Neighbors in Christ: Global Christianity in the city

In 1961, a Time cover story declared that the “ecumenical century” was at hand. Pope John XXIII’s “ecumenical council”—aka Vatican II—was forthcoming, while the National Council of Churches had made progress in the United States. And in New Delhi, the World Council of Churches held its third assembly—with the full participation of many Orthodox churches, nearly all of which by then had officially joined the WCC. Time optimistically claimed that “the scattered forces of Christian faith are realigning and regrouping.”

The New Delhi assembly adopted a statement on unity. The statement, which was shaped by the WCC’s Faith and Order Commission meeting the previous year, emphasized that unity needed to be pursued both in local settings and at a global level:

We believe that the unity which is both God’s will and his gift to his Church is being made visible as all in each place who are baptized into Jesus Christ and confess him as Lord and Saviour are brought by the Holy Spirit into one fully committed fellowship . . . and who at the same time are united with the whole Christian fellowship in all places.