Introduction
Edinburgh 1910 was more than a
conference. It stands as an event in the life of the church. It is unique in
its kind because it was here in 1910 that the breakthrough that marked the
world movement of the 20th century began. For the first time the missionary
societies as such and while not in fact, in principle the churches themselves
of America, Britain, and the Continent began to do certain things together and
made organized provision for this.
A world-wide gathering of Christian leaders, inter-denominational
in its scope and missionary in its purpose, was nearing realization. Edinburgh
1910 was called a World Missionary Conference.
1. Background
Edinburgh 1910 is often considered as the ‘first’ World Missionary Conference. In fact, this was the first international missionary conference held under this title and it was the beginning of a series of world missionary conferences until the second half of the 20th century.[1]
The Edinburgh, 1910 dwelt seriously on the programme of planting for successful evangelization of the world in this generation. The main theme of their discussion was that the task of uniting is urgent for world evangelization – a task of fulfilling Christ’s Great Commission. Church leaders saw unity as an important means for the church to pursue its mission of conversion and church planting.[5]
2. Basis of the Conference
The World Missionary Conference assembled on 14th –
23rd June, 1910. It was a widely represented conference. Its
1200 strong delegates came from almost 160 protestant mission societies or
boards and native leaders from the mission fields. Almost all those who
participated in it were officials of boards or societies at home and persons who
were actively involved in missionary work in the mission field.
Edinburgh provided an occasion that gave serious attention to the
planning for effective mission and evangelism of the whole world in this
generation. They met together and expressed their oneness in the daily sessions
of worship and group meetings, besides participating in the main business
sessions. The focus of its ecumenical unity was on the world’s need of Christ
and the urgency of fulfilling the Great Commission.
The conference was well planned and it represented the “enthusiasm of missions”. Its emphasis on the priority of evangelization of the non-Christian world made the organizers of the conference and participants to pass over issues of ecclesiastical beliefs and rituals. However, there was an implicit unanimity of the authority of the Holy Bible, Christ’s unique salvation, the world’s immediate need of the Savior and obligation to worldwide mission. Apparently, it was a general consensus on these fundamental principles that had enabled the conference to see the possibility of cooperation and working together in spite of divergent theological heritages.[6]
3. Significant figures behind
Edinburgh 1910
3.1. William Carey:
Edinburgh was first scheduled in 1910 because the pattern of holding a General Assembly every ten years was accepted and considered valuable. William Carey had proposed such a plan, in 1806, envisioning the first assembly as meeting a Capetown in 1810. While no evidence appears that Carey’s proposal influenced those to whom Edinburgh’s origins must be traced, GustaveWarneck, who at London in 1880 urged decennial missionary conferences, may well have had Carey’s suggestion in mind. In 1878, London hosted an interdenominational missionary meeting. Ten years later it welcomed the great “Centenary Conference.” The “Ecumenical Missionary Conference” of 1900 would have been held in 1898 but for the desire to convene it on the threshold of the new century.[7]
3.2. J. H. Oldham:
One man who built Edinburgh and directed its preparation stages
more than any other was Joseph Houldsworth Oldham. He was born in 1874 in
Scotland and grew up in the warm missionary home of his father,
lieutenant-colonel at the Royal Engineers, J. H. Oldham in his university
career at Trinity College, Oxford. By 1896 he had become the first full-time
secretary of the Student Christian Movement in Great Britain and Ireland.
Called to India in 1897, Oldham worked there from 1898 to 1900 as general,
secretary of the YMCA in Lahore. In 1900 with much achievement, but with his
work unfinished, young Scot was banned from home by typhoid. When he was made
secretary of the Edinburgh organizing committee in Oxford in 1908, Oldham was
granted leave in his office in Scotland, but he planned to give the volunteer
union six weeks' work during the year. Yet this amazingly strong man with a
small body, intelligent mind, and deep spirituality would never return to his
former position. Thirty years later she married a worker from Edinburgh.
4. Edinburgh conference 1910
Up "On the Hill," not far from Edinburgh Castle and near
St. Giles Cathedral, there is a New College of the University of Edinburgh. Its
buildings surround the Assembly Hall of 1910 which was the Church of the Free
Church of Scotland. In this large room, which was surprisingly suitable for
discussion, the World Missionary Conference convened from June 14 to 23. 1910.
The opening ceremony was presided over by Lord Balfour of Burley,
President of the Conference. Since there was no communion service, the meeting
was opened with a simple prayer. The Archbishop of Canterbury became the first
speaker, and his words carried the weight of his position. The first night a
young American man, Robert E. Speer, gave a concluding talk. On Thursday
evening, June 23, John R. Mott delivered the concluding sermon.
5. Importance
The Edinburgh 1910 mission conference a very significant event
because consultative character in which different missionary societies or
boards could unite together in thinking and planning for achieving common
mission goals. Two years before the event, convention organizers corresponded
with missionaries and spies around the world for the release of eight reports.
They were:
i. Carrying
the Gospel to all the Non-Christian World.
ii. The
Church in the Mission Field.
iii. Education in
relation to Christianization of National Life.
iv. The Missionary
Message in Relation to Non-Christian Religions.
v. The
Preparation of Missionaries.
vi. The Home Base
of Missions.
vii. Missions and
Governments.
viii. Cooperation and Promotion
of Unity.
5.1 Prayer
and Unity:
The heart of Edinburgh was not its speeches but its prayer times.
Each day was opened with fifteen minutes of prayer and worship. For about half
an hour later the conference participated in a “middle act” of the day's
program, speaking on the Christian missionary work. Members of various
communities and unions led these dedicated times.
5.2 Commission reports:
The solid core of the conference was its commission reports.
Presented and discussed each morning and afternoon, they helped to create the
conference’s growing strength. Progress was smooth thanks to the detailed and
careful planning of the Edinburgh Chairman and Secretary. Commission Chairman
had taken forty-five minutes to present a summary statement of their reports. Those
who wished to speak submitted their cards and were checked by the chairman.
5.3 Edinburgh and Roman Catholic Church:
No attempt was made to include Roman Catholic representatives at Edinburgh. Roman acceptance of any invitation was thought impossible. This was considered a feat for an organization that for the first time represented the Catholic element of the Anglican Communion. The conference had its attention called painfully to the fact that even its own high experience of unity was partial, because the meeting did not include Roman and Orthodox representatives.[8]
Rev. V. S. Azariah, later Bishop of Dornakal, from India was given
the opportunity to speak in the conference on “the problem of cooperation
between foreign and native workers”. While expressing words of admiration to
the sacrifices if missionaries, Rev. Azariah drew the attention of the world
body to the question of equality between missionaries and native workers.
More importantly, however, the creation of the continuation committee under the leadership of John R. Mott as chairman and Joseph H. Oldham as Secretary was epochal as it provided continuity of the ecumenical process and contributed to its stability as well.[9]
6. Impact of Edinburgh
conference
The objective of the Conference was for “the evangelization of the
world in this generation.” It did not discuss theological issues or concepts of
mission. It was a missionary conference that devoted to mission.
The Edinburgh 1910 set out plans for consecutive cooperation and
unity through the Continuation Committee. Following the Conference, John R.
Mott toured different countries and held conference with missionaries and
native leaders. The tour was productive as many national types of council were
organized in several countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and in other areas of the
world thereby creating tremendous ecumenical awareness.
Edinburgh 1910 produced outstanding ecumenical statesmen in the
persons of John R. Mott, Joseph H. Oldham, Robert E. Speer and others. Their
role through the International Missionary Council was notable and wide-ranging.
Another significant impact of the World Missionary Conference was on the subsequent formation of the International Missionary Council in 1921, the Faith and Order movement, the Life and Work movement Besides that, its impact was also evident in the rise of National Councils and the formation of the World Council of Churches later in 1948 – a Council that served as an important instrument for ecclesiastical unity.[10]
Conclusion
Edinburgh 1910 has become a landmark for ecumenical movement.
Increasingly, historians are recording that judgment. As a result of
Edinburgh’s far-reaching influence, it has also become customary to speak of
1910 as the beginning of modern missionary co-operation, indeed, of the
Ecumenical Movement itself, a largely justifiable argument. But if unqualified,
Edinburgh in 1910 was neither the end nor the beginning, so it could be
misleading. It was both, to assume that Edinburgh, as a conference, marked a
wholly new departure from the past is to misunderstand its genius
for see as we shall see, it incorporated no single element that had not in some
form, been tried in previous missionary gatherings. Indeed,
Edinburgh may best be described as a lens, a lens catching diffused beams of
light from a century’s attempts at missionary unified, meaningful, and
determinative pattern.
[1]David A. Kerr & Kenneth R. Ross,
Edinburgh 2010: Mission Then and Now (Oxford:
ISBN, 2009), 4.
[2]O. L. Snaiting, A History of Ecumenical Movement: An Introduction (Bangalore:
BTESSC, 2008), 97.
[3]O. L. Snaiting, “Asian Ecumenism
After Edinburgh 1910” in History of
Ecumenical Movement: Issues, Challenges and Perspectives (compiled
by WatimonglaJamir; Kolkatta:
SCEPTRE, 2014), 97.
[4]WatiLongchar, “Introduction” in Edinburgh 2010: Witnessing to Christ Today
in India (ed. James Massey &WatiLongchar; Bangalore: BTESSC, 2011), 2.
[5]Snaiting, A History of Ecumenical Movement…., 97.
[6]Snaiting, “Asian Ecumenism After
Edinburgh 1910”…, 135-136.
[7]
William Richey Hogg, ECUMENICAL
FOUNDATIONS: A History of the International Missionary Council And Its
Nineteenth-Century Background (New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers,
1952), 101-102.
[8]Hogg,
ECUMENICAL FOUNDATIONS…, 132-133.
[9]Snaiting, “Asian Ecumenism After
Edinburgh 1910”…, 17
[10]
O. L. Snaitang, “Church Union Movement and the Growth of Modern Ecumenism” in History of Ecumenical Movement Issues,
Challenges and Perspectives (compiled by WatimonglaJamir, Kolkata: SCEPTRE,
2014), 137-138.
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