Christian Unity (the book) - The Maranatha Community

CHAPTER 9THE 20 TH CENTURY: CENTURY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT?Ruth Rouse summarises the trends that, by the end of the 19 th Century, wereleading towards the remarkable change in relations between Christians whichbecame known in the 20 th Century as the ecumenical movement. 128 She writesof:• ‘One of the most powerful and dynamic missionary movements the worldhas ever seen,’ which led to the cooperation of Christians of differentdenominations.• The founding of the Evangelical Alliance as ‘a new thing in Christianhistory’.• The development of a sense of ‘togetherness’ amongst Christians of manydenominations, crossing national barriers. ‘Christians conscious of this“togetherness” became the volunteer reserve force of ecumenism,’ andprepared the way for the advance in ecumenical activity created atEdinburgh 1910.• A demand for Churches to draw together as well as individual Christiansto share fellowship.To the Edinburgh World Missionary Conference of 1910 were submitted eightareas of interest to the promotion of missions worldwide, and the last of thesewas Co-operation and the Promotion of Unity.W H T Gairdner, a Church of England missionary in Cairo, writing on behalf ofthe Committee of the World Missionary Conference, pointed out that themission field which had gone furthest in the matter of cooperation wasChina. 129 Delegates had heard a plea from China for unity in an earlier sessionof the Conference, The Church in the Mission Field. Now they heard specificfacts about unity that had already been achieved in Western China in nineareas of missionary work. Strict comity was observed for the missionaryoperations of those areas. There was a common course of study, a union128Rouse, Ruth and Neill, Stephen C, A History of the Ecumenical Movement, 1517-1948,SPCK, London, 1954, pp 309ff.129Gairdner, W H T, Edinburgh 1910. An account in interpretation of the World MissionaryConference.Page 149