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This conference was considered to be the
starting point for the ecumenism which ended in the formation of the World
Council of Churches. Here are the words of a delegate from a Far Eastern
church, as reported by Pastor Boegner:
You have sent us missionaries who have made Jesus
Christ known to us, and we are grateful to you for that. But you have also
brought us your distinctions: some preach Methodism to us, others
Lutheranism Congregationalism or Episcopalianism. We ask that you should
preach the gospel to us, and leave Jesus Christ himself to raise up from the
midst of our peoples, by the action of his Spirit, a church in keeping with
his demands, in keeping also with the genius of our church, which will be
the church of Christ in China, the church of Christ in India, free from all
the -isms which you bring in when preaching gospel among us.
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