Marking 50 years since a prominent ecumenical gathering in Oberlin, Ohio, representatives from a host of Christian denominations this week wrapped up a five-day conference promoting a new wave of interdenominational unity.
Speaking to 300 attendees from 80 different Christian denominations and organizations, the Rev. James Forbes compared the effort, which was organized by the National Council of Churches’ Faith and Order Commission, to a revival.
“If there ever was a time for a new Great Awakening to happen in our nation, the time is now,” Forbes said, telling ecumenists that they were “the salt of the earth.”
According to the National Council of Churches, the modern ecumenical movement can be traced to a 1957 conference in Oberlin, the first to include Catholic representatives.
This year’s conference gained a special urgency after the Vatican’s recent assertion that Protestant denominations are not churches “in the proper sense.”
Very sad. Mainline churches, having embraced so well exemplified by the National Council of Churches, have become hollowed-out shells of what they were a half-century ago.
The talk about “revival” is even sadder. The National Council of Churches is to real revival as a rotten fish is to a great salmon migration.