Paper Presentation on: Ecumenical Movement

Topic: Faith and Order Movement

1. Introduction:

The faith and order movement was one of the major factors that finally led to the formation
of the WCC in the 20th century. This paper deals with the meaning, origin, method and
membership. The first three world conferences of Faith and Order movement and its
achievements of the conferences.1

2. The Meaning of faith and Order:

Faith - the doctrinal foundations of the churches and their differences from each other. Order
- matters related to office and sacraments, exercise of power and proper order of church life.
Faith was the source, driving force and common goal of the ecumenical movement. The
ecumenical goal is "visible unity in one faith" (WCC Constitution, Article 3); it is based on
the recognition of "the Lord Jesus Christ as God and Savior according to the Bible".2

3. The Origin of Faith and Order:

The idea of the Conference on Faith and Order, the promotion of the idea on a world scale
and the money to make it possible all came from members of the Protestant Episcopal
Church, and only ten years later Anglicans in America. Found an opportunity to give his
leadership to Anglicans, Lutherans, Orthodox, Reformed and other Europeans and Americans
across the churches. The slogan faith and order was first sounded at the General Convention
in 1886. The proposal to hold a World Conference on Faith and Order is always and rightly
related to the World Missionary Conference held in Edinburgh in 1910.The pioneers of faith
and order movement was Bishop Charles Henry Brent and Robert Gerdiner of the Protestant
Episcopal Church in the United States. . But the person who dares to present this adventurous

1
World Council of Churches, "Faith and Order: The Story of a Process, 1910-2013,"
https://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/commissions/faith-and-order accessed on March 15, 2024.
2
World Council of Churches, "Constitution of the World Council of Churches," in
https://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/central-committee/geneva-2006/constitution-of-the-world-
council-of-churches accessed on March 15, 2024.
idea first was Brent. Brent was deeply shocked by the world today and especially by their
weaknesses in the host nations. He believed that one of the main reasons for this weakness
was the division of the churches. Under his leadership, the American Episcopal Church
launched an initiative "to unite all Christians around the world who confess our Lord Jesus
Christ as God and Savior" to consider matters of faith and order. In the United States, several
churches immediately reacted by starting to appoint a cooperation committee. In 1911, the
Episcopal Church not only gathered 18 American Protestant churches, but also appointed a
committee of representatives and decided to start communication with the Church of
England, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Orthodox Church. In 1912 a delegation was
sent to the Anglican Church of Great Britain, Ireland and Scotland to bring them to a
preparation or conference in 1913. All activity until the beginning of the Faith and Order
Conference movement.3 "The faith and order movement is best about truth." Tissington
Tatlow concludes his history of faith and order up to 1948 with these words. The unity the
movement seeks will not be achieved through church carpentry or religious compromises. In
the complex motivation that gives life to the movement, there are intertwined several
convictions: first, that his Lord intended that the church be nothing; secondly, that only a
truly united church can function effectively to fulfill its mission; thirdly, that only in the
Church, which is one, can the fullness of the Christian truth be perceived.4

4. Method and Membership:

Member of the Committee on Faith and Order, which meets every three to four years, is the
world's most representative theological forum. Its purpose, according to its rules, is "to
proclaim the unity of the Church of Jesus Christ and to call the congregations to the goal of
achieving a visible unity in one faith and one Eucharist, expressed in worship and common
life in Christ, therefore; so that the world believe." The rules provide for membership in a
committee of representatives of non-WCC churches, emphasizing faith movement, character
and order. The ongoing work of Faith and Order is led by a board (30 members) and carried
out by the Secretariat of Faith and Order in Geneva. A relatively small percentage of
Orthodox members and representatives of African, Asian and Latin American churches have

3
"Faith and Order: The Story of a Process, 1910-2013," World Council of Churches,
https://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/commissions/faith-and-order accessed on March 16, 2024
4
Harold E. Fey, The Ecumenical Advance a History of The Ecumenical Movement Volume 2/1948-
1968,143
risen. to more than 20 percent and 40 percent, respectively. Women, once almost absent from
the commission, now make up almost 30 percent of the commission members.5

5. World Conferences and Meetings:

The World Conferences and Meetings organized by the Faith and Order movement stand as
hallmark events in the quest for Christian unity and doctrinal convergence. These gatherings
have served as platforms for dialogue, theological reflection, and cooperative action among
diverse Christian traditions. Originating from the vision of prominent figures like Bishop
Charles Henry Brent and driven by the imperative to overcome denominational divisions,
these conferences have catalyzed significant strides towards the realization of the movement's
core objectives.6

5.1. Lausanne, 1927: The first meeting of World Conference on faith and Order was
held at Lausanne in 1927. Bishop Charles Brent of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the
US, financed by a large gift of money from John Pierpont Morgan, was largely responsible
for the meeting of over four hundred delegates representing 108 denominations. They came
from Lutheran and Reformed, Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Methodist, Congregational,
Baptist and Disciples. Majority were official representatives of the Churches. Africa,
America and Europe were well represented, but from Asia unfortunately there came only two
nationals and missionaries. Bishop V.S. Azariah and E.J. Palmer of India brought the urgent
voice of Asian Christians to this mainly European and American Conference. They showed
that the church union movement in South was on the way already.

5.1.1. Achievements of Lausanne, 1927:

5.1.2. This achievement produces the nature of church unity among different opinions.

5.1.3. It encouraged the people to discern new man in Christ and also to discern what the
form of true humanity is.

5
Harold E. Fey, the Ecumenical Advance a History of the Ecumenical Movement Volume 2/1948-
1968, 150-155.
6
Lorelei F. Fuchs, comps, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA: Faith and Order
Commission Handbook. NCCCUSA, 2005, 60.
5.1.4. An agenda call for unity was succeeded in presenting to the churches of the world. That
call was unanimously adopted by the whole conference and that become the first major
sanction of its report.

5.1.5. Lausanne’s insights gave a clear and utter able basis for united approach to men and
women of the world into the Ecumenical Movement in the name of Jesus.

5.1.6. Of all the achievements of this conference, the most significant was its demonstration
of having frank and united discussion without any loss of unity.7

5.2 Edinburgh, 1937: When the then Second World Conference of Faith and Order
met in Edinburgh on August 3, 1937, it consisted of representatives of 123 churches; there
were 344 representatives and 84 substitutes and 15 more committee members. Those 433
people were appointed by the churches to which they belonged. Only authorized members or,
in their absence, alternate members had the right to vote. In addition, the conference had eight
tasks and 53 members of the Youth Group, a total of 504 people. This conference was led by
English church member’s archbishop William Temple, Professor A.E. Garvie and Canon
Leonard Hodson.

5.2.1 Achievements:

5.2.2. Ecumenical friendship was established. Personal confrontation resulted in the

disappearance of secession traditions and prejudices.

5.2.3. This conference confirmed that the central theme of the conference was the unity of the
church founded in Christ 5.1.3.The meeting accepted disagreement as a sinful act.

5.2.4. In this conference it was agreed to merge the movements F&O and L&W in the World
Council of Churches.

5.3 Lund, 1952: The new commission, led by Yngve Brilioth, organized the Third World
Conference on Faith and Order in Lund, Sweden in 1952. This conference marked the end of
one phase of the road and the beginning of another due to the radical differences that
emerged. In order. It merged with the WCC, but it was the beginning of a radical separation
between Catholics and Protestants. In the Lund Conference, for the first time, representatives

7
Norman Goodall, The Ecumenical Movement: What it is and what it does (London: Oxford
University Press, 1964), 50.
of Asia, Latin America and Africa joined prominent members with representatives of
Western churches. The main focus was on the unity of Jesus Christ and his relationship with
his church.

5.3.1 Achievements:

5.3.2. This conference initiated a theological discussion of the Biblical teaching about the
relation between Christ and the Church rather than regarding the agreement and
disagreement.

5.3.3. It affirmed the importance of non- theological factors of the unity of the church.8

6.1. Achievements of F&O:9

6.1.1. Participation in world conferences has been for almost all the participants a profound
spiritual experience.

6.1.2. The Una Saneta, the true and undivided body of Christ, has become for many a felt and
experienced reality.

6.1.3. Men and Women have attended the conferences as Christians.

6.1.4. F&O has helped to create, or at least to make permanent and normal, a new type
relationship between Christian scholars and leaders in the church. Thus, the commission on
F&O sees its task in a concentrated theological effort to assist the churches in overcoming
their dividing doctrinal differences, in sharing their diverse theological insights and forms of
life as a source of mutual renewal, and re- appropriating and expressing their common
apostolic tradition. All these efforts have as their goal the manifestation of the visible unity of
the church of Jesus Christ on the way to this goal the churches are called to become a credible
sign and instrument of God’s plan for the salvation and transformation of humanity and all
creation. With such a commitment F&O has rendered a significant contribution to the
radically changed relationship between the churches and the many steps they have taken to
express their full (or at least their growing) unity.

6. Conclusion:

8
Harold E. Fey. The Ecumenical Advance a History of The Ecumenical Movement ,( S.P.C.K. and The
Westminster Press,1948-1968),143
9
file:///C:/Users/ASD21/Downloads/Faith_and_Order_1920_The_Life_and_Times.pdf
From the above statement, it is quite clear that there had indeed been some achievements with
Faith and Order movement, it allows interconfessional meetings with others, but never before
over such a wide range of divisions, never before on such a world-wide scale, never before
with such utter frankness in speech commingle with unfailing charity. It is for this reason that
Lausanne 1927 presented itself to the conscience of the churchmen as something new in the
history of the churches. Participation in World Conference has been for almost all the
participants a profound spiritual experience. With this has come a steadily deepening sense of
the wrongness of division. Contact in faith and Order has meant a real discovery or
rediscovery of one another by the churches. It helps in bringing hidden things in revelation
and paves a way for bringing a new age. Faith and Order has revealed the fluidity of the
situation in which the separated Churches find themselves.10

Bibliography

10
Ruth Rouse and Stephen Charles Neil, eds, The History of Ecumenical Movement 1517-1948
(Geneva: World Council of Churches_), p. 437-441
Lorelei F. Fuchs, comps., National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA: Faith and Order
Commission Handbook. NCCCUSA, 2005.
Norman Goodall, The Ecumenical Movement: What it is and what it does (London: Oxford University
Press, 1964).
Rouse, Ruth and Stephen Charles Neil, eds, The History of Ecumenical Movement 1517-1948.
Geneva: World Council of Churches_.
Harold E. Fey, The Ecumenical Advance a History of The Ecumenical Movement Volume .1948-1968.

Webliography

World Council of Churches, "Faith and Order: The Story of a Process, 1910-2013,"
https://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/commissions/faith-and-order accessed on March 15, 2024.

World Council of Churches, "Constitution of the World Council of Churches,"in

https://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/central-committee/geneva-2006/constitution-of-
the-world-council-of-churches accessed on March 15, 2024.
"Faith and Order: The Story of a Process, 1910-2013," World Council of Churches,
https://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/commissions/faith-and-order accessed on March
16, 2024
file:///C:/Users/ASD21/Downloads/Faith_and_Order_1920_The_Life_and_Times.pdf