The 20th century was, in many ways, the century of ecumenism. This year marks the centenary of the first world conference of one early and vital branch of the movement, known as life and work.
The origins of this went back to the late-19th century Protestant social gospel teaching which was distinct from, yet in many ways parallel to, Catholic social teaching embodied in Leo XIII’s 1891 encyclical, Rerum Novarum.
The first world conference on life and work – formally known as the Universal Christian Conference on Life and Work – was held in 1925 in Stockholm, a moment in church history forever linked to the vision of the legendary Lutheran Archbishop of Uppsala, Nathan Söderblom.
However, the Roman Catholic church had not jet joined the ecumenical movement. That was not to happen, at least formally, until the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965).
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That development was a key aspect of John XXIII’s aggiornamento, a spirit of opening up the church to the wider world.
Yet, at Stockholm both Protestant and Orthodox representatives gathered to consider social aspects of the church’s mission. Not least because of the recent experience of the first World War, justice and peace issues were to the fore.
When the architects of Stockholm 1925 had met two years earlier in Zurich, three particular aims for the conference were identified: first, to unite the churches in common practical work; second, to give the churches a common voice; and third, to apply the principles of the gospel towards the solution of contemporary social and international problems.
The message adopted by the conference declared the “supreme value” of the soul, which was not to be subordinated to the rights of property or to industrial interests. Property was to be regarded as held in stewardship before God, while “co-operation” between capital and labour was to take the place of conflict.
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These were straightforward and perhaps obvious priorities, but this was a starting point and because the conference had been only the beginning of life and work as a clear agenda of the churches, a continuation committee was formed.
Yet those interwar years were, of course, marked by political and economic forces that ran directly counter to the moral imperatives of life and work.
This situation in 1918-1938 has been aptly summarised by Norman Davies in his simply titled but nonetheless magnificent work entitled Europe: A History. He wrote: “On the moral front, one has to note the extreme contrast between the material advancement of European civilisation and the terrible regression in political and intellectual values. Militarism, fascism and communism found their adherents not only in the manipulated masses of the most afflicted nations but amongst Europe’s most educated elites and in its most democratic countries.”
In precisely this confused and disturbing context, life and work sought to articulate a distinctively Christian vision.
Certainly, the churches do not have the kind of power to change things that governments possess. However, religion has been seen to have a real but different kind of power; a supreme power to move the human heart and to bring about the deepest interior change in the lives of individuals.
A conference marking the centenary of Stockholm 1925 took place recently in Athens.
Opening the event, the primate of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Greece, Ieronymos II, said it was being held at a time when Christian care for the suffering and uprooting of fellow human beings was of particular importance.
The official message of the Athens conference referred also to a number of other specific matters of deep concern. First, the “utter inadequacy and ineffectiveness” of the UN security council to prevent or resolve the conflicts in Gaza, Ukraine or Sudan. It had raised “grave doubts” both about the effectiveness of the body and about whether the international community, to which reference is often made, “actually exists any more or has become an empty mirage”.
Lamenting this situation, the conference called for urgent, root-and-branch reform of the international peace and security architecture.
A further concern highlighted in the message of the centenary conference in Athens was that of contemporary income inequality. This was seen as far exceeding the inequality in 1925 and as constituting a challenge to democracy as well as to social and economic stability.
The rise of popular nationalism was seen as a concomitant of these challenging realities.
The life and work strand of early 20th century ecumenism was to become an integral part of the World Council of Churches. That was in 1948, and the life and work agenda remains today, clearly as relevant as ever.
Canon Ian Ellis is former editor of `The Church of Ireland Gazette.’
