flexible mind. There was in him a zest for life in its wholeness
which was ideal for ecumenical service.

The turbulence of the ten years which followed the first
meeting of the Provisional Committee of the World Council
of Churches in 1938 might well have wrecked the fragile
framework. In fact they strengthened it. But it was due in
large measure to the General Secretary's sensitiveness and
persistence that the 'process of formation' was completed in
time for the founding Assembly of Amsterdam 1948. Certainly
his experience in the World's Student Christian Federation
stood him in good stead, giving him personal contacts and the
knowledge of how to take initiative. But it was his ability to
use his experience, and to draw the different elements of the
ecumenical movement together so that a coherent unity of
purpose began to emerge, that was his special gift, and it has
never deserted him. Now Evanston 1954 and New Delhi 1961
have in their turn become ecumenical milestones. The inte-
gration of the International Missionary Council and the World
Council has been accomplished. The new headquarters in
Geneva is nearing completion. And it becomes difficult to
imagine how the world relationships of the churches could
have taken any other course. So, before history hardens into the
inevitable, we should pause in 1963 and realize that this amazing
quarter of a century of developing understanding between the
churches constitutes one man's semi-jubilee of service.

One of the difficulties in assessing W. A. Visser 't Hooft's
contribution as General Secretary of the World Council is that
there is no comparable position in the life of the churches.
There is a sense in which the World Council stands apart from
the member churches with its own intellectual and moral
authority. Its General Secretary represents a wider consensus of
Christian opinion and initiative than any confessional church
leader. There is also a sense in which the World Council--in
its determined rejection of the idea of a super-church--is
powerless without the goodwill and executive action of the

-8-