WCC assembly Amsterdam 1948
The first assembly of the World Council of Churches was held in Amsterdam from August 22 to September 4, 1948. Its motto was “The disorder of the world and God's plan of salvation” ( Man's Disorder and God's Design ). 351 delegates attended, sent by 145 churches. Willem Adolf Visser 't Hooft , General Secretary-designate, had led the preparations.
The opening service took place on the afternoon of August 22nd in the Nieuwe Kerk . Liturgists were the members of the transition committee who had prepared the church conference. They represented different denominational families:
- Marc Boegner , Pastor (Reformed Church Fellowship)
- Geoffrey Fisher , Archbishop of Canterbury (Anglican Communion)
- Germanos of Thyatira , Metropolitan (Orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople)
- Erling Eidem , Archbishop of Uppsala (Lutheran Church Fellowship)
- KHE Gravemeyer, pastor (Dutch Reformed Church as host).
First spoke John Raleigh Mott , who was one of the founding members of the Christian Student Union and who stood for the past of the ecumenical movement. The sermon on Ex 3:11 was delivered by Daniel Thambyrajah Niles , like Mott a Methodist theologian.
On the morning of August 23, 1948, the delegates met for a plenary session in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam . The daily work of the delegates was framed by morning and evening services; while the morning prayers represented different liturgical traditions, the evening prayer was based on the Anglican Evensong . The opening speeches on the subject of the assembly, "The disorder of the world and God's plan of salvation," were given by Karl Barth and Charles Harold Dodd .
Theological work was done in four sections corresponding to the four areas of work of the WCC: Faith and Order (I), Mission (II), Practical Christianity (III) and International Affairs (IV).
- Section I: The Universal Church in God's Design ; Chairman: Hanns Lilje ; Known members: Karl Barth, Emil Brunner , Anders Nygren , Paul Ramsey , Edmund Schlink .
- Section II: The Church's Witness to God's Design ;
- Section III: The Church and the Disorder of Society ; Chairman: Reinhold Niebuhr .
- Section IV: The Church and the International Disorder . This section will remember the controversy between John Foster Dulles and Josef Hromádka about the Church's position on communism.
On Sunday morning, August 29, 1948, a Reformed communion service took place in the Nieuwe Kerk, to which members of other denominations were invited. Anglicans, Orthodox and Lutherans celebrated eucharistic services on the following days.
Web links
- Odair Pedroso Mateus: # WCC70 Amsterdam, 1948 (1): Covenant in Prayer
- Odair Pedroso Mateus: # WCC70 Amsterdam 1948 (2): Alliance for Action: What on Earth is the World Council of Churches?
literature
- Willem Adolf Visser 't Hooft (ed.): The first full assembly of the Ecumenical Council of Churches , Gotthelf Verlag, Zurich 1948.
- Study department of the Ecumenical Council of Churches in Geneva (ed.): The disorder of the world and God's plan of salvation . 6 volumes, Gotthelf Verlag, Zurich 1948.
- Karl Barth: The disorder of the world and God's plan of salvation . Zollikon Verlag, Zurich 1948.
- Karl Barth, Jean Daniélou , Reinhold Niebuhr: Amsterdam questions and answers . In: Theological Existence Today (New Series, Issue 15), Munich 1949.
- Hans Joachim Iwand : Unity of Christianity. Thoughts on the World Church Conference in Amsterdam . In: Die Zeit 38/1948, September 16, 1948.