The Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches met for two weeks last August in Bangalore, India. Future historians may conclude that Bangalore marked the end of what is called secular ecumenism. But first, a little of what led up to these developments.

After the Commission's meeting in Montreal (1963) it seemed to many that the direct path to ecclesial unity had been blocked. The goal of the World Council of Churches (WCC), to bring about a greater unity among the churches, seemed to some no longer possible and to others no longer desirable. But the majority hoped that both unity and effective witness could be better advanced if the WCC took a detour, focusing on the urgent political and social problems facing all the churches.