“Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship
the Lord with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
Know that the Lord is God.”
- Psalm 100:1f. [NIV]
Every day this year, TVNZ is running its Millennium
Moments spots, marking
some significant occasion in our past that took
place on that particular
date in the year. They have highlighted for us and
reminded us of sporting
achievements, significant events affecting our
society and feats of
personal courage in war and peace. It has certainly
proved to be an
interesting feature. Doubtless, before the end of
the year, there will be
some full-scale programmes exploring some of the
outstanding events and
people of the 20th century. It is good to reflect
upon significant events
which have shaped our times. If we were to carry out
a similar exercise in
terms of significant movements or events which
shaped the Christian world
of the 20th century, what would we include on our
personal list? I offer a
few broad suggestions of my own for your
consideration:
The World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh in
June 1910 probably
fully deserves the description given to it at the
time of “one of the most
creative events in the long history of the Church”.
It had over a thousand
delegates - albeit mainly from Britain and USA - and
one of its key leaders
was John R Mott, the organiser and leader of the
Student Volunteer Movement
with its great watchword, “The evangelisation of the
world in this
generation”. It marked the height of a great century
of the modern western
Protestant missionary movement. The central act of
the daily proceedings of
the Conference was the mid-day half-hour devoted to
intercession, the
greatest service the Conference could render to its
cause of promoting
Christian missions. It had far-reaching effects.
Unfortunately its sense of
vision, purpose and hope were frustrated by the
outbreak of the Great War
of 1914-18.
The Barmen Declaration of 1934 expressed the
opposition of the
Confessing Church in Germany to the claims of Hitler
and Nazi party to the
supreme loyalty of the German Christians as set out
at a Synod meeting the
previous year. Remember that in continental
Europe, the state and the national church are tied
in much more closely
than in anything we are familiar with. At this time
and later churches
along with governments and societies largely turned
a blind eye to the
treatment of Jews, Slavs, gypsies or communists by
the Nazis. German
believers became part of the resistance to Hitler.
Martin Niemoller, a key
leader in the Confessing Church and a former U-boat
commander in the Great
War, was eventually arrested and spent most of the
war in a concentration
camp. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, another leader, returned
from safety overseas to
share the suffering of the Confessing Church on the
outbreak of war, was
imprisoned in 1943 and executed aged 39 in 1945. The
Declaration and the
witness of the Confessing Church represent a
compelling stand for the
Gospel, truth and justice in the most difficult of
circumstances and remind
us of the suffering church facing totalitarian
regimes.
The Ecumenical Movement in a formal way came
into being with the
inauguration of the World Council of Churches at
Amsterdam in 1948. In
point of fact modern ecumenism was born out of the
Edinburgh Conference
1910. The results of Edinburgh included three
significant organisations to
carry forward the vision of the Conference, - the
International Missionary
Council, the Conference of Life and Work [seeking to
address social,
economic and political issues] and the Conference on
Faith and Order
[seeking to address the theological basis for church
unity]. By 1937 the
last two groups proposed the establishment of a
World Council of Churches
combining both sets of concerns. The war intervened,
but the WCC was
finally set up in 1948. At the New Delhi Assembly in
1961 the International
Missionary Council was brought under WCC control.
Interestingly, this form
of ecumenism has gone on at the same time as the
perpetuation and
strengthening of world-wide confessional connections
- eg. Lambeth
Conference, World Alliance of Reformed Churches,
World Methodist
Conference, International Council of Congregational
Churches. Meanwhile,
locally, much more co-operation has been taking
place between congregations
within a community, not necessarily concerned about
formally amalgamating
into one church.
The Second Vatican Council of 1962-65 is
forever identified with the
personality of Pope John XXIII who called it
together and set its agenda.
This was to be nothing less than the renewing and
the bringing up to date
of all facets of the Church’s faith and life. His
election as pope in 1958
was something of a surprise, which became all the
greater when “the
caretaker” - as many viewed his role to be -
surprised them in calling the
Council. It can fairly be described as
revolutionising the Roman Church -
study of the Scriptures by the laity encouraged,
Latin abolished as the
language of the liturgy and replaced with the
ordinary language of the
people, Eucharist celebrated facing the
congregation, non-Catholic
Christians to be regarded as separated brethren not
heretics, and many more.
The Lausanne Congress - and the movement which
continues to associated
with it - arose out of the burgeoning Evangelicalism
of the second half of
the 20th century, which may fairly be linked to the
world-wide ministry,
influence and integrity of Dr Billy Graham. Lausanne
in many ways
represents what many regard as the [true?]
succession of Edinburgh 1910,
not least in the face of what they regard as the
serious compromise of the
ecumenical movement in its theology of and attitude
to the world mission of
the Church and the Great Commission. The Congress in
1974 was a truly
outstanding occasion - not least in terms of the
calibre of the
presentations and the various papers offered.
Lausanne II in Manila 1989
for a variety of reasons was perhaps slightly less
so - but from Manila
came the slogan “Calling the Whole Church to take
the Whole Gospel to the
Whole World”, which has impacted on us here through
the calling into being
of VISION New Zealand. In this way it might fairly
be regarded as an
alternative ecumenism.
The Charismatic Renewal may be said to have
begun in the late 1950s
and 1960s and represents an extension of classic
Pentecostalism, which had
its origins in the Azusa Street revival in downtown
Los Angeles in 1906-09.
Since the 1960s it has become a world-wide
phenomenon, experienced and
expressed in a variety of ways and with various
emphases in virtually all
mainline denominations. Essentially it focuses on
the person, ministry and
gifts of the Holy Spirit for the refreshing and
renewing of individual
believers and congregations. It is not so much that
the Holy Spirit had
been lost sight of - because there have always been
groups with such an
emphasis from the second century and the Montanist
movement, through parts
of the radical Reformation to the followers of the
Presbyterian Edward
Irving in the 19th century. Always, when there have
been seasons of dryness
and staid institutionalism, the sovereign Lord has
seen fit to move in
refreshing, renewal - and even, at times, revival.
Otherwise it has been a
case of differing theological emphases. The early
Christian centuries saw
the focus largely on God the Father, while the
centuries following the
Reformation had a new focus on the doctrine of
Christ, while later this
century has seen a renewed interest in the person of
the Holy Spirit.
Well, there’s my preliminary overview of the 20th
century from a
world-wide Christian point of view. It is
broad-brush and very general.
Doubtless you might want to include other people and
movements, but these
certainly represent some 20th century Christian
roots and shoots. What do
you think? God bless you all.
