St. Boniface Church in Frankfurt, Germany, consecrated in 1926. Designed by Martin Weber, it drew both praise and criticism for the novelty of its expressionist architecture. The concept of double consciousness, developed by the African American scholar W. E. B. Du Bois in The Souls of Black Folk (1903), has become influential in modern social thought. Du Bois described …
A history of ecumenism in Papua New Guinea
The oldest existing structure in Lae, Papua New Guines is the St Andrew’s Lutheran Church in the suburb of Ampo, erected in 1933. Photo: Malum Nalu, 2021. Papua New Guinea (PNG) presents one of the world's most remarkable contexts for Christian ecumenism. Home to more than 800 living languages and immense cultural diversity, it is …
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Ecumenism across the Christian traditions
The Ecumenical Center, World Council of Churches, Geneva, as it looked in 1970 (lower half of photograph). Ecumenism is a movement that seeks to foster greater unity, reconciliation, and cooperation among Christians. The term derives from the Greek word oikoumene (“the whole inhabited world”) and reflects Jesus' prayer that his followers "may all be one" (John 17:21). …
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Why some Churches decline formal ecumenical membership
Wahroonga Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Sydney, home of the flagship congregation, South Pacific Division. Some Christian communities decline formal membership of ecumenical organisations, although their reasons differ. The Seventh-Day Adventist Church, for example, carefully distinguishes between cooperation and institutional membership when it comes to relations with other churches. Adventists regularly collaborate with other denominations in education, …
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Denominational perspectives on the ecumenical movement
L’Église Saint-Nicolas, Heremence, Switzerland. Designed by Walter Maria Förderer, constructed 1967-1971. This article outlines the diversity that exists among Christian Churches regarding ecumenical cooperation. Roman Catholic perspectives The Roman Catholic Church’s contemporary understanding of ecumenism is grounded principally in Unitatis Redintegratio. The Second Vatican Council affirmed that all baptised Christians share a genuine, though imperfect, communion …
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All Told 