Record

RepositoryArchives of the Archbishop of Westminster
Ref NoAAW/DC/2/SOTS/1
TitleSword of the Spirit: Christian Co-operation
Date1940-1947
LevelSub series
DescriptionThe Archbishops of Canterbury and York (Cosmo Lang and William Temple), Cardinal Hinsley and Walter Armstrong, the Moderator of the Free Church Federal Council, signed a joint letter to The Times, published on 21 December 1940. The letter set out, as the basis for a just settlement of the war, the 'Five Peace Points' of Pope Pius XII, together with a further five points taken from the ecumenical Oxford Conference of 1937. Such a high-level public declaration of religious co-operation was unprecedented.

Professor ACF Beales, Joint Secretary of the Sword of the Spirit, had this letter printed as a Sword leaflet the same day that it appeared in The Times. It was an early step in what later came to be known as 'ecumenism' but which, in 1940, was termed 'co-operation'.

At the second meeting of the Executive Committee held a few days after the inaugural gathering at Archbishop's House, the proposal that Sword of the Spirit assemblies should be open to non-Catholics was approved. The Executive recommended that the Sword should establish contact with the Commission of the Churches for International Friendship and Social Responsibility. This Commission, which had been set up after the 1937 Oxford Conference, was organising 'Religion and Life' lectures on similar themes to those chosen by the Sword, and was the obvious body with which the Sword could ally itself.

The Bishop of Chichester, Dr George Bell, who was much involved in the Commission for International Friendship, was a keen participant in this new ecumenical endeavour, and was asked to speak at one of two public meetings held at the Stoll Theatre in London in May 1941 to encourage the initiative for 'co-operation' which the Times letter had instigated.
FormatMixed

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