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The Ecumenical Movement and 1968

The Uppsala Assembly as the Beginning of a New Era?

Annegreth Schilling

Dr Annegreth Schilling is the editor, with Katharina Kunter, of Globalisierung der Kirchen:
Der Ökumenische Rat der Kirchen und die Entdeckung der Dritten Welt in den
1960er und 1970er Jahren (Globalisation of the Churches: The World Council of
Churches and the Discovery of the Third World in the 1960s and 1970s) (Göttingen:
Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2014), and the author of Revolution, Exil und Befreiung: Der
Boom des lateinamerikanischen Protestantismus in der internationalen Ökumene in
den 1960er und 1970er Jahren (Revolution, Exile, and Liberation: The Boom of
Latin American Protestantism in the International Ecumenical Movement in the
1960s and 1970s) (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2016).

Abstract

The year 1968 is often remembered as a turning point in ecumenical history: the 4th
Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Uppsala appeared to mark the
end of the era of early ecumenism and the beginning of a new era. This article questions this
understanding of “Uppsala” and examines the reasons for such a mythologization of the
assembly through analyzing its themes and conflicts in a twofold way. First, the analysis
shows the connection between the students’ revolts’ of 1968 and the assembly. Second, the
article draws on the assembly’s main theme, “Behold, I make all things new,” and the key
aspects of ecumenical renewal discussed at the assembly: the new relationship between the
WCC and the Roman Catholic Church, the WCC’s commitment to development issues,
liberation from racism, and the churches’ role in political conflicts. While these themes became
a symbol for identifying the assembly with a groundbreaking ecumenical change, the article
argues that this change had already begun in the early 1960s, and that the assembly at
Uppsala was more the medial and visible expression of this continuing ecumenical turbulence
than its source.

DOI: 10.1111/erev.12351
194 © (20
Annegreth Schilling The Ecumenical Movement and 1968

Keywords

World Council of Churches, Uppsala assembly, world development, Roman Catholic

Church, racism, 1968

The year 1968 has gone down as a year of global protest and revolt, but also as a year in
which hopes were dashed and utopian visions shattered.1 It was the year – first and
foremost – of student protest. From Paris, Berlin, and Frankfurt to Mexico City and
Tokyo, youth took to the streets, protesting against all manifestations of authority and
power, criticizing the “establishment” at universities with a National Socialist past, the
US invasion of Vietnam, and patriarchal structures in family and society. The year 1968
was also the year in which the world was watching a new socialist experiment in
Czechoslovakia under the reform communist Alexander Dubcek, who initiated a
change of course within the country’s Communist Party at the beginning of the year.
With his vision of “socialism with a human face,” Dubcek attempted to introduce a
programme for reform and democratization in his country; but with the invasion of
Warsaw Pact troops on 21 August 1968, the crushing of the “Prague Spring” destroyed
the hopes of building a democratic society and democratic socialism. In the United
States, the assassination on 4 April 1968 of black civil rights activist Martin Luther
King Jr, the most important leader in the nonviolent struggle of the civil rights move-
ment against the legalized discrimination of blacks in the United States, led to anger
and frustration.
In the midst of this year of revolt and new beginnings, the 4th Assembly of the World
Council of Churches (WCC) took place in Uppsala, Sweden, from 4 to 20 July 1968.
Those involved still look back on it as a milestone and turning point in the history of
the WCC.2 Even the WCC general secretary at the time of Uppsala, Eugene Carson
Blake, described the assembly just a year later as being “the end to an era of the ecumen-
ical movement” and a “new beginning” for the WCC.3 This is the starting point for this
article. Was Uppsala “the 1968” of the churches? What influence did the events of 1968

1
 This article is a translation of a chapter that first appeared under the title “1968 und die Ökumene: Die
Vollversammlung des ÖRK in Uppsala als Beginn einer neuen Ära?,” in the book Globalisierung der Kirchen: Der
Ökumenische Rat der Kirchen und die Entdeckung der Dritten Welt in den 1960er und 1970er Jahren, ed. Katharina Kunter
and Annegreth Schilling (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht), 2014.
2
 See, for example, Jürgen Moltmann, “Behold, I make all things new,” in this issue of the Ecumenical Review 70:2
(July 2018), 357–69. Ecumenical historiography gives a key place to 1968. See A History of the Ecumenical Movement,
Vol. 2: 1948–1968, ed. Harold C. Fey; Vol. 3: 1968–2000, ed. John Briggs, Mercy Amba Oduyoye, and Georges
Tsetsis (Geneva: WCC Publications, 2004).
3
 Eugene Carson Blake, “Uppsala and Afterwards,” in A History of the Ecumenical Movement, Vol. 2, 417.

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play at the assembly? Which topics were discussed and what were the conflicts that took
place there? In short, what do people think took place at Uppsala and what does the
archival material reveal about what happened?
This article aims to place Uppsala in the context of global political and ecumenical
events of the 1960s. First, it analyzes the composition of the assembly, focusing on the
tensions between youth participants and the “establishment,” as well as the issue of
representation from the “third world.” 4 It then moves on to presenting a detailed anal-
ysis of the issues discussed at the assembly based on the section reports and the plenary
addresses, and the issue of the extent to which the assembly can be described by the
term “renewal.” Finally, it returns to the question posed at the beginning of the article,
namely whether and to what extent Uppsala should be seen as the beginning of a new
era for the ecumenical movement.

Between “Establishment” and “Younger Churches”

With a total of 709 delegates from a total of 223 member churches,5 the Uppsala assem-
bly was the largest such gathering since the founding of the WCC. There were also 453
advisors, fraternal delegates, delegated observers, observers, and youth participants, as
well as another 834 people in various roles, such as guests, WCC staff, and stewards.
Thus, a total of around 2,000 people were involved in the work of the assembly,6 not
counting the 750 journalists who came to Uppsala.7 Even though from the outside it
may have seemed as though many different people were present at the assembly, the
breakdown of the delegates highlights the lack of representation of women, laypeople,
and young people. Only 9 percent of the delegates were women, while the percentage
of laypeople stood at 25 percent.8 The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung noted that “the

4
  The expressions of the time – “third world” and “younger churches” – will be used hereafter without quotation
marks.
5
 This figure is based on my own count and deviates only slightly from the figure given in the official assembly
(704 delegates). See Norman Goodall, “Introduction,” in The Uppsala Report 1968, ed. Norman Goodall
(Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1968), xv.
6
 The breakdown of the various groups is given in “39. Report of Credentials Committee,” in Goodall, Uppsala
Report, 147.
7
 See Goodall, Uppsala Report, “Introduction,” xv.
8
 The proportion of women had increased by a third compared to New Delhi; see the overview of representation
of women and laity from Amsterdam to Uppsala in “67. Report of Policy Reference Committee II,” in Goodall,
Uppsala Report, 191.

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Annegreth Schilling The Ecumenical Movement and 1968

churches are represented at the assembly by church leaders in decision-making posi-

tions, and these are mostly older men and predominantly bishops.”9
The controversial issue about laypeople and women in leading posts in the WCC came
to a head during the election of the six presidents of the WCC. A number of delegates
criticized the fact that only ordained men had been nominated as presidents, to which
the nominations committee responded that it “had not found it possible, taking all
other factors into account, to include a woman on the list.”10 Several delegates then
proposed that the Swedish educationalist and politician Birgit Rodhe, who was chair of
Section VI, be elected one of the presidents in the place of the Hannover Bishop
Johannes Lilje, who had been nominated because of his long ecumenical experience
and membership on the WCC central committee since 1948. In the ensuing ballot,
however, Lilje received 339 votes against 284 for the 52-year-old Swede. The other
presidents elected were Archimandrite German Timofejev of the Russian Orthodox
Church, the Methodist pastor Dr D. T. Niles (Ceylon), the Baptist pastor Ernest A.
Payne (UK), the Presbyterian pastor John Coventry Smith (USA), and the Anglican
Bishop A. H. Zulu (South Africa). As far as the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung was con-
cerned, “The choice of pastors and old men as the presidents of the World Council
demonstrates just how difficult it is for the World Council to fulfil its own motto:
‘Behold, I make all things new.’”11

Youth revolt in Uppsala

The assembly also struggled with the issue of participation of young delegates: only 28 out
of 704 delegates (4 percent) were younger than 35.12 Another 127 young people were able to
participate in the assembly, but without the right to vote.13 These youth participants, how-
ever, were excluded from taking part in the opening procession from the university to the
cathedral for the opening worship, as this was only for delegates.14 As a result, many of
them decided not to take part in the opening worship. “This is heart-breaking for many of

9
 Karl-Alfred Odin, “Die Kirchen dem Neuen aufgeschlossen,” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 5 July 1968.
10
 “35. Report of Nominations Committee,” in Goodall, Uppsala Report, 141. This was a structural problem, as
evidenced by the fact that among the 23 members only one woman was on the nomination committee; see. “5.
Appointment of Assembly Committees. D. Nomination Committee,” in Goodall, Uppsala Report, 107.
11
  Karl-Alfred Odin, “Näher an die Katholiken?” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 6 July 1968.
12
 Of these, 35 percent were between the ages of 35 and 50, 38 percent between 50 and 60, and 22 percent over
60 years. See: “67. Report of Policy Reference Committee II,” in Uppsala Report, 200. Overall, the figures make
up a total of only 99 percent.
13
 See “22. Amendments to the Rules of the World Council of Churches,” in Goodall, Uppsala Report, 120. Thus
the youth participants were given the same status as advisers and fraternal delegates.
14
 See “To the Glory of God,” in Goodall, Uppsala Report, 99–100.

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us, nevertheless we feel it is for the church’s own good that the present injustices within are
pointed out,” they said in a statement.15 Instead, two students held a “teach-in” in front of
the cathedral, criticizing the church “establishment” and an “arrogant church in a starving
world,”16 challenging those standing around to join the discussion. They were promptly
arrested by the police and interrogated.17
This incident indicates just how nervous the police were about youth protests in 1968,
even those at church events.18 The media followed the students’ actions just as closely
as the police did, portraying them as an expression of the global youth protest. The
Neue Zürcher Zeitung, for example, reported on the “All-night Vigil” held by youth par-
ticipants from 18 to 19 July 1968 at the end of the assembly under the headline
“Occupation of Uppsala Cathedral.”19 From the source material, however, it is not clear
whether this was an “occupation” or rather a “sit-in” to which not only the youth par-
ticipants but all participants of the assembly had been invited, where the youth partici-
pants brought before God their lament that the churches had failed in their task to
bring renewal to the church, and committing themselves “to be God’s instruments in
bringing to reality the truly important actions embedded in the reports which have
been passed by this Assembly.”20 According to one German youth participant, only a
few people left the church after the evening service: “Most worshipers spent the rest of
the night in the cathedral in discussion, singing and silence. It was only in the morning
that we parted ways in the knowledge of having experienced truly ecumenical worship
in the name of the Lord, remembering the forgotten and lost.”21 The Neue Zürcher
Zeitung reported, however, that the “occupation” had ended after 12 hours without the
police needing to intervene.22
The youth participants believed that the future of the WCC was at risk because of the
lack of youth representation and the disparity between younger and older delegates,

15
 “Statement of youth participants on procession and worship,” WCC Archives, 4232.084. The absence of the
youth participants during the service was noted by the press. Odin, “Die Kirchen dem Neuen
aufgeschlossen.”
16
 Dieter Lenz, “Ist alles Neue besser als alles Alte? Uppsala aus der Sicht eines Jugenddelegierten,” Ökumenische
Rundschau 18:1 (1969), 170.
17
 Ibid.
18
 See Armin Boyens, “Ökumenischer Rat der Kirchen und Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland zwischen West
und Ost,” in Nationaler Protestantismus und Ökumenische Bewegung: Kirchliches Handeln im Kalten Krieg; 1945–1990,
ed. Gerhard Besier, Armin Boyens, and Gerhard Lindemann (Berlin: 1999), 138–39.
19
 See “Besetzung der Kathedrale von Uppsala,” Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 21 July 1968.
20
 “All Night Vigil in the Cathedral,” Hot News, no. 8, 19 July 1968, WCC Archives, 4232.084.
21
 Lenz, “Ist alles Neue besser als alles Alte?” 172.
22
 “Besetzung der Kathedrale von Uppsala.”

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and, in a statement addressed to the assembly, they demanded: “If the WCC wishes to
survive, it is necessary that member churches include a ‘fair and adequate’ number of
young people in their delegates.”23 The tension between the youth participants and the
church “establishment” was demonstrated in a particularly dramatic way at the closing
service, where the youth participants arrived with banners to remind delegates of their
decisions and with the demand that the speeches now be followed by actions. The
youth revolt had finally reached the ecumenical movement.

The representation of the churches from the third world

When it came to representation of the younger churches, again the assembly was not
particularly balanced: the churches of Africa, Asia, and Latin America in Uppsala now
made up half of all WCC member churches, but they accounted for only one-third of
the delegates. There was no specific discussion in Uppsala about the increasing number
of member churches from the third world; instead this was placed in the wider context
of an increase in the number of member churches in general and the overall change in
the ecumenical situation, seen in the membership of the Orthodox churches as well as
closer cooperation with the Roman Catholic Church. Again, it was the youth partici-
pants who criticized the lack of representation of the third world in the assembly and
pleaded for their voices to be involved more in the ongoing ecumenical work.
The criticism was directed particularly at the fact that out of 22 assembly addresses,
only six were held by representatives of the third world.24 Delegates had agreed to “take
special note of the need for more adequate representation from churches in Latin
America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania at meetings under the auspices of the Council,”25
and the chair of the assembly, Ernest A. Payne, acknowledged in his closing address
that representatives of these regions “can make not only an important but an essential
contribution to our common life and in our understanding of the Gospel.”26 However,
this awareness was not reflected in the actions of the assembly.27
23
 “On Behalf of Youth Participants,” Plenary Business, Document no. 51, WCC Archives, 4232.084.
24
 See “On Behalf of Youth Participants.” A youth participant in a commentary in the Hot News newsletter of the
youth participants urged awareness for the “fourth world” alongside the “third world”: “When you talk in
terms of Younger Churches, or developing areas such as Africa, Asia and Latin America, please add in the
PACIFIC.” (S. A. Tuilovoni, “Voice from the Fourth World,” Hot News, no. 8, 19 July 1968, WCC Archives,
4232.084.)
25
 “67. Report of Policy Reference Committee II,” in Goodall, Uppsala Report, 185.
26
 “94. Chairman’s Closing Address,” in Goodall, Uppsala Report, 273.
27
 A particularly glaring example was the controversy surrounding the composition of the Assembly Message
Committee. A request to reconsider the membership of the committee given that there were only three repre-
sentatives from Africa (South Africa), Asia (India), and Latin America (Argentina) compared to ten from
Europe and North America was rejected. See “24. Message Committee,” in Goodall, Uppsala Report, 125–26.

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“Behold, I Make All Things New”: The Claims and Reality of Uppsala

With the theme “Behold, I make all things new,” the assembly had set itself an ambitious
goal. The biblical verse (Rev. 21:5) referred to the ecumenical optimism of the 1960s, and
called on the churches to face the challenge of renewal in a changing and increasingly
global world. In his address on the main theme, Orthodox Metropolitan Ignatios Hazim
of Latakia underlined that the radical renewal of the churches that was required was pos-
sible only through the work of the Holy Spirit.28 But to what extent was the assembly able
to translate the lofty goals of its theme into the reality of ecumenical work? How radical
was the renewal of the churches that proceeded from Uppsala? An examination of the
assembly’s six sections illustrates the profusion of issues delegates had to address, from
the unity of the church, to mission, development, and international affairs, to worship
and the question of new styles of living. Several topics were also the focus for plenary
addresses and from which recommendations emerged for future work of the WCC.

The Work and Themes of the Sections

There were twice as many sections in Uppsala as at the New Delhi assembly of 1961 –
six instead of three. The section groups met in half-day sessions and discussed the
preparatory drafts that had been produced in January 1968.29 Critics of the assembly,
such as the German evangelical theologian Peter Beyerhaus, claimed that the drafts
had been prepared by a WCC staff group who advocated revolutionary ideas and wanted
thereby to influence the assembly.30

Section I
Section I, “The Holy Spirit and the Catholicity of the Church,” picked up where the
1961 New Delhi assembly had left off, expanding its statement on the Unity of the
Church to include a pneumatological dimension. The central idea it dealt with was the
work of the Holy Spirit in relation to the unity of the church,31 while the key concept
28
 See Metropolitan Ignatios Hazim of Latakia, “Main Theme Address,” in Goodall, Uppsala Report, Appendix
3, 293–303.
29
 See “The Section Reports,” in Goodall, Uppsala Report, 6.
30
 See Peter Beyerhaus, Die Versuchungsstunde des Ökumenischen Rates: Uppsala im Spiegel seines biblischen Leitwortes
(Bad Liebenzell: Verlag der Liebenzeller Mission, 1970), 28.
31
 Prominent members of this section included José Míguez Bonino (Argentina) as secretary and Lukas Vischer
(Switzerland) as staff secretary, as well as Josef Hromádka (Czechoslovakia), Johannes Lilje, and Hermann
Dietzfelbinger (Germany). WCC Archives, 34.7/10.1 (Uppsala Section I).

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Annegreth Schilling The Ecumenical Movement and 1968

was “catholicity,” as the US Methodist J. Robert Nelson explained in his introduction

to the section’s work: “We are learning together today that the Catholicity must be re-
garded as a God-given possession of the Church, which gives the Church its distinct
character, and also as a powerful presence of the Holy Spirit, which equips the mem-
bers for their increasingly difficult mission in the world.”32
Two aspects of the catholicity of the church were thus being made manifest, according to
Nelson: the quest for the unity of all Christians, and the quest for the unity of humanity.
Section I began to set out the relationship between these two aspects, and came to the
preliminary conclusion that if the church could not demonstrate its own inner unity, the
unity of all humanity would be called into question. In a rather pointed remark, the section
report stated: “The Church is bold in speaking of itself as the sign of the coming unity of
mankind.”33 Thus, according to the section report, the unity of humanity is achieved sym-
bolically in the unity of the church, where the church becomes a model for the world. The
report noted, at the same time, that the church takes on its true form only in encounter
with the world. This tension between the “unity of the church” and the “unity of human-
ity,” which expressed the issue of the church’s relationship to the world and the efficacy of
its actions, made a decisive contribution to theological discussion after Uppsala.34

Section II
Section II dealt with the issue of “Renewal in Mission”35 ; the missionary mandate of
the church was now seen as a radical renewal of creation, embracing the renewal of
humanity in all its relationships. The “new manhood,”36 as attested to in Jesus Christ,
was not only a goal but a gift of God, allowing participation in the missionary procla-
mation and the renewal of human community: “The new life frees men for community
unabling [sic] them to break through racial, national, religious and other barriers that
divide the unity of mankind.”37 Picking up the study report on “The Missionary

32
  Robert Nelson, Introduction to Section I, WCC Archives, 34.7/10.1.
33
 “The Holy Spirit and the Catholicity of the Church: The Report as Adopted by the Assembly,” in Goodall,
Uppsala Report, 17. Reinhard Frieling has pointed to the similarities between this statement and the Dogmatic
Constitution of the Church Lumen Gentium, adopted at the Second Vatican Council. See Frieling, “Die
Aufbrüche von Uppsala 1968,” in Umbrüche: Der deutsche Protestantismus und die sozialen Bewegungen in den 1960er
und 70er Jahren, ed. Siegfried Hermle, Claudia Lepp, and Harry Oelke (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht,
2007), 179.
34
 The topic was specifically addressed by the Faith and Order Commission meeting in Louvain in 1971.
35
 
Alongside Philip Potter as staff secretary, this section included Hendrikus Berkhof (Netherlands),
Archimandrite German (USSR), Johannes Althausen (GDR), and Hans-Otto Wölber (FRG).
36
  “Renewal in Mission: The Report as Adopted by the Assembly,” in Goodall, Uppsala Report, 28.
37
 Ibid.

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Structure of the Congregation,”38 the section stated that the “church in mission” is
the “church for others”39 and in this role contributes to the overcoming of conflicts. A
missionary church, according to the section report, must stand “alongside the poor, the
defenceless, the abused, the forgotten, the bored” 40 – a demand that only a few years
later gained support from Latin American liberation theology.
However, at this very point, a passionate dispute arose in the section, as evangelical mis-
siologists believed that this demand marked “a dangerous shift in missionary orientation
from the evangelistic to the social revolutionary objective in the ecumenical understand-
ing of mission.” 41 This tension between “evangelicals” and “ecumenists” persisted
within the WCC until the early 1970s, when evangelical missiologists formed the
Lausanne Movement in 1974, thus establishing their own forum of mission theology.

Section III
Under the title “World Economic and Social Development,” Section III dealt with the
central theme of poverty and wealth, which was, according to section chair Jan M.
Lochmann, a “test case for the Fourth Assembly.” 42 As far as the major tensions be-
tween the “developed world” and the “developing countries” were concerned, the
French economist André Philip in his introductory paper defined the task of the
churches thus: “Their duty is basically to present these questions clearly, to arouse pub-
lic opinion in the rich countries, and to make people aware of the sacrifices which are
necessary, and finally to enter into dialogue with all the people in the Third World
which will result in an awareness of a world-wide civilisation.” 43
The churches needed to engage in political advocacy, stimulate a global awareness of
social and economic grievances, and engage an open dialogue with people in the third
38
 The study on the Missionary Structure of the Congregation was mandated by the WCC assembly in New
Delhi in 1961 and conducted by working groups in Western Europe and North America. The outcome of the
study was published as The Church for Others: Two Reports on the Missionary Structure of the Congregation, ed.
Department on Studies in Evangelism (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1967).
39
 “Renewal in Mission: The Report as Adopted by the Assembly,” in Goodall, Uppsala Report, 30.
40
 Ibid., 32.
41
 Peter Beyerhaus, cited in Reinhard Frieling, Der Weg des ökumenischen Gedankens: Eine Ökumenekunde (Göttingen:
Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1992), 85.
42
 “Introduction to the Theme,” in Goodall, Uppsala Report, 39. This section was considered one of the most
important sections of the assembly and included a number of prominent ecumenists: alongside Jan Milic
Lochmann (Czechoslovakia) as chair, M. M. Thomas (India) as secretary, and Paul Abrecht (Switzerland) as
staff secretary, the members included Samuel Parmar (India), Martin Niemöller and Klaus Lefringhausen
(Germany), Emilio Castro (Uruguay), Jaroslav Ondra (Czechoslovakia), and Willem Visser ’t Hooft
(Switzerland) as a consultant.
43
 André Philip, “Introduction –- Section III,” WCC Archives, 34. 8/10.1.

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Annegreth Schilling The Ecumenical Movement and 1968

world, the report stated. This was summed up in the concept of development, which
the section report described as “a process with potential for promoting social and eco-
nomic justice and world community and as an encounter between human beings.” 44 It
called on churches to work with their governments to ensure “at least 1 per cent of the
Gross National Product (GNP) of developed countries [is] made available as aid to the
developing.” 45 Without stipulating a particular percentage, the report urged churches
in developed countries to provide a significant part of their own income for develop-
ment, in addition to their expenditure on mission and other programmes.46 According
to the Indian economist S. L. Parmar, the vision that should guide action in the church
and political spheres was that of a “global vision of man and the human society.” 47
One can thus observe a close link to the work of Section I, which described the unity of
humanity and the unity of the church as being related to each other. Picking up this im-
pulse, Section III set out one of the tasks of the WCC as being to strengthen cooperation
with the Roman Catholic Church, such as had been seen at the Conference on World
Cooperation for Development in Beirut in 1968,48 and to work together to reduce expendi-
ture on armaments in favour of development. It also called for increased cooperation with
UN agencies and the establishment by the WCC of a new expanded development service.49
But even following the Uppsala assembly, as a paradigm shift within the WCC opened the
way to the voices of the churches and countries of the third world was becoming more au-
dible within the WCC, the WCC was still a long way from Parmar’s global vision of human-
ity based on political freedom, social justice, and economic justice.

Section IV
“If the third section was the most interesting, the fourth section was the most turbu-
lent,”50 noted the West German church newspaper Christ und Welt, in a report summa-
rizing the results of the assembly, an accurate description insofar as Section IV dealt

44
 “World Economic and Social Development: The Report as Adopted by the Assembly,” in Goodall, Uppsala
Report, 51.
45
 Ibid., 48; 52–53.
46
 Ibid., 53.
47
 S. L. Parmar, “Section III – Introductory Statement to Plenary,” WCC Archives, 34. 8/10. 4.
48
 SODEPAX was a joint commission of the WCC and the Vatican on social, development and peace issues that
existed from 1968 to 1990. The conference in Beirut is considered as its founding conference. See Tom
Stransky, “SODEPAX,” in Dictionary of the Ecumenical Movement, 2nd ed., ed. Nicholas Lossky et al. (Geneva:
WCC Publications, 2002), 1055–56.
49
 “World Economic and Social Development,” 53–54.
50
 Heinrich Stubbe, “Kluft zwischen Wollen und sein,” Christ und Welt, 26 July 1968.

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mainly with questions of war and peace in the midst of the Cold War.51 Under the title
“Towards Justice and Peace in International Affairs,” the section report called on the
nuclear powers to undertake “phased disarmament in all categories of weapons”52 and
reaffirmed the WCC’s commitment to continue as an actor for peace. There was an
extensive section on protecting human rights, which described racism as a “blatant
denial of the Christian faith.”53 All delegates seemed convinced of the need for churches
to make a contribution to peace and to maintain peace:
None of this divided the section. What did divide it was the question whether Christians are not
bound to go further. And it was not quite the old pacifist versus non-pacifist argument: in partic-
ular the youth wanted the churches to opt out of direct involvement in the process of manufactur-
ing and threatening to use nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction.54

Underlying this was the issue of the ability of churches to spell out their theological
insights “in morally binding and politically effective ways.”55 More than ever, there was
a need for multilateral co-operation between churches and governments, and between
churches themselves, both at the international and regional level, as steps “towards the
goal of one world community.”56

Sections V and VI
While Sections III and IV dealt primarily with issues at the political level, the remain-
ing two sections – Sections V and VI – returned to issues of a more theological and
social nature. Section V simply had the name “Worship” – the first time the issue was
discussed at a WCC assembly.57 The original title, “Worship in a Secular Age,” was re-
jected because the focus on secularization was seen as reflecting too much the perspec-
tive of Western European and North American churches. Asian delegates, in whose
countries Christianity represented a minority, and Orthodox delegates criticized the
draft report for making secularization the sole reason for the renewing of worship and

51
 Participants in this section chaired by Ludwig Raiser (Germany) included Richard von Weizsäcker and
Helmut Gollwitzer (Germany), Bola Ige (Nigeria), and Alan Booth (Switzerland) as staff secretary.
52
 “Towards Justice and Peace in International Affairs: The Report as Adopted by the Assembly,” in Goodall,
Uppsala Report, 63.
53
 Ibid., 65.
54
 Paul Oestreicher, “Personal Comment on the Work of the Section on Towards Justice and Peace in
International Affairs,” in Goodall, Uppsala Report, 72.
55
 Ibid., 71.
56
 “Towards Justice and Peace in International Affairs,” 69.
57
 Participants in this section included John Meyendorff (USA) as chair and Bishop A. H. Zulu (South Africa) as
one of the two vice-chairs.

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liturgical life.58 The section report thus became a textbook example of a consensus
document that to a large extent retained the reference to the challenge of growing sec-
ularization but also clearly stated that Christian worship needed to be “related to the
cultures of the world.”59
Section VI – “Towards New Styles of Living” – had the task of examining the issues
discussed in the other sections from the standpoint of their practical relevance in life.60
Birgit Rodhe described the aim of the Section’s work in her introductory address as fol-
lows: “The special task of Section VI is . . . to try to translate – and translate is a keyword
here – the main theme and the more specialized concern of the other Sections into a
simpler and clearer tune.” 61 The section thus held up a mirror to the assembly by placing
the issues and conflicts that had emerged at Uppsala into a broader social context. The
section noted that the generations were finding it increasingly difficult to communicate
and urged churches to stand up for reconciliation between generations.62 Another topic
was the question of the power of a “privileged minority of humanity” in Europe and
North America versus an “underprivileged majority” in other parts of the world.63 No
style of life is Christian if it is indifferent to the suffering of others, the report stated:
“Whether we are rich or poor: it is in solidarity with the underprivileged that our exis-
tence acquires direction and purpose.” 64 The section also focused on relationships in
partnerships and families, as well as in community life. It called in particular for women’s
rights to be strengthened, stating: “Established patterns in church, family and society
which deny the full human rights of women stand condemned.” 65
The message of the section was clear: Christians should be ready to develop a new way of
life that does not live from the production of documents but on personal commitment:
“This includes the readiness to rearrange our time, our abilities and our wealth, perhaps the
devotion of our lives for the sake of a more just and compassionate society. The one who
makes all things new, goes forward and helps us to follow.” 66 The call for Christians to
58
 See David L. Edwards, “Personal Comment on the work of the Section on Worship,” in Goodall, Uppsala
Report, 84.
59
 “Worship. The Report as Adopted by the Assembly,” in Goodall, Uppsala Report, 80.
60
 Participants in this section included Birgit Rodhe (Sweden) as chair; Kathleen Bliss (UK); Margaret Mead
(USA); and Beyers Naude (South Africa). This section was the only one headed by a woman.
61
 Birgit Rodhe, “Introduction to Section VI: Towards a New Style of Living, WCC Archives, 34. 9/17.3.
62
 “Towards New Styles of Living. The Report as Adopted by the Assembly,” in Goodall, Uppsala Report,
88–89.
63
 Ibid., 89.
64
 Ibid., 91.
65
 Ibid., 92.
66
 Ibid., 94.

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practise “new styles of living” thus brought together the insights of the other sections and
made the main theme of the assembly – “Behold, I make all things new” – more specific.

The Main Issues at the Assembly and Their Impact

Against the background of the work of the sections, several issues emerged in Uppsala
that through the intensive media coverage also resonated among the public at large: the
relationship with the Roman Catholic Church, the issues of racism and development,
and the stance taken on various political conflicts. These issues came to the fore in ple-
nary addresses, kindling hopes for the future of ecumenism, but also sparking heated
discussion.

The Roman Catholic Church and the WCC

According to The New York Times, “a major theme of the current assembly” was the issue
of the relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and the WCC.67 One of the
Roman Catholic representatives in Uppsala, the Italian Jesuit Roberto Tucci, made a
strong impression with his statement in his plenary address “that the Church of Rome
has no desire but to develop more and more dynamic and more intimate relations with
the World Council.” 68 The relationship between Geneva and Rome since the Second
Vatican Council, he said, had developed into a spirit of collaboration that constituted “a
real upheaval in the outlook of large sections of Catholicism.” 69 Given the statements
of the Second Vatican Council, it was now inadmissible, Tucci said, to speak of the res-
toration of unity being accomplished by the “return of the brethren separated from the
Church of Rome.”70 The goal of the churches must be a joint movement toward the
unity of the church on the basic of a dynamic concept. Tucci then raised the highly
sensitive question as to whether the Roman Catholic Church could one day become a
member of the WCC. “In my opinion,” he stated, “the question cannot be evaded, and
we should have the courage here and now to study more deeply the reasons for and
against, and to examine them as lucidly as possible.”71

67
 Edward B. Fiske, “First Papal Message is sent to World Council of Churches; Pope Paul lauds Uppsala
Session,” The New York Times, 6 July 1968.
68
 Roberto Tucci, “The Ecumenical Movement, the World Council of Churches and the Roman Catholic
Church,” in Goodall, Uppsala Report, Appendix VI, 328.
69
 Ibid., 324.
70
 Ibid., 326.
71
 Ibid., 329.

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Even Pope Paul VI, in his message to the assembly, albeit in a more subdued and diplo-
matic tone, left no doubt that ecumenical relationships needed to be strengthened. The
attendance of 15 delegated observers from the Roman Catholic Church underlined the
need “to continue and expand the collaboration which already exists between the World
Council of Churches and the Catholic Church,” he stated, and their presence “expresses
the lively interest which we have in your Assembly.”72 Given such statements, it might
have seemed to the public at large to be only a matter of time before the Roman Catholic
Church officially became a member of the WCC.
But that did not happen. Although representatives of the Roman Catholic Church have
been involved in the Faith and Order commission since Uppsala, and the Vatican continued
to work with the WCC in SODEPAX, the visit of Pope Paul VI to the WCC on 10 June
1969 made clear that although the WCC was now a serious partner for the Vatican, mem-
bership of the Roman Catholic Church in the immediate future was out of the question.73

A changing approach to development

One week after the opening of the assembly, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung reported that the
focus was shifting from the debate about the relationship with the Roman Catholic
Church to “boundless enthusiasm for everything to do with ‘the’ developing coun-
tries.”74 The tone was set by two plenary addresses titled “Rich and Poor Nations,” by
Kenneth Kaunda, elected as Zambia’s first president in 1964, and British economist
Barbara Ward.75 Kaunda reminded the assembly of the developing countries’ continued
dependence on developed countries, in large part because of their colonial past but also
because of increasing foreign private capital. He described the development decade
proclaimed by the United Nations as a “Decade of Disappointment and
Disillusionment,”76 with no changes in the dependency of developing countries upon
developed countries. He urged the overcoming of “prejudice and cynicism against
young developing nations”77 and stressed that only through international cooperation
could the situation in the world be improved. International organizations had the

72
 “The Pope’s message to the President of the Fourth Assembly, World Council of Churches,” in Goodall,
Uppsala Report, 403.
73
 See Michael Kinnamon, “Assessing the Ecumenical Movement,” in A History of the Ecumenical Movement, vol. 3,
73.
74
 Neue Zürcher Zeitung, “Uppsala – Probe aufs Exempel,” Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 13 July 1968.
75
 Barbara Ward was also known as Lady Jackson because of her marriage to Sir Robert Jackson, who was
knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1956. See Jean Gartlan, Barbara Ward: Her Life and Letters (London:
Continuum, 2010), 86.
76
 H. E. President K. D. Kaunda, “Rich and Poor Nations,” Ecumenical Review 20:4 (October 1968), 339.
77
 Ibid., 342.

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responsibility and duty to promote multilateral aid programmes. The churches, too,
needed to respond to the “turning-point in the history of human development”78 and
ensure that their actions benefited all humanity:

This calls for a new and global vision of man and the human race . . . It is first and foremost a ques-
tion of building a world in which every man, woman and child, without distinction, will have and
exercise the right to live a full human life worthy of his or her person, free from servitude, oppres-
sion and exploitation imposed on him or her by other fellow human beings.79

While Kaunda looked to the positive influence of international organizations – implic-

itly calling on the WCC to increase its global responsibility – Barbara Ward’s speech was
primarily addressed to the “Western world.” She warned against the self-centredness of
developed countries that “do not consider that the great obligations of society which
have been to some extent successful inside our nations go beyond our frontiers.”80 The
attitude of the rich countries, she said, was based on the feeling that “the other is alien
because he is not like us . . . We don’t help because they are different.”81 Ward made it
clear in her speech that this was due to their lack of willingness, “since we have a per-
fectly clear possibility of action – because 1 per cent of our Gross National Product in
taxation is not more than one-third of our annual increase in wealth.”82
However important Ward’s suggestion was for the “Western world,” it ignored the fact
that an obligatory tax on industrialized nations for development would increase the
economic dependence of developing countries, exactly the issue Kenneth Kaunda had
already criticized in his presentation. The two positions could not be easily combined.
What they had in common was the realization that a change in thinking and action was
required as far as the issue of development was concerned. The WCC responded to the
dispute over development – seen not only in these two addresses but in the work of
Section III – by extending the mandate of SODEPAX83 and creating the Commission
for the Churches’ Participation in Development (CCPD) in 1970.84

78
 Ibid., 344.
79
 Ibid., 346.
80
 Lady Jackson (Barbara Ward), “Rich and Poor Nations,” Ecumenical Review 20:4 (October 1968), 351.
81
 Ibid., 352.
82
 Ibid., 352. “World Economic and Social Development,” 48; 52–53.
83
 See “65. Report of Policy Reference Committee I,” in Goodall, Uppsala Report, 179–80.
84
 See David Enderton Johnson, ed., Uppsala to Nairobi 1968–1975: Report of the Central Committee to the Fifth
Assembly of the World Council of Churches (Friendship Press: New York/SPCK: London, 1975), 139–52; Margot
Kässmann, Die eucharistische Vision. Armut und Reichtum als Anfrage an die Einheit der Kirche in der Diskussion des
Ökumenischen Rates (Munich: Chr.Kaiser, and Mainz: Matthias Grünewald,1992), 132–34.

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Liberation from racism

The issue most commonly associated with the Uppsala assembly right up to the present
day has been that of racism. However, it was only a few weeks before the assembly that
an internal WCC working committee headed by Paul Abrecht recommended that there
be “more substantial consideration of [the] race issue at the Assembly.”85 The commit-
tee proposed looking for speakers who would be able to speak from their own experi-
ence, mentioning the name of the African American writer James Baldwin, who agreed
to attend, despite the short notice.86 The committee also recommended that changes be
made in the programme so that “the issue of race be dealt with in as many sections and
committees as possible.”87 This proposal led to the issue of racism being discussed in
all the sections.88 Those in Geneva were aware of how significant racism was as an
issue, with Baldwin being told two weeks before the assembly: “You can be sure that
what you say at Uppsala will have an impact not only on the church leaders present, but
on Christian thinking in many countries.”89
Baldwin’s searing address did not disappoint; under the title “White Racism or World
Community?” he described his experience as a black man in a dominant white society.
He identified “white” with Western Christian culture and pointed to the past and pres-
ent failures of the Christian Church, stating that “part of the dilemma of the Christian
Church is the fact that it opted, in fact, for power and betrayed its own first principles
which were a responsibility to every living soul.”90 In the process, the church had for-
gotten what it meant to be church. However, it still had the power, Baldwin said, if it
wanted to, to change the structures in South Africa, to prevent the death of another
Martin Luther King Jr, and to force the US government to stop dropping bombs on
Vietnam. The church could be saved, he stated, only if “the revolution which was begun

85
 “Assembly speakers: Report and Recommendations of the Committee Appointed by S.E.G.” (no date), WCC
Archives, 34.22/6, 1. It can be assumed that this undated recommendation was made only after the assassina-
tion of Martin Luther King Jr in April 1968. King had close links with the WCC, especially since the election
of Eugene Carson Blake as general secretary, and had promised in January 1968 to preach in the opening
service of the assembly; see the correspondence between Eugene Carson Blake and Martin Luther King Jr of
13 October 1967 and 20 November 1967, WCC Archives, 42.11.08/2. Since King’s name is not mentioned in
the search for potential speakers on the issue of racism, it seems reasonable to conclude that this recommen-
dation was drafted only after his death, and thus that King’s assassination played an essential role in making
racism even more of an issue to be included in the assembly.
86
 Letter from Archie LeMone to Baldwin, 17 June 1968, WCC Archives, 34.22/6.
87
 Ibid.
88
 See Goodall, Uppsala Report: Section I (18); Section II (28); Section III (49–50); Section IV (65–66); Section
V (83); Section VI (90). The numbers in brackets refer to the respective page numbers.
89
 Letter from Archie LeMone to Baldwin, 17 June 1968, WCC Archives, 34.22/6.
90
 James Baldwin, “White Racism or World Community?” Ecumenical Review 20:4 (October 1968), 373.

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two thousand years ago by a disreputable Hebrew criminal” is begun again by those
who find themselves in a similar situation.91
The assembly responded to this accusatorial and arresting speech with a standing ova-
tion, and it led the assembly to undertake further action. Because there was too little time
to prepare a recommendation on racism,92 the assembly referred a draft drawn up by the
policy reference committee to the central committee for action. This condemned racial
discrimination in South Africa, urged support for the South African people in their fight
against apartheid, and stated that churches should call for a comprehensive embargo on
arms exports and work to suspend the flow of capital to South Africa.93 At its meeting
in Canterbury in August 1969, the central committee agreed to create a Programme to
Combat Racism, which, like no other WCC study and action programme before or since,
led to conflicts that continued until the 1980s between the Geneva headquarters and
member churches, as well as conflicts within member churches themselves.

Political neutrality: The case of “Biafra”

Alongside the three main issues of the assembly – the relationship with the Roman
Catholic Church, the problem of development, and the issue of racism – the assembly
also dealt with various political conflicts, adopting statements about particular situa-
tions. However, neither the “Resolution on Vietnam” – adopted by the assembly with
20 votes against and 30 abstentions, nor the appeal to the US to stop the bombing of
North Vietnam and for the restoration of peace, nor the “Resolution on the Middle
East,” in which delegates expressed concern about the tense political situation there,
made a lasting impact in the media. It was rather the political conflict in Nigeria that
received most attention in public media, at least in German-language newspapers,94
possibly because of the demand of the German delegation for a statement on the Biafra
conflict, where there was a need not only for “charitable action but also a political solu-
tion to the conflict in Nigeria/Biafra.”95
The WCC’s Inter-Church Aid, Refugee and World Service, in cooperation with other aid
agencies, had already provided significant financial and material resources since the onset
91
 Ibid., 372.
92
 “Report of Policy Reference Committee II,” 192.
93
 See “Policy Reference Committee II,” Document no. 11, WCC Archives, 34.7/8.10.
94
 Karl-Alfred Odin, “Diakonisches Werk kauft zwei Transportflugzeuge für Biafra,” Frankurter Allgemeine
Zeitung, 5 July 1968; “Weltkirchenrat will Biafra helfen,” Frankurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 11 July 1978.
95
 The conflict was triggered by the declaration of independence of the oil-rich eastern Nigeria region of the rest
of the country on 30 May 1967. The Nigerian government did not recognize the “Republic of Biafra” and sent
the army to the eastern region on 6 July 1967, leading to a bloody civil war in which more than a million people
died until the reintegration of the eastern region into the Nigerian state in January 1970.

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of the crisis, as well as urging member churches to assist local churches there.96 A contro-
versy broke out at the assembly, however, whether such emergency assistance also included
taking sides politically. Two of the representatives from the region at the assembly and
former student friends – the Nigerian lawyer and human rights activist Bola Ige and the
former governor of East Nigeria/Biafra, Akanu Ibiam, an outgoing WCC president – tried
to convince the delegates of their own position.97 While Ibiam campaigned for the recog-
nition of Biafra and attempted to make the assembly aware of the scale of the humanitar-
ian catastrophe, Ige made it abundantly clear to the assembly that the Nigerian Christian
Council would not tolerate the name “Biafra” being used in a statement by the WCC.98
The assembly tried to do justice to both sides by issuing two statements: the first was a
“Statement on Relief,” underlining the need to “establish a continuous and effective
airlift”99 to allow the distribution of humanitarian aid. The second was a political state-
ment on the “Conflict between Nigeria and the former Eastern Region,” which stressed
that the WCC did not wish to and was not able to take sides, and thus would not use the
name “Biafra.” The statement urged both sides to end hostilities, to resume negotia-
tions, and to work for peace and reconciliation.100 Nevertheless, it was a difficult task
for the WCC until the end of the civil war to maintain a genuinely neutral position and
to defend this against both sides.
“Behold, I make all things new” was an ambiguous theme for the assembly: on the one
hand, the biblical motto looked to the eschatological promise and hope that it was God
who would make all things new; on the other hand, the delegates and the main speakers
sought to promote ecumenical renewal themselves, in overcoming confessional, cultural,
and racial boundaries. The grand claim made by the churches to offer a sign of the renewal
of the world was expressed primarily in ecclesiastical activism, such as the establishment
of new programmes, whereas the implicit “I” claim of God receded into the background.

“Renewal” as the Leitmotif of the Assembly

The Uppsala assembly took place two years after the World Conference on Church and
Society in Geneva in 1966, an international WCC conference dealing with the role and
responsibility of the churches in a time of social and technological change. Theologians
such as Richard Shaull from Brazil and the US and Heinz-Dietrich Wendland from
96
 See “40. Nigeria,” in Goodall, Uppsala Report, 156f.
97
 On Akanu Ibiam, see Modupe Oduyoye, “Akanu Ibiam,” in Ecumenical Pilgrims: Profiles of Pioneers in Christian
Reconciliation, ed. Ion Bria and Dagmar Heller (Geneva: WCC Publications, 1995), 108–11.
98
 “40. Nigeria,” 153.
99
 Ibid., 155.
100
 Ibid., 157.

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Germany spoke of the need for a “theology of the revolution,” or, in other words, the
theologically legitimized participation of Christians in revolutionary social upheavals
and the establishment of a new social order.101 According to this position, the church
was the bearer of revolutionary change and should – in Wendland’s words – “be at the
forefront of this movement for the humanization of human society.”102 What remained
of this revolutionary spirit in Uppsala?
For the theologian Reinhard Frieling, the assembly spoke “more cautiously than Geneva in 1966
of ‘renewal’ instead of revolution.”103 While it is the case that the word “revolution” played
less of a role at the Uppsala assembly, what we find in the sources does not confirm Frieling’s
interpretation that the churches had become more “cautious.” The world conference in
Geneva clearly addressed the revolutionary changes within which churches should play a
role, but left open the question of what this meant for the specific changes for the lives of the
churches. This was now the task of the Uppsala assembly, where the theme of “renewal”
guided the debates: not more cautiously, but more analytically and in a more committed fash-
ion. In this, the assembly focused on the need to renew theology and on the urgency of re-
newing church structures, including the structural changes that were needed in the WCC.

Renewal of theology
The debate about the fundamental theological understanding of ecumenical action was
sparked by the evangelical critique that political issues were too dominant in Uppsala.
Thus the evangelical theologian Peter Beyerhaus warned against a “horizontalization of
the gospel,”104 in which theology was reduced to social and ethical issues, and evange-
lization was identified with humanization. In so doing, the church would neglect its
missionary mandate and its vertical orientation, the reliance of human beings on God’s
grace. WCC’s former general secretary Willem Visser ’t Hooft responded to this criti-
cism in a keynote address about the mandate of the ecumenical movement, in which he
affirmed that the apparent opposites of vertical and horizontal orientation were in fact
mutually dependent:
101
 See Richard Shaull, “Revolutionary Change in Theological Perspective,” in Christian Social Ethics in a Changing
World, ed. John C. Bennett (New York: Association Press, and London: SCM Press, 1966; Heinz-Dietrich
Wendland, “The Church and Revolution,” Ecumenical Review 18:4 (October 1966), 440–53; Ernst Feil and
Rudolf Weth, eds, Diskussion zur “Theologie der Revolution,” 2nd ed. (Munich: Kaiser, 1969).
102
 See the text in German, apparently a transcript that differs from the published version in English, of
Wendland’s address at the 1966 Geneva conference: “Kirche und Revolution,” in Appell an die Kirchen der Welt:
Dokumente der Weltkonferenz für Kirche und Gesellschaft (Stuttgart/Berlin: Kreuz-Verlag), 89.
103
 Reinhard Frieling, “Ökumene,” in Theologische Realenz yklopädie, vol. 25, ed. Gerhard Müller (Berlin/New
York: W. de Gruyter, 1995), 62 (emphasis added). He repeats this claim in all his various contributions about
the significance of Uppsala.
104
 Ibid. Here, too, there was a conflict between different understandings of missionary and theological con-
cepts, concerned about equating humanization with Christianization.

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A Christianity which has lost its vertical dimension has lost its salt and is not only insipid in itself,
but useless for the world. But a Christianity which would use the vertical preoccupation as a means
to escape from its responsibility for and in the common life of man is a denial of the incarnation,
of God’s love for the world manifested in Christ.105

According to Visser ’t Hooft, the renewal of ecumenical theology meant that the churches
needed to develop “a new conception of humanity”106 : God in Christ created humanity
anew and the church was thus called to bear witness to the Christian hope of the unity of
humanity. He thus urged churches to rediscover the “clear biblical doctrine of the unity
of mankind,” in which they would arrive at “a strong foundation for a new approach to
the whole question of world economic justice and to a better and more convincing moti-
vation for development aid.”107 The message of the assembly, however, addressed to all
Christians throughout the world, went far beyond such a moderate position: “We ask
you, trusting in God’s renewing power, to join in these anticipations of God’s Kingdom,
showing now something of the newness which Christ will complete.”108
With this statement, the revolutionary spirit that had shaped the world conference in
Geneva two years previously had now reached the assembly in Uppsala. Even though it
spoke of renewal and not revolution, the assembly underlined the determination of the
churches to become a driving force for the transformation of the world through ­actively
participating in the overcoming of racism, defending human rights, and commitment to
disarmament. In retrospect, the political theologian Jürgen Moltmann, a member of the
Faith and Order Commission since 1963, interpreted the message of Uppsala as “an ac-
tive ethic of hope in which reason becomes knowledge for change” linking the historical
present and the future of history in the light of the “eschatological coming of God.”109
The problematic element in this historical theological perspective – which Moltmann
still shared 40 years after Uppsala110 – is, then as now, the appropriation of the concept
of the kingdom of God and the resulting self-overestimation of human action.

105
 W. A. Visser ’t Hooft, “The Mandate of the Ecumenical Movement,” in Goodall, Uppsala Report, Appendix
V, 318.
106
 Ibid., 319.
107
 Ibid., 319–20.
108
 “A Message from the Fourth Assembly of the World Council of Churches,” in Goodall, Uppsala Report, 1.
109
 See Jürgen Moltmann, “Behold, I Make All Things New,” in this issue of Ecumenical Review 70:2 (July 2018),
357–69. Moltmann was unable to attend the Uppsala assembly due to commitments at the University of
Tübingen. He had already agreed to hold the keynote address at the World Student Conference of the World
Student Christian Federation, taking place 22–31 July 1968 in Turku, Finland, which also led him to decline
the invitation to Uppsala. See ibid.
110
 Ibid. Moltmann reaffirmed this perspective in a discussion with the author on 16 March 2011.

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Structural renewal
The idea of renewal influenced not only theological perspectives but also the institutional
structure of the WCC. The assembly, the highest decision-making body of the WCC, had
the task of making both structural and programmatic decisions for future ecumenical
work. The Uppsala assembly adopted a series of forward-looking decisions, which were
referred to the central committee for implementation. A major task was “to conduct a major
study on the structures of the Council,”111 to be completed by 1 January 1972. This led to a
decision by the central committee at its meeting in Addis Ababa in 1971 to reorganize the
WCC’s departments into three programme units – “Faith and Witness,” “Justice and
Service,” and “Education and Renewal” – each with its own set of sub-units, thereby allow-
ing more flexibility for the diversity of ecumenical study and action programmes and on-
going thematic work through a cooperative leadership structure and more flexible teams.112
Alongside the fundamental structural change in the WCC, numerous new commissions, pro-
grammes, and study processes were set up after the assembly to take forward the issues dis-
cussed there.113 While most attention has been paid to the Programme to Combat Racism,
other new programmes dealt with anthropological and social and ethical issues, such as the
“Humanum Studies,”114 as well as the two studies on the “The Future of Man and Society in
a World of Science-based Technology,” and “Violence, Nonviolence and the Struggle for
Social Justice.”115 In addition, there was a stronger emphasis on dialogue with people of other
faiths,116 and CCPD was set up, while another new area of responsibility was in the area of
education, with the creation of an office for education to support member churches’ work in
this area. These structural changes, briefly sketched here, illustrate the depth of the ecumeni-
cal process of renewal and transformation in the WCC, and how the demands emerging from
the discussions at Uppsala were integrated into the WCC’s programmatic work.

The Legend of Uppsala?

In reviewing and analyzing what happened and what emerged from the Uppsala
assembly, it is impossible to give an unambiguous answer to the question posed
at the outset – that is, whether Uppsala represented “the 1968” of the churches.
It is true that student protests and their criticism of the “establishment” had now
reached the worldwide fellowship of churches gathered in Uppsala and, following
111
 “65. Report of Policy Reference Committee I,” in Goodall, Uppsala Report, 183.
112
 See Enderton Johnson, Uppsala to Nairobi, 41–43.
113
 A good overview of the programmes and sub-units can be found in ibid., 13–15.
114
 See David Jenkins, Humanum Studies 1969–1975: A Collection of Studies (Geneva: World Council of Churches,
1975).
115
 Enderton Johnson, Uppsala to Nairobi, 116–17.
116
 See ibid., 98–105.

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the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr, there was a vigorous condemnation of
racism. Nevertheless, Uppsala did not mark a turning point in itself. The “end of
the ecumenical era” that Blake believed had arrived with the assembly had begun
well before Uppsala: the WCC’s 3rd Assembly in New Delhi in 1961 had begun the
process of ecumenical change with the increasing numbers of younger churches
and Orthodox churches, which in the following years led to the WCC becoming
an organization acting on the global stage and highly diverse denominationally,
in which the year 1966 can be seen as playing the role of a catalyst. According to
Greek Orthodox theologian Nikos Nissiotis, the Uppsala assembly developed a new
understanding of ecumenism based around three factors:

1. The increased participation of the Orthodox Churches – now the biggest member church of the
WCC – and now represented as such, including numerically; 2. The full and significant participation
of the Roman Catholic Church, although not a member church; 3. The active participation and cri-
117
tique of youth.

As relevant as these points are, this understanding of ecumenism disregards an es-

sential factor crucial to the understanding of oikoumene as the whole inhabited earth,
and to the ecumenical changes of the 1960s and early 1970s: the younger churches,
which since the early 1960s had played an increasingly influential role, challeng-
ing the WCC. However, as the review of the section reports and issues at Uppsala
showed, the third world became a focus of discussion only insofar as the conscience
of the Western world was shaken. The younger churches in Uppsala did not act as a
collective group vis-à-vis the Western churches, as they did a few years later at the
world mission conference in Bangkok 1972–73, nor did Western churches feel chal-
lenged by the contributions of the representatives of the third world.
Has Uppsala therefore been deprived of its legendary status of having been the most
influential assembly of the WCC up until then? Here, too, the assessment is ambiv-
alent. The fact that only an assembly can take the decisions setting the direction for
the WCC means that the Uppsala assembly is undeniably relevant to the ecumenical
changes in the 1960s and early 1970s. At the same time, the enormous coverage in
secular and church media meant that the churches were seen as working hand in
hand with a determination to change the world for the better. But as soon as one is
no longer fixated on the year 1968, Uppsala seems to have contributed little that was
fundamentally new. Instead it was more an expression than an instigator of the pro-
grammatic and structural changes that had been marking and giving a new direction
to the ecumenical movement since the beginning of the 1960s.
117
 Nikos A. Nissiotis, “Gedanken über die IV. Vollversammlung des Ökumenischen Rates der Kirchen in
Uppsala,” Ökumenische Rundschau 18:1 (1969), 126.

© (2018) World Council of Churches 215