The World Council of Churches and Race Relations: 1960 to 1969

The Ecumenical Movement, by its nature and purpose, is opposed to racial discrimination. Uncertainty regarding ethical method made the W.C.C. hesitant in its early policy of contact, consultation and statement. The aim was to gather information and to change men's minds by education. The author shows how policy changed under the influence of contextualist ethics to that of confrontation and conflict, with the aim of changing unjust social and economic structures which embodied «white racism». These new directions in thought gave rise to the controversial Programme to Combat Racism.