Faith and Order Papers Digital Edition

The Faith and Order Papers have their origins in the American east coast in the beginning of the 20th century.

The first leaders of the movement on Faith and Order were then mobilizing churches in the USA and worldwide around the idea of calling a world conference on matters of doctrine and church order that kept the churches apart, with a view to helping them to achieve visible unity.

Publication of official and unofficial texts directly related to the meaning, aims, and activities of the movement soon became one of their priorities. As early as 1913, a report on the work in progress of the movement included one of the first lists of “Faith and Order Papers” (see document wccfops1.027, p. 21-22).

The Faith and Order Papers constitute today a unique century-old library that documents not only progress in modern ecumenical theology but also the circumstances in which this progress has taken place. They give access not only to final reports of studies or of world conferences, but also to detailed records of plans and the implementation of plans that led to those results and to the documentation about the churches’ movement from separation to reunion.

This collection is in fact a collection of collections. Several successive “papers” record, for instance:

•    the fast-growing appointment of commissions on faith and order throughout the world during the 1910s and 1920s;

•    a small series was dedicated to frequently asked questions about the Movement on Faith and Order before the 1927 World Conference;

•    another sub-collection includes reports of church union negotiations throughout the world from the 1950s to 2006;

•    the many minutes of the meetings of the different Faith and Order governing bodies provide rich information about ecumenical theological work in progress;

•    two publications, of 1963 and 1993, constitute together a comprehensive documentary history of Faith and Order;

•    a series of “papers” published in the 1980s gathered together the churches responses to the landmark document Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry.

The library is numbered in two series. The papers published by the movement on Faith and Order belong to series 1, which ended when the movement became the Commission on Faith and Order, following the establishment of the World Council of Churches in 1948. Ever since, the publications are numbered as series 2. For the sake of accurate documentation, this distinction was kept when each document received its new digital ID.

As we welcome you to the library, we rejoice in the privilege of protecting and sharing the memory of the work accomplished and, by so doing, assisting Christians and churches as they call each other to visible communion.

Odair Pedroso Mateus     

Editor, Faith and Order Papers Digital Edition

This project was made possible with financial support from the Otto per Mille fund (OPM) of the Waldensian Church in Italy.

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Abstracts – Faith and Order Papers

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Series 1, paper 1 Joint Commission Appointed to Arrange for a World Conference on Faith and Order. (Report and Resolution of the Protestant Episcopal Church suggesting the Conference and Report and Resolutions of National Council of the Congregational Churches.) No date or number on pamphlet.

publication
This is the March 1913 reprint of the 1910 resolution, taken by the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the US, to bring about a world conference “for the consideration of questions touching Faith and Order,” i.e., Christian doctrines and church ministries, and to appoint a joint commission to that effect. The leaflet includes also membership in the joint commission and a letter from the National Council of the Congregational Churches of the US, in response to the 1908 Lambeth Conference call to church unity, informing about the appointment of a special commission “in view of the possibility of fraternal discussion of Church Unity.”
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Date
1910/1913
Pages
8pp.
Language
eng
Abstract author
Odair Pedroso Mateus, WCC-Faith and Order, WCC, Geneva, Switzerland

Series 1, paper 2 Joint Commission Appointed to Arrange for a World Conference on Faith and Order. (Report and Resolution of the Protestant Episcopal Church suggesting the Conference.) No number or date. Page 8 blank.

publication
This is one of the many reprints of the 1910 resolution, taken by the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the US, to bring about a world conference “for the consideration of questions touching Faith and Order,” i.e. Christian doctrines and church ministries, and to appoint a joint commission to that effect (see wccfops1.001). The leaflet includes membership in the newly appointed Joint Commission.
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Date
1910
Pages
8pp.
Language
eng
Abstract author
Odair Pedroso Mateus, WCC-Faith and Order, WCC, Geneva, Switzerland

Series 1, paper 3 Joint Commission Appointed to Arrange for a World Conference on Faith and Order. Report of the Committee on Plan and Scope.

publication
This is the 1911 Report of the Committee on Plan and Scope, of the Joint Commission appointed by the Protestant Episcopal Church in the US in 1910 to prepare a world conference on matters of Faith and Order that have divided the churches (see wccfops1.001). The main sections of the report are: (1) the ultimate aim and purpose (to help “to prepare the way for the outward and visible reunion of all who confess our Lord Jesus Christ as God and Saviour”); (2) the immediate purpose and the scope of the present undertaking; (3) the general plan of action; (4) record of action taken; (5) resolutions. The report includes action taken by Christian communions and the appointment of commissions on Faith and Order throughout the US.
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Date
1911
Pages
20pp.
Language
eng
Abstract author
Odair Pedroso Mateus, WCC-Faith and Order, Geneva, Switzerland

Series 1, paper 12 Joint Commission Appointed to Arrange for a World Conference on Faith and Order. The World Conference and the Problem of Unity

publication
The author was a member of the Joint Commission appointed by the Protestant Episcopal Church in the US in 1910 to prepare a world conference on questions of faith and order that divided the Christian churches (see wccfops1.001). The aim of the world conference is to achieve the next step toward unity, i.e., to create “conference” among the Christian communions in order “to hasten the growth of conditions” for union negotiations. These conditions include charity, which is being facilitated by cosmopolitanism; sufficient agreement on the nature of unity understood as “organic union”; and sufficient agreement on matters of faith, which determine Christian order.
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Author / Editor
Francis J. Hall
Date
No date
Pages
30pp.
Language
eng
Abstract author
Odair Pedroso Mateus, WCC-Faith and Order, Geneva, Switzerland

Series 1, paper 13 Virorum Congressui Omnium Gentium de Fide et Ordine Instituendo Communiter Delectorum Ad Conclium Episcopale Ecclesiarum Catholicarum Veterum Europaearum Epistola. (Letter to the Council of the Old Catholic Churches in Europe. In Latin, with English translation.)

publication
A letter, in English and Latin, from the commission for the preparation of a world conference on faith and order of the Episcopal Church (PECUSA) to the episcopate of the Old Catholic Churches in Europe, inviting them to set up a similar commission to work toward the organization of the first Faith and Order conference. The letter stresses the importance of the witness of the Old Catholic Churches to the catholic faith and order. The letter would prove to be effective: The Old Catholic Churches would enter into and become very active members of the Faith and Order Movement.
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Date
No date
Pages
16pp.
Language
lat; eng
Abstract author
Peter-Ben Smit, Free University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Series 1, paper 14 Joint Commission Appointed to Arrange for a World Conference on Faith and Order. An Official Statement by the Joint Commission of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America.

publication
Signed and sent by Episcopal bishops, presbyters, and prominent laypersons appointed to the commission after the 1910 conference in Edinburgh, this brochure was written from the conviction that the impetus toward unity among or “reunion” of the churches should be supported and encouraged through prayer. It offered three prayers for local congregations within and beyond the Episcopal church to use, along with a plea for “a self-effacement in all who participate, an abandonment of prejudice, a forgetfulness of past animosities, a patient effort to understand one another, and, above all an abounding charity.”
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Date
04/12/1912
Pages
18pp.
Language
eng
Abstract author
J. Michael West, World Council of Churches, Sacramento, USA

Series 1, paper 15 Joint Commission Appointed to Arrange for a World Conference on Faith and Order. Prayer and Unity. By a Layman. See Appendix, Note B.

publication
According to the anonymous author of this pamphlet (“A Layman”), there is a growing desire “for that unity that will bring the world to Christ” (3). But at the same time our “long catalogue of excuses” for our lack of unity shows that we often “magnify to distortion the motes in our brother’s eyes while we ignore the beam of self-will in our own” (12-13). We believe that division is due to the fact that “others refuse to recognize the full truth that we hold” (16). For us Christians “self-will is doubly a deadly sin” (12). Prayer is first “the approach to God by the lifting up and surrender of human will to His Will” (10). Through prayer “we see what is the unity we desire, and having seen it, reject it altogether for that [unity] which God desires” (13).
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Date
11/11/1913
Pages
32pp.
Language
eng
Abstract author
Ester Widiasih, WCC-Faith and Order, Geneva, Switzerland

Series 1, paper 16 Joint Commission Appointed to Arrange for a World Conference on Faith and Order. Questions of Faith and Order for Consideration by the Proposed Conference

publication
Composed by A. C. A. Hall, Episcopal bishop of Vermont, this 14-page leaflet urges that a future conference be centred on discussions of specific differences among the churches on matters of Faith and Order. The former is identified with affirmations in the historical creeds, the latter with the shape of ecclesial association (organization, polity, ministry, leadership).
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Author / Editor
A.C.A. Hall
Date
No date
Pages
14pp.
Language
eng
Abstract author
J. Michael West, World Council of Churches, Sacramento, USA

Series 1, paper 17 Joint Commission Appointed to Arrange for a World Conference on Faith and Order. Bibliography of Topics Related to Church Unity

publication
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Author / Editor
Francis J. Hall
Date
No date
Pages
23pp.
Language
eng
Abstract author
No abstract

Series 1, paper 18 Joint Commission Appointed to Arrange for a World Conference on Faith and Order. Unity or Union: Which ?

publication
The author was a member of the Joint Commission appointed by the Protestant Episcopal Church in the US in 1910 to prepare a world conference on questions of faith and order that divided the Christian churches (see wccfops1.001). Which vision should guide Christians and their churches in their search to overcome division? The author discerns two visions: Union and Unity. The first is Protestant. It promotes just union through cooperation. The second is “catholic.” It sees cooperation as flowing from unity. For the first vision, the gospel is not intrinsically a “socialism,” i.e., corporate life. For the second, the gospel is “fellowship” and therefore church. This is the origin of the differences concerning the office and function of the church.
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Author / Editor
P. M. Rhinelander
Date
02/12/1913
Pages
24pp.
Language
eng
Abstract author
Odair Pedroso Mateus, WCC-Faith and Order, Geneva, Switzerland

Series 1, paper 19 Joint Commission Appointed to Arrange for a World Conference on Faith and Order. The Conference Spirit. By a Layman

publication
Another in a series of short papers stimulating discussion of the shape of the proposed conference on faith and order, this 32-page pamphlet “by a layman” urges that the conference center on “honest and loving examination of our differences,” rather than on statements or negotiations. Cultivating “the true conference spirit” requires cross-examination of our convictions “not to defeat and humiliate, but to understand each other.” Using examples from ecclesiology and soteriology, and in light of the inexhaustibility of divine mysteries, the author urges a “reverent agnosticism” toward our own and others’ theological explanations to “open the way for the growth of all into one mind.”
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Date
03/06/1913
Pages
32pp.
Language
eng
Abstract author
J. Michael West, World Council of Churches, Sacramento, USA

Series 1, paper 20 Joint Commission Appointed to Arrange for a World Conference on Faith and Order. The Manifestation of Unity

publication
The author was a member of the Joint Commission appointed by the Protestant Episcopal Church in the US in 1910 to prepare a world conference on questions of faith and order that divided the Christian churches (see wccfops1.001). The manifestation of the God-given unity of the church is a duty of Christ’s disciples. Unity requires but transcends union; it reflects the catholicity of the church. God made us just Christians, but we chose to call ourselves by “less lovely names”; unity does not involve surrender; unity conserves the original constitution of the church; visible unity is an “economic necessity” in home and foreign mission; unity is a social and “national necessity”; what we can do in the service of unity.
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Author / Editor
C. P. Anderson
Date
4-17-1913
Pages
47pp.
Language
eng
Abstract author
Odair Pedroso Mateus, WCC-Faith and Order, Geneva, Switzerland

Series 1, paper 21 Joint Commission Appointed to Arrange for a World Conference on Faith and Order. List of Commissions Already Appointed. Small pages.

publication
This brochure has two parts. The first reproduces the 1910 resolution of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the US to appoint a joint commission to bring about a world conference on matters of faith and order that have divided the churches (see wccfops1.001). The second part provides a list of similar commissions appointed by other churches in the US, Canada, England, and China: Congregational, Presbyterian, Moravian, Lutheran, Baptist, Reformed, Anglican, Chinese. This list is dated April 1913.
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Date
04/05/1913
Pages
22pp.
Language
eng
Abstract author
Odair Pedroso Mateus, WCC-Faith and Order, Geneva, Switzerland

Series 1, paper Revised with additional appointments, in successive editions. Small pages.

publication
This brochure is in two parts. The first reproduces the 1910 resolution of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the US to appoint a joint commission to bring about a world conference on matters of faith and order that have divided the churches (see wccfops1.001). The second part provides a list of similar commissions appointed by other churches in the USA, Canada, England, and China: Congregational, Presbyterian, Moravian, Lutheran, Baptist, Reformed, Anglican, Chinese. Commissions appointed by churches in Europe, Australia, Africa, and South America were added to the list of April 1913 (see wccfops1.013). This list is dated March 1914.
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Date
3-20-1914
Pages
30pp.
Language
eng
Abstract author
Odair Pedroso Mateus, WCC-Faith and Order, Geneva, Switzerland

Series 1, paper Revised with additional appointments, in successive editions. Small pages.

publication
This brochure is in two parts. The first reproduces the 1910 resolution of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the US to appoint a joint commission to bring about a world conference on matters of faith and order that have divided the churches (see wccfops1.001). The second part provides a list of similar commissions appointed by other churches (Anglican, Baptist, Congregational, Disciples of Christ, Friends, Lutheran, Methodist, Moravian, Presbyterian, Reformed) in all continents. For a list of commissions as of 1914, see wccfops1.014. This list is dated October 1915.
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Date
10-22-1915
Pages
48pp.
Language
eng
Abstract author
Odair Pedroso Mateus, WCC-Faith and Order, Geneva, Switzerland

Series 1, paper Revised with additional appointments, in successive editions. Small pages.

publication
This brochure is in two parts. The first reproduces the 1910 resolution of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the US to appoint a joint commission to bring about a world conference on matters of faith and order that have divided the churches (see wccfops1.001). The second part provides a list of similar commissions appointed by other churches (Anglican, Baptist, Congregational, Disciples of Christ, Friends, Lutheran, Methodist, Moravian, Presbyterian, Reformed, Old Catholic) in all continents. For a list of commissions as of 1915, see wccfops1.015. The list is dated September 1917.
Read full text at the Internet Archive
Date
09/08/1917
Pages
50pp.
Language
eng
Abstract author
Odair Pedroso Mateus, WCC-Faith and Order, Geneva, Switzerland

Series 1, paper Revised with additional appointments.

publication
This brochure has two parts. The first reproduces the 1910 resolution of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the US to appoint a joint commission to bring about a world conference on matters of faith and order that have divided the churches (see wccfops1.001). The second part provides a list of similar commissions appointed by other churches (Anglican, Baptist, Congregational, Disciples of Christ, Friends, Lutheran, Methodist, Moravian, Presbyterian, Reformed, Old Catholic) in all continents. For a list of commissions as of September 1917, see wccfops1.016. The list is dated October 1919.
Read full text at the Internet Archive
Date
10/04/1919
Pages
48pp.
Language
eng
Abstract author
Odair Pedroso Mateus, WCC-Faith and Order, Geneva, Switzerland

Series 1, paper Revised with additional appointments, in successive editions. Small pages.

publication
This brochure is in two parts. The first reproduces the 1910 resolution of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the US to appoint a joint commission to bring about a world conference on matters of faith and Order that have divided the churches (see wccfops1.001). The second part provides a list of similar commissions appointed by other churches (Anglican, Baptist, Congregational, Disciples of Christ, Friends, Lutheran, Methodist, Moravian, Presbyterian, Reformed, Old Catholic) in all continents. For a list of commissions as of October 1919, see wccfops1.017. This list is dated June 1920.
Read full text at the Internet Archive
Date
06/01/1920
Pages
61pp.
Language
eng
Abstract author
Odair Pedroso Mateus, WCC-Faith and Order, Geneva, Switzerland

Series 1, paper Revised with additional appointments, in successive editions. Large pages.

publication
This brochure is in two parts. The first reproduces the 1910 resolution of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the US to appoint a joint commission to bring about a world conference on matters of faith and order that have divided the churches (see wccfops1.001). The second part provides a list of similar commissions appointed by other churches (Anglican, Baptist, Congregational, Disciples of Christ, Friends, Lutheran, Methodist, Moravian, Presbyterian, Reformed, Old Catholic) in all continents. For a list of commissions as of June 1920, see wccfops1.020. This list is dated December 1922.
Read full text at the Internet Archive
Date
12-20-1922
Pages
26pp.
Language
eng
Abstract author
Odair Pedroso Mateus, WCC-Faith and Order, Geneva, Switzerland

Series 1, paper Revised with additional appointments, in successive editions. Large pages.

publication
This brochure is in two parts. The first reproduces the 1910 resolution of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the US to appoint a joint commission to bring about a world conference on matters of faith and order that have divided the churches (see wccfops1.001). The second part provides a list of similar commissions appointed by other churches (Anglican, Baptist, Congregational, Disciples of Christ, Friends, Lutheran, Methodist, Moravian, Presbyterian, Reformed, Old Catholic) in all continents. For a list of commissions as of December 192, see wccfops1.021. This list is dated January 1923.
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Date
1-27-1923
Pages
26pp.
Language
eng
Abstract author
Odair Pedroso Mateus, WCC-Faith and Order, Geneva, Switzerland

Series 1, paper Revised with additional appointments, in successive editions. Large pages.

publication
This brochure is in two parts. The first reproduces the 1910 resolution of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the US to appoint a joint commission to bring about a world conference on matters of faith and order that have divided the churches (see wccfops1.001). The second part provides a list of similar commissions appointed by other churches (Anglican, Baptist, Congregational, Disciples of Christ, Friends, Lutheran, Methodist, Moravian, Presbyterian, Reformed, Old Catholic) in all continents. For a list of commissions as of January 1923, see wccfops1.022. This list is dated May 1924.
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Date
05/06/1924
Pages
28pp.
Language
eng
Abstract author
Odair Pedroso Mateus, WCC-Faith and Order, Geneva, Switzerland

Series 1, paper Revised with additional appointments, in successive editions. Small pages.

publication
This brochure is in two parts. The first reproduces the 1910 resolution of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the US to appoint a joint commission to bring about a world conference on matters of faith and order that have divided the churches (see wccfops1.001). The second part provides a list of similar commissions appointed by other churches (Anglican, Baptist, Congregational, Disciples of Christ, Friends, Lutheran, Methodist, Moravian, Presbyterian, Reformed, Old Catholic) in all continents. For a list of commissions as of May 1924, see wccfops1.023. This list is dated September 1925.
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Date
9-16-1925
Pages
48pp.
Language
eng
Abstract author
Odair Pedroso Mateus, WCC-Faith and Order, Geneva, Switzerland

Series 1, paper Revised with additional appointments, in successive editions. Small pages.

publication
This brochure is in two parts. The first reproduces the 1910 resolution of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the US to appoint a joint commission to bring about a world conference on matters of faith and order that have divided the churches (see wccfops1.001). The second part provides a list of similar commissions appointed by other churches (Anglican, Baptist, Congregational, Disciples of Christ, Friends, Lutheran, Methodist, Moravian, Presbyterian, Reformed, Old Catholic) in all continents. For a list of commissions as of September 1925, see wccfops1.025. This list is dated May 1926.
Read full text at the Internet Archive
Date
05/01/1926
Pages
48pp.
Language
eng
Abstract author
Odair Pedroso Mateus, WCC-Faith and Order, Geneva, Switzerland

Series 1, paper 23 The World Conference for the Consideration of Questions Touching Faith and Order. Report of the Joint Commission to the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church, 1913.

publication
This report to the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in 1913 describes progress on gathering support for a World Conference. This is the beginning of Faith and Order, and reveals the transition from a commission appointed by one church to a world-wide movement. Support had been gained from Protestant denominations in the US, churches of the Anglican Communion, Old Catholics, and Orthodox. These churches then formed commissions that sent representatives to a meeting in New York, in 1913, at which there was "not one jarring note." An advisory committee had been formed to prepare for a world conference. The size of the advocacy task is made vivid. Organic unity was said to be the ideal, but no particular scheme was to be imposed. There was fear of "indifference, impatience and suspicion," but the overwhelming note is hope. "Never was there a day…"
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Date
19/08/1913
Pages
36pp.
Language
eng
Abstract author
Susan Durber, Moderator, WCC-Faith and Order, UK

Series 1, paper 24 The World Conference for the Consideration of Questions Touching Faith and Order. A First Preliminary Conference.

publication
This 53-page document is a “greatly condensed” verbatim report of an “informal and unofficial” gathering, held in New York City in 1913, of 33 delegates–mostly from American Protestant denominations–to further the initiative of the Protestant Episcopal Church toward a World Conference on Faith and Order. After considerable discussion, the group issued a “minute” for the Protestant Episcopal Church to consider. It set parameters for the scope of the proposed conference, cautioned against predetermined outcomes, and encouraged preparatory theological work to inform the conference. The document offers a glimpse into the concerns, hopes, and dreams of those who set the stage for Faith and Order work.
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Date
10/15/1913
Pages
53pp.
Language
eng
Abstract author
Sandra Beardsall, St. Andrew’s College, Saskatoon, Canada

Series 1, paper 25 The World Conference for the Consideration of Questions Touching Faith and Order. Report of the Committee on Church Unity of the National Council of Congregational Churches, 1913.

publication
This document contains the report of the General Convention of 1910 of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the USA and the report of the Committee on Church Unity of the National Council of Congregational Churches of 1913 concerning their participation in a World Conference on Questions of Faith and Order. It shows a will of cooperation between Episcopalians and Congregationalists. It proposed a series of preparatory conferences to organize a campaign of mutual education. It also noted that the reunion of the churches for the sake of the Christian civilization requires of all communions a common confession of the sin of disunity.
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Date
13/12/1913
Pages
16pp.
Language
eng
Abstract author
Job of Telmessos, Ecumenical Patriarchate, Geneva, Switzerland

Series 1, paper 26 The World Conference for the Consideration of Questions Touching Faith and Order. A World Movement for Christian Unity

publication
This paper, authored by Lefferd M. A. Haughwout, is a publication by the commission of the Protestant Episcopal Church (USA) on a world conference on faith and order. Soon after the world missionary conference in Edinburgh 1910, the convention of the (Anglican) Protestant Episcopal Church in the USA resolved the necessity “to bring about a conference for the consideration of questions touching Faith and Order.” Haughwout reflects on the conditions and motives for such a conference by outlining the present condition of Christendom since the 16th century and the difficulties confronting Christian unity, like competition among the denominations and different conceptions of the Christian faith. He closes by developing general principles of unity (which should not be confused with uniformity in Christian worship or ecclesial administration), like the principle of comprehensiveness and principle of continuity.
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Author / Editor
Lefferd M. A. Haughwout
Date
10/03/1914
Pages
21pp.
Language
eng
Abstract author
Annegreth Schilling, Protestant Church in Hessen and Nassau, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Series 1, paper 27 The World Conference for the Consideration of Questions Touching Faith and Order. Second Meeting of the Advisory Committee. Report of the Second Deputation to Great Britain. The Call for a Truce of God.

publication
This 46-page publication captures the minutes of the multi-denominational advisory committee to the Joint Commission and reports extensively on a three-man deputation to 31 non-Anglican churches of England, Scotland, and Wales, as well as visits with associations working for unity and with faculty at Oxford, Cambridge, and Edinburgh. Their aim: to present the vision and ideal of Christian unity and to urge formation by the churches of commissions to work for the forthcoming World Conference on Faith and Order. Their “providential” visit was warmly received, leading to “a growing conviction…that this movement…is the work of God.” In light of that result, the advisory committee made plans for other visits to Europe and Asia and, to forestall further division (especially in the mission field) before the conference, issued a call for “A Truce of God throughout Christendom.”
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Date
05/20/1914
Pages
46pp.
Language
eng
Abstract author
J. Michael West, World Council of Churches, Sacramento, USA

Series 1, paper 28 The World Conference for the Consideration of Questions Touching Faith and Order. The Object and Method of Conference.

publication
Continuing a series of short pamphlets encouraging momentum toward a world conference, this 35-page piece offers a perspective on and methods for successful “conference,” i.e., dialogue between or among Christians with real differences in “convictions.” It first offers an ideal type, “the true idea of a conference,” then discusses the principles or method a conference should follow, principles of discussion that avoid controversy, and some “practical rules” for how to dialogue about differences without raising animosities. Maintaining that “Religious differences are primarily differences of conviction,” rather than simply practices or even doctrines, the English author proposes that, rather than merely enumerating differences and asserting competing claims, conferees trace and articulate the roots of their religious convictions in “lived experience” and deep values. Avoiding “controversy,” i.e., polemics and debate, “Conferences will succeed where centuries of controversy have failed.”
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Date
08/04/1915
Pages
35pp.
Language
eng
Abstract author
J. Michael West, Sacramento, USA, World Council of Churches

Series 1, paper Reprint of 28, with changes on pp. 34-36.)

publication
The World Conference for the Consideration of Questions Touching Faith and Order: The Object and Method of Conference. 1915. This piece from 1917 reprints wccfops1.032, with some changes to the list of publications on pp. 34-36.
Read full text at the Internet Archive
Date
10-20-1917
Pages
36pp.
Language
eng
Abstract author
J. Michael West, Sacramento, USA, World Council of Churches

For more information, please contact:

Dr Andrej Jeftic
Director of the Faith and Order Commission
email: [email protected]
phone: +41 22 791 61 30