section_path: Modern ecumenical movement
section_name: Modern ecumenical movement
paragraph_text: Modern ecumenical movement
  
  One understanding of the ecumenical movement is that it came from the Catholic Church's attempts to reconcile with Christians who had become separated over theological issues. Others see the 1910 World Missionary Conference as the birthplace of the ecumenical movement. Others yet point to the 1920 encyclical of the Eastern Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Germanus V "To the Churches of Christ Everywhere" that suggested a "fellowship of churches" similar to the League of Nations.
  
  Earlier, Nicolaus Ludwig, Count von Zinzendorf (1700–1760), the renewer of the Moravian Church in the 18th century, was the first person to use the word "ecumenical" in this sense. His pioneering efforts to unite all Christians, regardless of denominational labels, into a "Church of God in the Spirit"—notably among German immigrants in Pennsylvania —were misunderstood by his contemporaries.
  
  The founding of the London Missionary Society, a missionary society, occurred in 1795 by various evangelical denominations who had an interdenominational vision of the mission. It developed with the founding of the Evangelical Alliance in 1846 in London, England, by 52 evangelical denominations. Various other evangelical organizations have also contributed to the interdenominational movement. In the Biblical studies, there was the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students in 1947. In the area of Christian humanitarian aid, World Vision International was established in 1950. There was also the emergence of various interdenominational Bible colleges. In 1951, the World Evangelical Alliance (formerly the World Evangelical Fellowship) was founded by evangelical leaders from 21 countries at the first general assembly in Woudschoten (Zeist) in Netherlands.
  
  Nathan Söderblom, Archbishop of Uppsala, the head of the Lutheran Church of Sweden, is known as the architect of the ecumenical movement of the twentieth century. During the First World War, he called on all Christian leaders to work for peace and justice. His leadership of the Christian " Life and Work " movement in the 1920s has led him to be recognised as one of the principal founders of the ecumenical movement. He was instrumental in chairing the World Conference of Life and Work in Stockholm, Sweden in 1925. At the Stockholm Conference in 1925, the culminating event in Söderblom's ecumenical work, Protestant and Orthodox Christians from the major Christian denominations, such as the Lutheran and Anglican Churches, were all present and participating, with the exception of the Catholic Church. He was a close friend of the English ecumenist George Bell. In 1930, Söderblom was one of the recipients of the Nobel Prize for promoting Christian unity and helping create 'that new attitude of mind which is necessary if peace between nations is to become reality'. He was first clergyman to receive a Nobel prize.
  
  The contemporary ecumenical movement gained speed through the 1910 Edinburgh Missionary Conference. However this conference would not have been possible without the pioneering ecumenical work of the Christian youth movements: the Young Men's Christian Association (founded 1844), the Young Women's Christian Association (founded 1855), the World Student Christian Federation (founded 1895), and the Federal Council of Churches (founded 1908), predecessor to today's National Council of Churches USA. Led by Methodist layman John R. Mott (former YMCA staff and in 1910 the General Secretary of WSCF), the World Mission conference marked the largest Protestant gathering to that time, with the express purposes of working across denominational lines for the sake of world missions. After the First World War further developments were the " Faith and Order " movement led by Charles Henry Brent, and the " Life and Work " movement led by Nathan Soderblom. In the 1930s, the tradition of an annual World Communion Sunday to celebrate ecumenical ties was established in the Presbyterian Church and was subsequently adopted by several other denominations.
  
  After World War II, which had brought much devastation to many people, the church became a source of hope to those in need. In 1948, the first meeting of the World Council of Churches took place. Despite the fact that the meeting had been postponed due to World War II, the council took place in Amsterdam with the theme of "Man's Disorder and God's Design". The focus of the church and the council following the gathering was on the damage created by the Second World War. The council and the movement went forward to continue the efforts of unifying the church globally in the mission of helping all those in need, whether physical, emotional, or spiritual. The movement led to an understanding amongst the churches that, despite difference, they could join together to be an element of great change, hope, and peace in the world. More importantly, the council and the movement lead to not only wider ecumenism but to the forming of councils amongst the denominations that connected churches across continental lines. Today, the World Council of Churches sees its role as sharing "the legacy of the one ecumenical movement and the responsibility to keep it alive" and acting "as a trustee for the inner coherence of the movement". Some scholars, such as Antoaneta Sabău, think that "the features that ecumenism may display today could testify against the idea of a diminished interest in ecumenical matters, and rather for the fact that essential concepts of ecumenism have already become integrative parts of contemporary theologies."