For five hundred years (1392–1910, Neo-Confucianism had been the state religion in Korea before Christianity was transmitted by Western missionaries. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, French Catholic missionaries taught the Christian message without permission, resulting in severe persecution by the Korean rulers. But during the late nineteenth century American Protestant missionaries secured permission from the Korean king and started educational and medical missionary work, rather than engaging in direct evangelical activity.

Two names stand out in the wealth of young talent which forged the networks which came together in what has come to be called the ecumenical movement, John R. Mott (1865–1955) and his contemporary Nathan Söderblom (1866–1931). For his fellow American Robert Schneider, Mott was ‘undoubtedly the most famous Protestant ecumenist of the early twentieth century’. To his fellow Swede Bengt Sundkler, Söderblom provided the spark of innovation in 1919–20 which was ‘the beginnings in embryo of what later became the ecumenical movement in its modern form’. The purpose of this paper is to consider their contributions in the period from 1890 to 1922, and the overlap and divergences of their roles in the movements contributing to ecumenical thinking and action. Amongst those disparate though sometimes overlapping strands were the concerns of foreign missions, students and peace. A subsidiary theme is that of mischief-making, sometimes out of ignorance, sometimes by design of the press.

Ecumenical networks are largely taken for granted by those whom they involve. The longer one is active in church life, particularly at national or international level, the more significant they become. The different layers of responsibility and the timespan involved in personal friendships are both integral to any understanding of them. Recent discussion within the WCC about the ‘reconfiguration of the ecumenical movement’ has raised once again the basis of representation in the council, a topic which goes back to some of the earliest discussions about its structure in the mid 1930s. The key issue is the tension between a relatively informal grouping, based on networks of people who already know one another, and a formal structure, based on the official representatives of the churches – which also assumes that its members will be churches rather than Christian associations of various kinds. It is a commonplace of ecumenical historiography that the formation of the WCC depended heavily on a pre-existing network of personal friends. But very often there is relatively little analysis of its nature. In fact, it is inherently difficult to analyse, because the official records give next to no information about it; better sources are letters and memoirs, notwithstanding any personal bias. Such bias may actually be key evidence. This paper uses the discussions about a future WCC in the 1930s as a focus for analysing the networks involved. The issue is well summed up in a letter from Henry van Dusen to William Temple in July 1938 about whether the proposed World Council should be exclusively composed of official church representatives. Van Dusen, who clearly felt personally threatened by this, pleaded for the inclusion of co-opted members, since without them ‘elements of vital importance for the Church’ would never find their way into the Council. The issue of how to secure sufficient women, young prople and the non-ordained has never gone away.

The professor of theology Hal Koch played a role of considerable prominence and influence in Denmark during the years of the German occupation. His famous lectures on N. F. S. Grundtvig in the autumn of 1940 immediately made the young professor a public person of great influence, not only as a professor of church history but also as an opinion-former with close connection to the political circles. As chairman of Dansk Ungdomssamvirke (an umbrella body for Danish youth organizations), he played an important role in the intellectual formation of the younger generation and in formulating conceptions of secularization and democracy in Denmark.

An ecumenical alliance was forged as a result of Archbishop Nathan Söderblom’s efforts in the 1920s; this approach to the history of the ecumenical movement is well documented. The historical research is done mainly according to the political situation during the Nazi years or along confessional lines: it argues that ecumenical networks were built up and consolidated during the Nazi period and war years, and that these networks prevailed despite the political situation.

The Second World War afforded a major test of the strength of international ecclesial networks in war-ridden Europe. Most of the existing links between hostile countries and their churches were cut during the war and had to be rebuilt after the hostilities had ceased. Among the most complicated tasks was the re-establishing of relations with the German churches, whose position was further complicated with the onset of the Cold War. This essay discusses the British attempt to re-establish official relations between the German and Nordic Lutheran churches in 1946.