Editing World Council of Churches (section)

==History==
The [[Christian ecumenism|Ecumenical Movement]] met with initial successes in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including the [[Edinburgh Missionary Conference]] of 1910 (chaired by future WCC Honorary President [[John R. Mott]]). In 1920, the former [[Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople|Patriarch of Constantinople]], [[Germanus V of Constantinople|Germanus V]], wrote a letter 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]]".<ref name="Ware1993">{{cite book|last=Ware|first=Kallistos|title=The Orthodox Church|date=29 April 1993|publisher=Penguin Adult|isbn=9780140146561|page=322|quote=From the beginning of the twentieth century the Ecumenical Patriarchate has shown a special concern for Christian reconciliation. At his accession in 1902, Patriarch Joachim III sent an encyclical letter to all the autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Churches, asking in particular for their opinion on relations with other Christian bodies. In January 1920 the Ecumenical Patriarchate followed this up with a bold and prophetic letter 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. Many of the ideas in this letter anticipate subsequent developments in the WCC. Constantinople, along with several of the other Eastern Orthodox Churches, was represented at the Faith and Order Conferences at Lausanne in 1927 and at Edinburgh in 1937. The Ecumenical Patriarchate also participated in the first Assembly of the WCC at Amsterdam in 1948, and has been a consistent supporter of the work of the WCC ever since.}}</ref> Church leaders agreed in 1937 to establish a World Council of Churches, based on a merger of the ''[[Faith and Order Movement]]'' (under [[Charles Brent]] of the [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopal Church]] of the United States) and ''[[Life and Work (conference)|Life and Work Movement]]'' (under [[Nathan Söderblom]] of the Lutheran [[Church of Sweden]]) organisations.

Its official establishment was deferred with the outbreak of [[World War II]] until 23 August 1948. Delegates of 147 churches assembled in [[Amsterdam]] to merge the [[Faith and Order Movement]] and Life and Work Movement.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.oikoumene.org/en/who-are-we/background/history/assemblies.html|title=WCC Assemblies 1948 - today|publisher=World Council of Churches|access-date=2011-08-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110908154936/http://www.oikoumene.org/en/who-are-we/background/history/assemblies.html|archive-date=2011-09-08|url-status=dead}}</ref> This was consolidated by a second meeting at [[Lund]] in 1950, for which the British Methodist [[Robert Newton Flew]] edited an influential volume of studies, ''The Nature of the Church''.<ref>Flew's ODNB entry: [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/39614 Retrieved 18 September 2011. Subscription required.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210729212042/https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-39614;jsessionid=4678453D0BC3791F580939404240868B |date=29 July 2021 }}</ref> Subsequent mergers were with the [[International Missionary Council]] in 1961 and the World Council of Christian Education, with its roots in the 18th century [[Sunday School]] movement, in 1971.

WCC member churches include the [[Assyrian Church of the East]] and the [[Oriental Orthodox Church]]es, almost all of the [[Eastern Orthodox Church]]es and [[Lutheran Church]]es; the [[Moravian Church]]; the [[Anglican Communion]]; some [[Old Catholic Church]]es; the Methodist churches; the [[Presbyterian]] and other [[Reformed churches]], a sampling of [[United and uniting churches|united]] and independent churches, and some [[Baptist]] and [[Pentecostal]] churches.<ref name="Harmon2010"/><ref name="Roberson1995">{{cite book |last1=Roberson |first1=Ronald G. |title=Oriental Orthodox-Roman Catholic Interchurch Marriages: And Other Pastoral Relationships |date=1995 |publisher=USCCB Publishing |isbn=978-1-55586-097-4 |page=81 |language=en|quote=These Churches are the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Coptic Orthodox Church, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, the Syrian Orthodox Church, and the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church in India. In addition, an independent Orthodox Church of Eritrea was established following that country's independence from Ethiopia in 1993. All are members of the World Council of Churches and have committed themselves to the contemporary ecumenical movement. In total, there are probably about thirty million Oriental Orthodox faithful in the world today.}}</ref>

Many churches who refused to join the WCC joined to form the [[World Evangelical Alliance]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.worldea.org/|title=WEA - World Evangelical Alliance Est 1846|access-date=2015-07-09}}</ref>

Neither the WCC nor the U.S.-based [[National Council of Churches]] (NCC) include denominations such as [[Jehovah's Witnesses|Jehovah’s Witnesses]], [[The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]] ([[Mormons]]), [[The Church of Scientology]], and other groups which have historically refused to affirm certain widely accepted creeds of Christendom (for example, the [[Trinity|Holy Trinity]] as canonized by the [[Nicene Creed]]).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.equip.org/articles/the-world-and-national-councils-of-churches/|title=The World and National Councils of Churches|via=Christian Research Institute}}</ref>

[[File:Meeting with World Council of Churches Delegation. Bp. G. Brook Mosely, Sec. State Dean Rusk, Dr. Kenneth L. Maxwell - NARA - 194177.jpg|thumb|President [[John F. Kennedy]] with World Council of Churches Delegation. Bp. G. Brook Mosely, Sec. State [[Dean Rusk]], Dr. Kenneth L. Maxwell, Dr. [[Frederick Nolde]], President Kennedy, [[Archbishop Iakovos of America]], Dr. [[Franklin Clark Fry]], Bp. B. Julian Smith, Bp. [[John Wesley Lord]], Judge [[James M. Tunnell Jr.]], Dr. [[Roswell Parkhurst Barnes]]. White House, Cabinet Room in 1962.]]
Delegates sent from the member churches meet every seven or eight years in an Assembly, which elects a Central Committee that governs between Assemblies. A variety of other committees and commissions answer to the Central Committee and its staff. Assemblies have been held since 1948.

[[File:1951 Greek special passport for Italy & Switzerland and used to participate in the work of the "World Council of Churches".jpg|thumb|1951 Greek special passport for Italy & Switzerland and used to participate in the work of the "World Council of Churches".]]

The "human rights abuses in communist countries evoked grave concern among the leaders of the World Council of Churches."<ref>{{cite book|last=Forsythe|first=David P.|title=Encyclopedia of Human Rights, Volume 1|year=2009|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0195334029|page=277}}</ref> However, historian Christopher Andrew claims that, during the Cold War, a number of important WCC representatives of the Orthodox Church in Eastern Europe had been working for the KGB, and that they influenced the policy of the WCC.<ref name= andrew>Christopher Andrew, "KGB Foreign Intelligence from Brezhnev to the Coup"', in: Wesley K. Wark (ed), ''Espionage: past, present, future?'', Routledge, 1994, [https://books.google.com/books?id=vmXGUkB4ZKQC&dq=wcc+kgb&pg=PA52 p. 52]: "One recently declassified document of 1969 describes the work of five KGB agents on the WCC Central Committee and the appointment of another to a 'high WCC post'. A similar report from 1989 claims that, as a result of agent operations to implement 'a plan approved by the KGB leadership', the WCC Executive and Central Committee adopted public statements (eight) and messages (three) which corresponded to the political course of Socialist [Communist] countries'. While it would be naive to take such boasting entirely a face value, there can be little doubt about the reality of Soviet penetration of the WCC."</ref> From 1955 to 1958, [[Robert S. Bilheimer]] co-chaired a WCC international commission to prepare a document addressing the threat of [[nuclear warfare]] during the Cold War.<ref>{{Cite book|page=194|title=Cold War Christians and the Spectre of Nuclear Deterrence, 1945-1959|author=Jonathan Gorry|publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]]|year=2013|isbn=978-1137334244}}</ref>

At the 1961 conference, a 32-year-old Russian Orthodox Bishop named Aleksey Ridiger was sent as delegate to the assembly, and then appointed to the WCC's central committee. He was later elected as Russian patriarch in 1990 as [[Alexy II of Moscow|Alexei II]].<ref>John Gordon Garrard et al., ''Russian Orthodoxy Resurgent: Faith and Power in the New Russia.'', p. 37 f. Google books preview here [https://books.google.com/books?id=1ZxqRHfRz-QC&dq=world+council+of+churches+kgb&pg=PA37].</ref>

The ninth assembly took place in [[Porto Alegre, Brazil]] in February 2006, under the theme "God, in your grace, transform the world".<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/assembly/2006-porto-alegre/official-report-of-the-wcc-9th-assembly/@@download/file/poa_report.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141024213026/http://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/assembly/2006-porto-alegre/official-report-of-the-wcc-9th-assembly/@@download/file/poa_report.pdf |archive-date=2014-10-24 |url-status=live |title=Official Report of the Ninth Assembly of the World Council of Churches|publisher=World Council of Churches|access-date=2015-07-09}}</ref> During the first Assemblies, theologians [[Vasileios Ioannidis]] and Amilkas Alivizatos contributed significantly to the debates that led to the drafting of the "Toronto Statement", a foundational document which facilitated Eastern Orthodox participation in the organization and today it constitutes its ecclesiological charter.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.oikoumene.org/resources/documents/other-meetings/visits/archbishop-christodoulos/wcc-general-secretary-welcome-speech.html|title=WCC General Secretary Welcome Speech of the Official Visit of His Beatitude Archbishop Christodoulos of Athens and of All Greece to the World Council of Churches, 29 May 2006|work=World Council of Churches|access-date=2011-05-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121007105411/http://www.oikoumene.org/resources/documents/other-meetings/visits/archbishop-christodoulos/wcc-general-secretary-welcome-speech.html|archive-date=7 October 2012|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref>

The 10th Assembly was held in [[Busan]], Republic of Korea, from 30 October to 8 November 2013.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wcc-assembly.info|title=10th Assembly of the World Council of Churches|access-date=2015-07-09}}</ref>

In 2013 Dr. [[Agnes Abuom]] of Nairobi, from the Anglican Church of Kenya, was elected as moderator of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches; she is the first woman and the first African to hold this position.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://allafrica.com/stories/201311081461.html|title=allAfrica.com: Kenya: First Woman and African Moderator Elected to the WCC Central Committee|work=allAfrica.com|access-date=2015-07-09}}</ref>

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".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Unity Statement of the WCC 11th Assembly |url=https://www.oikoumene.org/resources/documents/unity-statement-of-the-wcc-11th-assembly |access-date=2023-10-05 |website=World Council of Churches |language=en}}</ref>