Page 269 - Encyclopedia Of World History

ecumenicism 619

This American lithograph titled Christian Union (c. 1845) shows men from nine Christian
denominations, with lion and lamb in foreground and Native American and African-
American men in the background.

for unity, especially across the Protestant denominations. on a more leftist cast. The rise of national Christian
The 1910 World Missionary Conference at Edinburgh is churches in newly independent African and Asian coun-
often seen as the start of this ecumenicism. Later, the tries broadened the base of transnational ecumenical
broadening of ecumenicism to encompass Protestant, bodies like the World Council of Churches. Issues of
Catholic, and Orthodox branches of Christianity re- human rights, nuclear disarmament, and social equality
sponded to other pressures, like the crisis of seculariza- figured more prominently in ecumenical circles from the
tion in the West. Many Christians saw fragmentation as 1960s onward. Efforts have aimed mainly at enhancing
due to petty squabbles, and as an obstacle in counter- practical cooperation, moving toward mutual recognition
acting the broader decline of religious belief among the of baptisms and marriages, and overcoming thorny
peoples of the developed world. Social and geographic debates over the historical roots of priestly authority. Ecu-
mobility also increased many believers’ desire to cross- menicism has tended to draw support mainly from high-
denominational boundaries and do such things as take culture establishment versions of Christianity like
communion together. Anglicanism and Catholicism, and from the more liberal
In the later twentieth century, ecumenicism often took currents like Unitarianism. Opposition has remained