1. Introduction
World Missionary Conference,
Edinburgh 1910, was a birth place of the modern ecumenical movement and it
played a vital role in the history of missions. Edinburgh helped the
missionaries to come under one platform from different countries to share their
mission experiences. And later delegates and the leaders of the Edinburgh’s
meeting taken the spirit of missions to
come together and later they formed the missionary committees and finally that
helped to come together for working for the mission of churches and missionary
organizations in one Umbrella in 1921 and named as International Missionary
Council. The International Missionary Council (IMC) encourages ecumenical
cooperation in support of world evangelization during the first half of the 20th
century. It also helped members respond to issues like slavery, racial
discrimination, and education, and it coordinated the publication of the
International Review of Mission.
2. Background of the Formation of International
Missionary Council
World Missionary conference
1910 was an ecumenical miracle and it played the vital role in the formation of
IMC. And there was a Continuation Committee which had contributed for the
formation of IMC. At the end of the Edinburgh 1910 the delegates were decided to
form a continuation committee but not an international agency some had hoped
for. Appointed by the conference, it was charged to forward Edinburgh’s spirit
and work and top bring into being the desired international missionary committee.
And its function to forward the spirit and work and to bring into being desired
international missionary committee.[1]
This committee kept the ecumenical interests alive and promoted its
interdenominational and international vision. John R Mott and Joseph H Oldham become
the chairman and secretary respectively. They implemented the findings from the
Edinburgh 1910 and established regular contacts with missionary boards or societies
at home and in the mission fields. The first meeting was on June 23 1910 the
last day of the missionary conference and several meeting conducted under this
committee.[2]
At last the continuation committee planned to meet at Oxford England, 1914 but
never assembled again and officially the committee continued until 1921. The
Advent of World War I sounded the death knell of continuation committee.
3. Formation of IMC
As soon as possible after
the war, plans were resumed for bringing into being the permanent international
organization contemplated by the Edinburgh’s conference and its continuation
committee. In June 1920 an international
missionary conference was convened at Crans in Switzerland. This gathering was
not large but it includes Germans for the first time. Since the war that it had
been found possible to draw them into such a meeting. And the plans were drawn
up for what was still called the international Missionary Committee and were submitted
to the respective national Bodies.[3]
The meeting at which the
International Missionary Council was finally constituted was held in October
1921 at Lake Mohonk in New York. It was a gathering of international and inter
racial. There were sixty one representatives from fourteen different countries
around the world to found the International Missionary Council. Most of them
were from the west and only seven members of the younger churches were present.
Germans were not presented in this meeting because of the war but later Germans
were attended the conference in 1923 IMC oxford meeting. From that time onwards
Germany played its full part in the deliberations and activities of that body.
The constitution adopted at Lake
Mohonk based upon the plan formulated at Crans, which in the interval had been
endorsed by the responsible national organizations. It was submitted to these
same bodies for final approval. The name was changed from the earlier
“International Missionary Committee to “International Missionary Council”. It
declared that “The only bodies entitled to determine missionary policy are the
missionary societies and boards or the churches they present and the churches
in the mission field.”[4]
The success of this venture
was evident in the formation of the international Missionary council at Lake
Mohonk, New York 1921.The members were to be the national missionary organizations,
not as in the later WCC, individual churches. All these national organizations were
seventeen in number. But four were in the lands of older churches. IMC’s
primary object was to bring together national Christian councils to a common
sense of Unity for a united effort in worldwide evangelization. The IMC was administratively
a federation of national Christian councils or council of churches. All
national councils sent delegations to its assembly that met once in four years. The council elected John R Mott as Chairman
and J.H. Oldham and A.L.Warnshuis as Secretaries. The main office was at London
and called as Edinburgh House.[5]
The formation of IMC showed the way for a shift at least from beginning a
missionary based conference to a gathering of Church leaders.
4. Founding Principles of IMC
There were three basic
principles in the IMC which had grown out of practical experience, were
embodied in its foundation when the missionary council was organized.
4.1 First Principle: The introduction to the council’s constitution
included the familiar statement that “the only bodies entitled to determine
missionary policies are the missionary societies and boards, or the churches
which they represent and the churches in the mission field.” This root
principle of missionary co-operation first enunciated in The Hague meeting of
the continuation committee in 1913. So in this connection, it is interesting to
note that here as Crans had suggested and international missionary committee
and Mohonk 1921 changes committee to
Council to emphasize the fact that the new body had no executive function.[6]
4.2 Second Principle: Although it was not in the
constitution was made explicit by resolution. It maintained that no decision
should be sought from the council and no statement should be issued by it “on
any matter involving an ecclesiastical or doctrinal question on which the
members of the council or bodies constituting the council may differ among themselves”.
[7]It
was meant only to prevent discussions of faith and order within the council.
However the IMC should never take over the field of Faith and Order movement
nor become a theological debating society.
4.3 Third Principle: The preamble stated as it is recognized that the successful working
of the International Missionary council is entirely depend on the gift from the
God of the spirit of fellowship, mutual understanding and desire to cooperate.
5. Functions of IMC
The Functions of the
International Missionary council were defined as being
a)
To stimulate thinking and investigation on missionary questions.
b)
To make results available for all missionary societies and missions.
c)
To help co-ordinate the activities of the national missionary
organizations of the different countries and of the societies they present.
d)
To bring out united action where necessary in missionary matters.
e)
To help unite Christian public opinion in support of freedom of
conscience and religion and of missionary liberty.
f)
To help unite the Christian forces of the world in seeking justice in
international and inter-racial relations.
g)
To be responsible for the publication of the International Review of
Missions and such other publications as in the judgment of the council may
contribute the study of missionary questions.
h)
To call a world missionary conference if and when this should be deemed
desirable.[8]
6.
The Resolutions of IMC held at Lake Mohonk 1921
At Lake Mohonk the International Missionary Council
took no Executive action but it passed a number of resolutions. Some of the
brief resolutions of 1921 were:
6.1
Church and Mission: The council discussed some matters relation between
the churches and the missions. And the members noted that the goal of missions
to plant Indigenous church was not being met in many areas and they agreed that
no one solution existed applicable to all situations. As a result of these
discussions council sent a series of questions to missionary societies.
a)
Whether the time
had not come for the missionaries to work under the authority of nationals and
with the same ecclesiastical status as their national Colleagues?
b)
Whether matters
affecting the program of a younger church ought not to be discussed by
missionaries and nationals together as representatives of the church rather
than by a predominantly missionary group?
c)
Whether all
funds from abroad ought not to be administered jointly by the national church
and the contributing agency?
d)
How best to
encourage and train indigenous leadership for the different kinds of work in
each country?[9]
6.2
Missionary Freedom: IMC 1921
formed against a background of World War I and constant preoccupation with
government restrictions. So Lake Mohonk naturally centered much attention on
the problem of missionary freedom. The council counseled the societies
concerned how best to meet and deal with certain restrictions in Portuguese,
Africa and French colonies. More important was its detailed minute concerning
restrictions on German missions for the existing situation between German and
Anglo American Missions required wisdom and Christian understanding. To
reestablish the broken relationship the IMC declared that the wounds caused by
the war cannot be fully healed until that way is opened for German missionaries
to resume foreign missionary work.[10]
6.3
Instruction to officers: With
reference to the past work to the general missionary situation and to the Lake
Mohonk discussions, the council recommended particular responsibilities for
each of its officers. These not only further illuminate the councils thinking
but also provide the determinative framework within which the international
Missionary councils program developed during the next few years after the
formation.[11]
7.
International Missionary Council’s Outreach
After the formation of IMC in 1921 and between the
Jerusalem meetings in 1928 several main emphases emerged. Continuing from the
war years, the problem of German missions and relief for them grew. Another
major post war emphasis was education like secular and Christian as it related
to missionary movement. For this Oldham devoted himself for Africa, a fact
which heightened the councils immediate interest in that continent. In other
areas the council was directly concerned with such seemingly diverse questions
as, race, labour and slavery, missionary training and Christian literature. [12]
8.
IMC Conferences
The IMC has successful meetings after the formation of
IMC in 1921. The international meeting of IMC held at Jerusalem in 1928, next
in Tambaram India in 1938, Whitby in Canada in 1947, Willingen Germany in 1952
and Acara in Ghana (1957- 1958) and finally IMC merged with WCC meeting held in
New Delhi Assembly in 1961.
8.1
IMC Conference in Jerusalem 1928
Prior to the 1928 Jerusalem conference, in 1925 it
voiced in Atlantic City that, the time had come for large scale examination of
the most urgent problems confronting the missionary enterprises. After the
reports by Mott and Oldham at Rattvik on the views of East and West concerning
such a world meeting and after full discussion, it was agreed to call the
international Missionary Council next meeting at Jerusalem from March 19 to
April 1, 1928. The council planned to include representatives in larger number
from the so called receiving countries.[13] The
scope was bordered to include religious education, missions, and race conflict,
missions and industrialism, and missions and rural problems. Compare to the Edinburgh
1910 the preparation of Jerusalem 1928 was developed through careful, comprehensive
studies, which were issued in several volumes.
It was first time the older and younger churches could be brought
together to consider questions of Missionary strategy. This fact marked the
difference in the genius of this assembly from Edinburgh 1910.
The IMC conference held in Jerusalem in 1928. The
representation increased in the council with 231 members from 50 countries.
Moved out from the earlier evangelistic optimism, the Jerusalem conference
tended to lay emphasis on theological discussions, values in other religions,
and international issues. At the Jerusalem conference of the IMC, however, the
relationship between older and younger churches received a considerable amount
of attention and became a prominent issues, even if the subdivision of the world
into two large geographical area; the one Christians the other non Christian.[14] Another
thing was at Jerusalem the world wide threat of secularism to Christianity was recognized.
It was indeed given major attention. The Jerusalem 1928 gave a fresh impetus to
evangelism and it helped to stimulate the kingdom of God movement in Japan and
the Five Year Forward Movement in china.
8.
2 IMC Conference in Tambaram, 1938
The decade from 1928 -1938 was marked by crisis. Felt
throughout the world it includes a world economic depression, threats to
international peace and war. According to Hogg the missionary enterprise was
sharply affected by these out currents.[15] In
1938 met at Tambaram, in India from the World Mission of Christianity the IMC
moved on to the world mission of the church was the main theme for the third
conference at Tambaram, India in 1938. There were 471 delegates from 69 nations
and strong representation from the younger churches. The main themes discussed
in Tambaram were: the faith by which the churches lives, world mission of the
Church, the relation of Christian Witness to the non Christian religions and
cultures and the work of evangelism, the life and work of the church, the environment
of the church and co operation and unity.
In the IMC Tambaram conference in 1938 discussed the
proposed creation of the WCC. It urged the co operation in the formation stage
through a joint committee between the two. But most of the members wanted IMC
to maintain its own separate organization, autonomy and independence.[16]
Tambaram defended the ultimate truth of the Christian message, while advising
missionaries to a listening and dialoguing approach in practices. Participants
like P Checiah and V Chakkarai were dissatisfied with the western approach
which led to their publication titled Rethinking Christianity. This book marked
a decisive departure from traditional Christianity.
8.3 IMC Conference at Whitby in 1947
Whitby was the first real Post –war reunion of the
worldwide protestant Christian fellowship. At Geneva in 1946 only three lands
of the younger churches had been represented but Whitby brought together 112
persons from forty countries. It’s not been thought of as standing in the same
succession as the earlier councils. Whitby grew out of the war and the
experiences of the churches during the war. So in that sense Whitby always is
thought of with Madras. And what emerged from Whitby was meant not to supplant but
to supplement them in changing world scene.[17]The
significant of this meeting was they met immediately after the World War II.
The Main theme of the conference was the Christian
Witness in a Revolutionary World. There was a renewed emphasis on Christian
fellowship and unity. The serious concern in the conference was partnership in
mission because mission is a global task and it is to be undertaken in
partnership. Whitby recovered the vision of Edinburgh 1910 and now insisted on
Partnership in obedience. The message of Whitby was churches Mutuality in Worldwide
evangelization.
8.4 IMC Conference at Willingen, Canada in 1952
Five years after Whitby, in 1952 the IMC convened a
major meeting at Willingen in Germany in 1952. This meeting widely thought at
that time to have failed in its major task. But subsequent history has shown
that it was in fact one of the most significant in the series of world
missionary conference.[18] 190
delegates from 50 different nations attended of which 40 of them came from
younger churches. The main theme was Mission in Unity. The idea of Missio Dei,
which was taken up in the follow up of Willingen has the lasting influence on
ecumenical mission theology. It examined in-depth theological principle and
there made a shift from church centric to centrality of Triune God. The
conference encouraged active participatory role of laymen and the need of study
centers for knowledge, exposure and exchange of ideas.
8.5 IMC Conference at Accra, Ghana in 1957 and
Merging of IMC with WCC in 1961.
Ghana
conference that was held from December 28, 1957 to January 8, 1958. In that
meeting 215 representatives attended the conference. It took up the main issues
from the previous conference and affirmed the significance of lay participation
in mission. Another landmark achievement of the Ghana conference was the
creation of theological Education Fund. Another discussion was the question of
the integration of the IMC and WCC was the main consideration. At the assembly voices
were raised both for and against integration. Some feared that integration
would identify the missionary movement with a single conception of unity and a
rigid ecclesiasticism. Others feared that the mission of the IMC would be lost
in the WWC. However for the majority of the delegates the integration was the
only appropriate outcome of the past development. There were strong support for
the integration from the councils of Asia and North America. After long deliberations
the Ghana assembly resolved that. The assembly authoriesed the Administrative
committee of IMC to take steps to implement the resolution. As a result the two
councils became one at the third Assembly of WCC at New Delhi in 1961.[19]
9.
Formation of WCC in 1948 and Relationship with IMC
After the formation of WCC the International
Missionary Council did not join the world council of churches in 1948, the
relationship between the two bodies was uppermost in the minds of those within
the ecumenical movement. The IMC was very closely related to the work of Faith
and order, and Life and Work movements. The people like William Paton,William
Temple,John R Mott , J.H.Oldham were the mindset behind the formation of WCC were
deeply committed and very seriously
concerned about the relationship between the two. Even before the formation of
WCC a joint committee of world council of churches and International Missionary
Council created in 1939 Norman Goodall as Paton’s successor in the IMC as
Secretary. At the first Assembly of WCC at Amsterdam 1948 the two bodies voted
formal association and modified their official titles to read. And numbers of
joint activities were done together. According to T.V Philip as time passed,
the two organizations took every opportunity to integrate their work at every
point they could.[20]
Conclusion:
International Missionary council was an outgrowth of
Edinburgh 1910. Edinburg helped all the missions to come forward and work for
the spreading the gospel. The formation of International Missionary Council in
1921 helped the mission organizations and churches to come forward again after
the Edinburg 1910. IMC played a vital role in the ecumenical History because
before the formation of WCC. International Missionary council was the only
platform for mission organizations and churches to come together. International
Missionary council conducted six meetings at different places. It has been seen
that after every IMC conference younger churches participation increased. In
each conference there was a theme and according to that theme they worked
together. After International Missionary council merged in the WCC, help to
attain more growth in a successful way.
Bibliography
Bosch, David J. Transforming Mission. New York: ORBIS Books, 1991.
Fife, Eric S. Missions in Crisis. USA: Intervarsity
Press, 1961.
Gros, Jeffrey. Introduction
to Ecumenism. New York: Paulist Press, 1998.
Hogg, William Richey. Ecumenical Foundations: A History of the international Missionary
Council and its Ninteenth Century Background. New York: Harper& Brothers, 1952.
Ruth, Rouse and
Stephen Neill. History of the Ecumenical
movement 1517-1948. Geneva: WCC Publications, 1989.
Philip, T.V. Edinburgh
To Salvador Twentieth Century Ecumenical Missiology. NewDelhi: ISPCK, 1999.
Stransky, Tom.
“International Missionary Council”. Dictionary of the Ecumenical Movement,
edited by Nicholas Lossley. Grand Rapids: WCC Publications 1991.
[1]
William Richey Hogg, Ecumenical
Foundations: A History of the international Missionary Council and its
Ninteenth Century Background (New York:
Harper& Brothers, 1952), 144.
[2]
William Richey Hogg, Ecumenical
Foundations: A History of the international Missionary Council and its
Ninteenth Century Background..., 145.
[3]
Rouse Ruth and Stephen Neill, History of
the Ecumenical movement 1517-1948 (Geneva: WCC Publications, 1989), 366.
[4]
Rouse Ruth and Stephen Neill, History of
the Ecumenical movement 1517-1948..., 367.
[5]
Rouse Ruth and Stephen Neill, History of
the Ecumenical movement 1517-1948..., 367.
[6]
William Richey Hogg, Ecumenical
Foundations: A History of the international Missionary Council and its
Ninteenth Century Background..., 204.
[7]
William Richey Hogg, Ecumenical Foundations:
A History of the international Missionary Council and its Ninteenth Century
Background..., 205.
[8]
William Richey Hogg, Ecumenical
Foundations: A History of the international Missionary Council and its
Ninteenth Century Background..., 368.
[9]
William Richey Hogg, Ecumenical
Foundations: A History of the international Missionary Council and its
Ninteenth Century Background..., 207.
[10]
William Richey Hogg, Ecumenical
Foundations: A History of the international Missionary Council and its
Ninteenth Century Background..., 207-208.
[11]
William Richey Hogg, Ecumenical
Foundations: A History of the international Missionary Council and its
Ninteenth Century Background…, 208.
[13]
William Richey Hogg, Ecumenical
Foundations: A History of the international Missionary Council and its
Ninteenth Century Background..., 240.
[15]
William Richey Hogg, Ecumenical
Foundations: A History of the international Missionary Council and its
Ninteenth Century Background..., 258.
[16] Tom
Stransky, “International Missionary Council”. Dictionary of the Ecumenical
Movement, edited by Nicholas Lossley( Grand Rapids: WCC Publications 1991),527.
[17]William
Richey Hogg, Ecumenical Foundations: A
History of the international Missionary Council and its Ninteenth Century
Background..., 335.
[19]
T.V.Philip, Edinburgh To Salvador Twentieth
Century Ecumenical Missiology (NewDelhi: ISPCK, 1999), 64-65.
[20]
T.V.Philip, Edinburgh To Salvador
Twentieth Century Ecumenical Missiology…,62-63.
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