World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh in 1910

Efforts towards the international and inter-confessional coordination of missionary work culminated in the first World Missionary Conference, which took place in 1910 in Edinburgh and which brought together for the first time representatives of a broad spectrum of missionary societies in Europe and North America. At this conference, the prevalent attitude was still that in the context of the spread of Christianity and civilization the Europeans were the givers and all other peoples of the world were the recipients. After the catastrophe of the First World War, which the Europeans were responsible for, it became impossible to maintain this view, as became apparent in the subsequent World Missionary Conferences in 1928 in Jerusalem and in 1938 in India.

World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh 1910, black-and-white photograph, 1910, unknown photographer; source: © epd-bild / WCC.