The World Missionary Conference at Edinburgh

The conference was a meeting of delegates from missionary societies of differing scope and purpose, and its organisers therefore set limits: it would deal only with missionary work among non-Christian peoples, and it would seek no opinion on any question of doctrine or church order on which those taking part differed (World Missionary Conference, 1910, vol. 9, p. 8). British and American societies each sent rather more than 500 delegates and Continental societies over 170 (World Missionary Conference, 1910, vol. 9, pp. 18–19). The record says that they stood for nearly every type of doctrine and polity except the Roman Catholic and Greek churches, and that members of the “young churches of the East” came from Japan, Korea, China, Assam, Burma, India and Ceylon (World Missionary Conference, 1910, vol. 9, pp. 18–19).

It opened on 14 June 1910 in the Assembly Hall of the United Free Church of Scotland in Edinburgh (World Missionary Conference, 1910, vol. 9, p. 20) (World Missionary Conference, 1910, vol. 9, p. 23). Lord Balfour of Burleigh, in his opening address that evening, spoke of about 1,200 members from 160 churches and organisations (World Missionary Conference, 1910, vol. 9, p. 142). John Mott was chosen to chair the day sessions, at which the reports of eight commissions were debated (World Missionary Conference, 1910, vol. 9, p. 23). The first report, from the commission of which he was chairman (World Missionary Conference, 1910, vol. 9, p. 11), began by saying that the church faced, as in no earlier generation, a world-wide opportunity to make Christ known (World Missionary Conference, 1910, vol. 1, p. 1).

V. S. Azariah of south India told an evening meeting that relations between foreign missionaries and Indian workers were too often not what they should be, and ended: “You have given your goods to feed the poor. You have given your bodies to be burned. We also ask for love. Give us FRIENDS!” (World Missionary Conference, 1910, vol. 9, pp. 306–315). Cheng Jingyi, speaking for the Chinese church in the debate on unity, said that Chinese Christians hoped to see “a united Christian Church without any denominational distinctions” (World Missionary Conference, 1910, vol. 8, pp. 195–197).

The report on co-operation held that the ideal of missionary work was to plant in every non-Christian nation “one united Church of Christ” (World Missionary Conference, 1910, vol. 8, p. 131). On 21 June the conference voted unanimously to appoint a Continuation Committee, international and interdenominational, to carry on its work on the lines of the conference itself, which did not involve the idea of organic and ecclesiastical union, and to confer about a permanent international missionary committee (World Missionary Conference, 1910, vol. 9, pp. 95–98). Cheng was the member named from China (World Missionary Conference, 1910, vol. 9, pp. 101–102), and the committee elected Mott as its chairman (World Missionary Conference, 1910, vol. 9, p. 135). The conference closed on 23 June (World Missionary Conference, 1910, vol. 9, pp. 106–107).

The World Council of Churches counts the Edinburgh conference among its historical roots (World Council of Churches, History first paragraph); see the World Council of Churches Is Founded.