possible standards of piety and virtue; to this end to observe regularly in their homes the privlleges of family worship.
(6) Entreats Christians everywhere to strive for a revival of true
godliness and holy living by a closer walk with God. It urges ministers to organise meetings for the deepening of the spiritual life of the people, and by penitence and prayer plead with the Giver of All Grace for a bountiful outpouring of His Holy Spirit to aid us in our witness for the truth as it is in Jesus Christ our Lord.
(7) Suggests that preparation be made in all districts for united evangelislic efforts, the proclamation of the evangel of divine love being necessary to save us from the materialistic doctrine and practice of these days, which threaten to destroy our domestic, social, and religious life.

1925 World conference on Faith and Order at Lausanne (Switzerland), Edinburgh (1937), Lund (Sweden; 1952), and Montreal (1963) guided the process of theological consensus building among Protestants, Orthodox, and Roman Catholics, which led to approval by the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches of the historic convergence text Baptism, Eucharist, and Ministry (1982). The approach used in the document has been called ecclesiology of communion by ecumenical theologians, in that the sacraments are presented as a means to achieve greater Church unity.

1926 The National Missionary Council established in Australia, representing Protestant and Anglican churches

1929 A manifesto issued by VCC about Sunday observance
(reported in The Mercury and available on Trove)
In a manifesto issued by the Council of Churches in Victoria in regard to Sunday observance, concern is expressed at the growing laxity which characterises the attitude of many people towards the Lord’s Day. It believes that it is essential to the moral as well as to the material good of the whole community that the day should be observed so as to provide that spiritual, mental, and physical recuperation necessary to the complete development and maintenance or human life and character; and also to provide those opportunities for worship and Christian service without which the responsibilities arising through human relationships cannot be adequately discharged. It is considered that the extension of travelling facilities provided by the Government inflicts a grave wrong upon the whole community. The work of the Church, particularly among children and young people, is said to be hampered to a degree known only to those who labour
among them for the good of the whole community. The council calls upon the people to consider the situation with a view to establishing the nation in righteousness. It calls upon the Gov-
ernment and local governing bodies to restrict to a minimum services which may be necessary: to refuse to provide facilities for sport, and for unnecessary labour on the Lord’s Day; to discourage to the utmost every attempt to make a holiday of the Lord’s Day; and to strengthen by all reasonable means those moral forces upon the success of which depends all that is best in individual and national life.

May 1929 reporting on Sunday observance – an article in Bairnsdale Advertiser and Tambo and Omeo Chronicle on Trove.
Manifesto Issued by Council of Victorian Churches.
In view of the “growing laxity” in the attitude of many people towards the Lord’s Pay, the following manifesto has been issued by the Council of Churches in Victoria. The council consists of representatives appointed thereto by the following. viz,: The
Presbyterian Church, the Methodist Church, the Baptist Union, the Congregational Union, the Churches of Christ, the Welsh Calvinist Church, the Society of Friends and the Salvation Army.
The Council of Churches views with deepest concern the growing laxity which characterises the attitude of many people towards the Lord’s Day. It believes that it is ‘essential to the
moral as well as the material good of the whole community that this sacred day should be suitably observed. It should be so observed as to provide that spiritual, mental and physical recuperation neeessary to the complete development and maintenance of human life and character; and also to provide those opportunities of worship and Christian service without which the responsibilities arising through human relationship cannot be adequately discharged. These vital ends are being defeated by the vast amount of unnecessary labour conducted on the Lord’s Day for purely selfish and material objects: by organised sport and holidaying which  involves the necessity of labour for others and ignore utterly the divine purpose of the day; and by the volume of trade which is being carried on for private and community gain.  The extension of travelling facilities provided by the Government, not with the object of meeting a real need of the people, but to exploit and encourage a situation which indicates a serious spiritual breakdown, and the failure of Government and local governing bodies to enforce legislative restrictions in this matter is a grave wrong upon the whole community. Individual and national character is being seriously affected by the fact that bodies charged with the responsibility of governing condone violations of legislative enactments behind which lie great moral principles. The work of the church particularly among children and young people is being hampered to a degree known only to those who labor among them for the good of the whole community. While judges, magistrates and other leaders in our social older call attention to juvenile crime ami waywardness, the one spiritual force in the community the church which strives to restrain, educate and build up a strong individual and national character is being placed at a serious disadvantage. To restrict constructive influence and encourage destructive activities is bad national policy and can only intensify the moral drift which every lover of State deplores.
We call upon the people to consider the present situation with a view to establishing the nation in righteousness. We call upon the Government and local bodies to restrict to a minimum services which in our present social order may he necessary; to refuse to provide facilities for sport and for unnecessary labor on the Lord’s Day; to discourage to the utmost every attempt to make a holiday of the Lord’s Day: and to strengthen by all means those moral forces upon the success of which depends all that is best in individual and national life.

April 1929 (Trove)
The South Australian Council of Churches has approved of a proposal from the Victorian Council for the formation of a Federal Executive of the Council of Australia. It is suggested that the various State councils shall be brought into closer relations
by means of an executive in Victoria. The different bodies are to send to the secretary of the Victorian executive a copy of the miuutes of meetings, and from these a condensed statement will be compiled which will be forwarded to each State secretary for consideration by the several councils. No action is to be taken
in the name of the Federal Council unless the State Councils have considered the proposal, and a majority of the States have sanctioned it, and then if the sanction is not unanimous it is to be taken only in the names of the States which have intimated their approval. The Rev. P Bullock (president of the South Aus
tralian Council of Churches) stated that the scheme partook more of the nature of an affiliation than of a federation. It was limited for the present to correspondence, and it had the advantage that no action could be taken if any State
council dissented without a definite announcement that that particular council was not in agreement with it. The question of a bigger federation had been considered on several occasions, but it was thought that the expense would be too great.

June 1931 Support from Council of Churches (Trove)
The following resolution has been carried by the Victorian Council of Churches: ‘The Council of Churches in Victoria, having read of the determination of the Conference of Premiers, expresses its deep satisfaction in the unified effort to be made to rehabilitate the economic position in this State and in the
Commonwealth.”

April 1932 Sunday Excursions: Council of Churches Protests. (Trove)
At a meeting of the Victorian Council of Churches (15th April) a resolution was passed deploring the extension of country railway facilities, the opening of places of amusement, and the work carried on by business enterprises on Sunday – all for money making”.
The resolution added: “The Council views with the gravest concern that the Roman Catholic authorities have organised a Sunday excursion to the country in connection with a religious festival involving the running of 20 special country farms. We regard this as a grave offence against Christian principle and sentiment and record our emphatic protest against this unjustifiable invasion of the sanctities of the Holy Day”.

1937 “Conference on Church, Community, and State”, known as the Oxford Conference of 1937. It was at this conference that the first official decision was made to form the World Council of Churches and a committee was formed for the merger of Life and Work, and Faith and Order. The plan was for the formation to take place quite soon after 1937, but war once again intervened. It has been said that the origins of the ecumenical movement were in common Christian efforts to avoid war. It failed to do this in the years before 1914, but the Christian youth movements and the missionary movement worked incessantly during and after the WW1 to maintain contacts across the lines of battle and to help heal the wounds inflicted by war.

1937 Second World Conference on Faith and Order in Edinburgh.

1937 Church leaders agreed to establish a World Council of Churches, based on a merger of the Faith and Order Movement (under Charles Brent of the Episcopal Church of the United States) and Life and Work Movement (under Nathan Söderblom of the Lutheran Church of Sweden) organisations.

1938 Gambling facilities: Council of Churches Protest
At the last meeting of the Victorian Council of Churches, members resolved to urge the Premier to introduce legislation to more effectively check gambling facilities. It was pointed out that there was a gradual increase in gambling, more particularly by way of forecasts on racing, football and cricket events. The Premier also will be asked to check other activities “which operate by various subterfuges in defiance of the obvious intention of the acts relating to gambling”. In addition, a protest will be lodged in regard to what members consider to be
the growing abuse of liquor permits. The Minister of Defence (Mr. Thorby) is to be approached and asked to issue directions prohibiting the holding of military parade and manoevres on Sundays. (Trove)

July 1939 Geneva Thirty leading Christian laymen and church leaders met and produced a document, “The Churches and the International Crisis”, which was sent to the churches and served as a basis for the ecumenical discussion on peace aims and international order in the following years. Visser’t Hooft noted that it was remarkable that already at that time an international conference spoke of “the responsibility of the whole of mankind for the whole earth”, saying, “all peoples have an interest in the wise use of the resources of individual countries and in the planning ahead for future generations”. The document also expressed the conviction that “the collective will of the community shall be used to secure the necessary changes in the interests of justice to the same extent that it is used to secure the protection of nations against violence”.

August 1941 the first meeting of the World Council of Churches in August 1941. (The outbreak of World War II delayed the formation of the WCC for seven long years)

February 1946 The Provisional Committee of the World Council of Churches, in the year after WW2 ended. The commitment to unity and peace that was offered through the World Council of Churches was considered timely.  It was decided to create a Commission on International Affairs, so that the churches could bear witness in the most united manner possible to the significance of the Christian faith for the life of the nations, at a time when the political world was in chaos “because of its failure to follow the teaching of our Lord”.

During World War II, the Geneva office of the provisional WCC enabled churches to maintain and even deepen contacts, and after WW2 this facilitated reconciliation with the German churches. The ongoing concern for the victims of war laid the foundations for the programmes of the newly constituted WCC.

1946 Constitution to form the World Council of Churches – Australian Committee adopted with 8 Members: Anglican, Presbyterian, Congregationalist, Methodist, Churches of Christ, Salvation Army, Baptist, Religious Society of Friends (Quaker). This developed into the Australian Council of Churches (and in 1994 became the National Council of Churches in Australia).
The movement for Christian unity in this country was, initially, an Anglican and Protestant affair. Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches came in, in strength, during the 1960s and 70s.

1947 First annual meeting of the World Council of Churches – Australian Committee.

1947 The Church of South India union ceremony took place at St George’s Cathedral in Madras on 27 September 1947, a month after India achieved its independence from the Britain. The CSI was formed from the union of the SIUC, (South India United Church – itself a union of churches from the Congregational, Presbyterian and Reformed traditions); the southern provinces of the (Anglican) Church of India, Pakistan, Burma and Ceylon; and the Methodist Church of South India.

29th September 1947 Victorian Council of Churches wants a Referendum on the Bank Plan (Trove)
The Council of Churches in Victoria has carried a resolution advocating that the Government should hold a referendum on
the Banking Plan.
(see Hansard record of the Banking Bill 1947)

1948 The World Council of Churches (WCC) met in Amsterdam from 22 August – 4 September, and was constituted on 23rd August 1948.

“Delegates from 147 churches, who had come to Amsterdam from around the world, unanimously approved a resolution `that the formation of the World Council of Churches be declared to be and is hereby completed.”

This was the result of many years of dialogue, negotiation and paperwork, and patient work.

The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Fisher, considered the formation of the WCC as an “act in the faith of Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

The WCC merged two arms of the International Missionary Conference – Life and Work, and Faith and Order. The focus of Life and Work was in the area of social, economic and political issues. The focus of Faith and Order was to facilitate doctrinal compromise and dialogue.

The WCC includes more than 300 churches – Protestant, Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox – which “confess the Lord Jesus Christ as God and Saviour according to the Scriptures and therefore seek to fulfil together their common calling to the glory of the one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”

The Roman Catholic Church was not represented, because in June 1948 the Holy See announced that no Roman Catholic was permitted to attend the Amsterdam Assembly even when several of them were invited as observers.

The first general secretary of the WCC was Dutch theologian Willem A. Visser’t Hooft. He held this post until his retirement in 1966.

The ecumenical movement was the catalyst for the birth of united churches around the world.

1948 Formation of the Victorian Council of Churches, Australia

1949 First Christmas Bowl Remembrance Appeal held in Australia.

1949 Ukrainian Catholic Church began in Australia. (Celebrating 75 years in 2024).

1950 (Rev Dr) John Garrett appointed as first full-time General Secretary for the World Council of Churches – Australian Committee (until 1954)
(*note: NCCA and other sources reference 1948 as well as 1950)

1950 John Garrett, General Secretary, World Council of Churches – Australian Committee) was the Australian churches’ first envoy to Indonesia following independence.

1951 Resettlement Office and Christian Commission for Inter Church Aid, established in Melbourne.

1951 The Rt Revd J R Blanchard, Presbyterian Church, appointed President, Australian Council of Churches

‘The churches should act together in all matters except those in which deep differences of conviction compel them to act separately.’ 

 

“Should not our churches ask themselves whether they are showing sufficient eagerness to enter into conversation with other Christians and whether they should not act together in all matters except those in which deep differences of conviction compel them to act separately?”

1952 John Garrett (General Secretary, World Council of Churches – Australian Committee)  jointly led the Australian delegation to the World Conference of Christian Youth at Kottayam, South India (future Prime Minister Bob Hawke was a delegate).

1954 Second Assembly of the WCC, Evanston, Illinois, USA 15–31 August 1954

1959 Greek Orthodox Church joins the World Council of Churches – Australian Committee

1960  First national conference of Australian churches. 14th annual meeting changes name to Australian Council of Churches (ACC). New members include: Antiochian Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic Churches.

1961 Third WCC Assembly, New Delhi, 19 November – 5 December 1961

“The achievement of unity will involve nothing less than a death and re-birth of many forms of church life as we have known them. We believe that nothing less costly can finally suffice”.

1962 – 65 Second Vatican Council (Vatican II)
Pope John XXIII (+1963) and the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) brought a shift. The conciliar Decree on Ecumenism Unitatis Redintegratiom, one of the classic ecumenical teaching documents, stated that the ecumenical movement was a sign of the work of the Holy Spirit in our time, opening the way for the ecumenical movement and highlighting the importance of dialogue with separated brothers and sisters and with separated churches and church communities. This gave the ecumenical movement new hope.

Another result of Vatican II was the establishment of a wide variety of international theological dialogues, commonly known as bilateral conversations. These included Roman Catholic bilaterals with Lutherans (1965), Eastern Orthodox (1967), Anglicans (1967), Methodists (1967), Reformed (1970), and Disciples of Christ (1977). Conversations were also held with the Oriental Orthodox churches and the Assyrian Church of the East, resulting in joint statements (1992 with the Oriental Orthodox; 1994 with the Assyrian Church of the East) that resolved many of the ancient Christological disputes, although they did not result in full communion.

Another conciliar Decree, Orientalium Ecclesiarum, dedicated to the Eastern-rite Churches in full communion with the Apostolic See, made clear that the longed-for goal of full unity must not lead to a dull uniformity, but rather to the integration of all legitimate diversity in an organic communion.

1963 World Conference on Faith and Order in Montreal.  The various World Conferences on Faith and Order in Lausanne (Switzerland), Edinburgh (1937), Lund (Sweden; 1952), and Montreal (1963) guided the process of theological consensus building among Protestants, Orthodox, and Roman Catholics.

For Catholics, the 2nd Vatican Council opened up fresh possibilities for relationships with other Churches.

1963 Australian Church Women established

1969 Fourth Assembly of WCC, Uppsala (Sweden), 4 – 20 July 1968

1972 Ecumenical Dialogue between the Anglican Church and the Lutheran Church begins.

1972 Force 10 becomes a joint project with Australian Catholic Relief.

1975 Fifth Assembly of WCC, Nairobi (Kenya) 23 November – 10 December

22 June 1977 Formation of the Uniting Church in Australia (the churches that came into union were the Methodist and Congregational Churches and most of the Presbyterian congregations). The Basis of Union is the document that set the platform for how these churches came together. It was issued in nearly its final form in 1974. The union is notable in that the Congregational and Presbyterian churches came from a strong theological tradition of Calvinism, while the Methodist tradition was Arminian. The union of these churches therefore required a decision on the part of both sides that the issues underlying this difference were not vital to the life of the church. Expressing this in a form acceptable to the members of all three uniting denominations was one of the many challenges faced by the writers of the Basis of Union

1977 Ecumenical Dialogue began between the Uniting Church in Australia and the Roman Catholic Church.

1977 Ecumenical Dialogue began between the Lutheran Church of Australia and the Roman Catholic Church.

1977 World Development Tea Cooperative begins (later Trade Winds Tea and Coffee P/L). Also here.

1978 Ecumenical Dialogue began between the Uniting Church in Australia and Churches of Christ.

1978  Romanian Orthodox Church joins Australian Council of Churches.

1979 Ecumenical Dialogue began between the Anglican Church and the Uniting Church in Australia.

1979 Ecumenical Dialogue began between the Uniting Church in Australia and the Lutheran Church of Australia.

1979 Catholic Church joins the Victorian Council of Churches.

1981 Ecumenical Dialogue began between the Uniting Church in Australia and the Greek Orthodox Church in Australia.

These dialogues have done much to draw the Christian Churches together in Australia. See also an article Beyond Ecumenical Dialogue by Thomas Hughson.

1982 Baptism, Eucharist, and Ministry (approved by the Faith and Order Commission of the WCC). The approach used in the document has been called ecclesiology of communion by ecumenical theologians, in that the sacraments are presented as a means to achieve greater Church unity.

1983 Ecumenical dialogue commenced in Australia between the Anglican Church and the Churches of Christ

1983 Sixth Assembly of the World Council of Churches, Vancouver BC, Canada, 24 July – 10 Augus

1983 Australian Council of Churches meets with Catholic bishops.

1983 First joint Social Justice Sunday commemorated.

1983 First ecumenical social justice statement: Changing Australia. ‘To mark this year’s Social Justice Sunday, an occasion observed by all the main Christian Churches in Australia, the country’s Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace has issued a statement in conjunction with the other denominations entitled, ‘Changing Australia‘. The statement offers an examination of the current state of Australian society, and proposes a common vision of its future development in harmony with ‘the gospel values of justice, peace, love and truth’. It is 32 pages long and applies Christian social teaching to a variety of current topics, including unemployment, the situation of the Australian Aborigines, disarmament, immigration and the environment. The document has been endorsed jointly by the commission, the Anglican Church Social Responsibilities Commission, the Uniting Church Commission on Social Responsibility, and the Australian Council of Churches, and is the first such ecumenical statement’. (Source: The Tablet, 24th September 1983)

1985 First national Heads of Churches meeting

1988 Australian Bicentennial

1988 VCC Publication (Trove)
Jews and Christians: Creating a New Spirit.
Edited by John W. Roffey.
Victorian Council of Churches. 129pp. $9.95.

1988 Simply Sharing Week launched.
Simply Sharing Week was a program of the Christian churches working together for world development, designed by Force Ten. It challenged the church to think, pray, and act for ‘”world justice.

1988 Australian Council of Churches invited non-member churches to consider setting up a new national ecumenical body and Working Party with Catholic and Lutheran representatives appointed to bring forward a proposal for consideration.

1989 Australian Council of Churches (ACC) Aboriginal and Islander Commission established.

1991 Seventh Assembly of the World Council of Churches (Canberra), 7-21 February.

“The Unity of the Church as Koinonia: Gift and Calling” – The Canberra Statement – adopted by the 1991 WCC Assembly

The calling of the church is to proclaim reconciliation and provide healing, to overcome divisions based on race, gender, age, culture, colour, and to bring all people into communion with God. Because of sin and the misunderstanding of the diverse gifts of the Spirit, the churches are painfully divided within themselves and among each other. The scandalous divisions damage the credibility of their witness to the world in worship and service. Moreover, they contradict not only the church’s witness but also its very nature. We acknowledge with gratitude to God that in the ecumenical movement the churches walk together in mutual understanding, theological convergence, common suffering and common prayer, shared witness and service, and they draw close to one another.

1994 Transition from the Australian Council of Churches to the National Council of Churches – NCCA (when the Roman Catholic Church joined as a full participant in the national ecumenical body).
The NCCA was inaugurated at St Christopher’s Cathedral Canberra on 2 July with 13 Members – Anglican, Antiochian Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic, Assyrian Church of the East, Churches of Christ, Coptic Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Religious Society of Friends, Roman Catholic, Romanian Orthodox, Salvation Army, Syrian Orthodox, and Uniting Church in Australia.

NCCA works in collaboration with state ecumenical councils around Australia. It is an associate council of the World Council of Churches, a member of the Christian Conference of Asia and a partner of Pacific Conference of Churches and other national ecumenical bodies throughout the world. It operates through various commissions each of which deals with a specific sphere of influence.

“The National Council of Churches in Australia gathers together in pilgrimage those Churches and Christian communities which confess the Lord Jesus Christ as God and Saviour according to the Scriptures and commit themselves to deepen their relationship with each other in order to express more visibly the unity willed by Christ for his Church, and to work together towards the fulfilment of their mission of common witness, proclamation and service, to the glory of the one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.”

2022 The 11th Assembly of the World Council of Churches took place in Karlsruhe, Germany, from 31 August to 8 September 2022, under the theme “Christ’s love moves the world to reconciliation and unity”

Various ecumenical events are supported including the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which provides a focus for shared worship and prayer. In the Southern Hemisphere, this is usually held between Ascension and Pentecost. The practice of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity was introduced in 1908 by Fr Paul Wattson. Read about the long history of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity here.

Receptive ecumenism (Prof Paul Murray, Durham)
The central idea requires that churches make a programmatic shift from asking ‘what do our dialogue partners need to learn from us’, to asking ‘what do we need to learn and what can we learn from our dialogue partners’. Or simply, what can my church learn from the other? Framed this way, the question is about a willingness to be self-critical and to be open to grow through learning from others.
A paper on receptive ecumenism by Dr Gerard Kelly, NCCA Faith and Unity

“Old-style ecumenism, built on relations between representatives of various denominations, undergirded by the work of theological commissions, and aimed at visible unity, is in serious trouble today. When we look at the situation globally, more new churches are founded every day than can come together as they did in the 20th century, even assuming the best intentions, hard work, and ecumenical enthusiasm on all sides. But the situation is far more positive at grassroots level. Old denominational barriers are being broken down. New divisions are being created too, of course. The most troubling to me is the widening divide between Western and in particular American Christians, especially of the Protestant kind, and their co-religionists in other parts of the world. We need to pay much more attention to what non-Western Christians tell us, not only about the character of faith, but also about what it has to say about the neediest of this world. In any case, the future of Christianity belongs primarily to them, not to us”. (Miroslav Volf – Faith and Reconciliation: A Personal Journey)

Further reading
History of the 20th century ecumenical movement

Historical archival documents held at Deakin