Nathan Söderblom and the Universal Christian Conference on Life and Work

Abstract

This article discusses the organization of the Universal Christian Conference on Life and Work in Stockholm in 1925, its significance for the 20th-century ecumenical movement, and the central role played by Swedish Archbishop Nathan Söderblom. It describes Söderblom's repeated efforts during the First World War to bring churches together to work for peace and how he originally hoped that what might become the Stockholm conference would be organized by the World Alliance for Promoting International Friendship through the Churches, as well as his determination that Orthodox churches should be present in Stockholm. The article then gives an account of the proceedings of the Stockholm conference and how it demonstrated the diversity of the unity of the church.