WCC Head Calls for Change in Ecumenical Motto

Nearly a hundred years after a pivotal world mission conference helped spark the modern ecumenical movement, the head of the World Council of Churches is calling for change in the conference's famous motto, "the evangelisation of the world in this generation."

On Friday, the Rev. Dr. Samuel Kobia, general secretary of the WCC, made a sober analysis of the progress and failure since the 1910 Edinburgh World Mission Conference, which is regarded by many as the symbolic starting point of the modern ecumenical movement.

At a meeting in Edinburgh, Scotland, to prepare for the 100th anniversary celebration of the event in 2010, Kobia acknowledged that though the Edinburgh motto called for "the evangelisation of the world in this generation," 100 years later the number of Christians in the world is proportionally the same - roughly a third of the world population.