Edinburgh 1910 – 2010

UPDATED and reposted in case you missed it. 2010 marks one hundred years since the International Missionary Conference in Edinburgh, 1910. Needless to say, many of us have been working towards it and this blog post should update you.

LATEST NEWS: The lectures from Edinburgh 1910 have been digitized and are now available online. This is a HUGE gift to the mission scholars and historians of the world. Special thanks to Prof Masuzawa and to the librarians at the University of Michigan who have pursued this through the Google project.

EDINBURGH 1910 - THE SKINNY

ALSO: David Hesselgrave released his lecture notes on the "Edinburgh Error". Download it at the end of this post, and if you feel up to it, write some comments and send it back to me.

June 6-10, 2010 is the date given by WCC for the Missions conference in Edinburgh. I have mentioned it before. Some of us have been preparing for a number of missions conferences in 2010 to mark the anniversary of the Edinburgh event, a conference that sparked the incredible missions movement of the last century and eventually the modern ecumenical movement. Jacques Matthey, of the WCC Commission on World Mission and Evangelism, challenged us at the 2001 Great Commission Roundtable (Malaysia) to put aside time for the events in 2010. I met with him in Geneva last year for a pizza and chat about 2010 and he said it was quite open source but he was hoping for some good cooperation among organisations for the various initiatives that will take place in Edinburgh and around the world.

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These initiatives include, but are not limited to, Lausanne III in Cape Town South Africa, which I have blogged, and Ediinburgh's Towards 2010, spearheaded by the Scottish and led by Ken Ross. And of course whatever we do in and around the events in Edinburgh. A number of us have been working towards a roundtable event in 2010 that we hope will compliment what is already going on. In cooperation with other mission agencies and denominations, we have been hosting a number of global roundtables for leaders of emerging church movements since 1999. We see this culminating in 2010 with a gathering and presentation of resources to help the global church in this time of transition and opportunity. Towards 2010 will have info on the Edinburgh event and subscribing to the TallSkinnyKiwi blog will help you stay updated as 2010 draws near. Button in the top left corner. DO IT!

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In the meantime, its a good opportunity to reflect on the past century and read some good material. I have on my shelf a number of books related to Edinburgh 1910:

Edinburgh 1910: An Account and Interpretation of the World Missionary Conference by W. Temple Gairdner. I am really proud to say that my copy is a first edition, [allow me to boast a little here] bought in 1910 by Rev. Dr. Samuel Bickersteth, whose wife published the Bickersteth War Diaries. It even has a 1910 Glasgow bus ticket inside and I have to say its one of my favourite books in my mission section. You probably wont find this book but you can read most of its contents in Google Book search under "Echoes from Edinburgh" [same book, different name] by W.H.T. Gairdner.

Ecumenical Foundations: A History of the International Missionary Council and its nineteenth century background, by William Richey Hogg, is another book sitting proudly on my shelf. Written later on (1951-52), this book explores the historical setting of the Conference and tracks its global impact.

But you poor sods probably don't have these cool books on your shelf. However, there are some fine resources online for your viewing pleasure:

WCC has a short history of Edinburgh 1910 and the conferences that followed.
1910 Conference: Its Place in History [PDF] by Ken Ross
The Great Commission 1910-2010 [PDF], by Andrew Walls who is considered a primary expert on [or at least the person most obsessed with] Edinburgh 1910. 

– (Added 2009) Brian Stanley's book The World Missionary Conference, Edinburgh 1910 is now published and a sneak preview is available on Google Books.

Also, "Will We Correct the “Edinburgh Error”?— Future Mission in Historical Perspective (Revised) just released by missiologist David Hesselgrave. Even better, download Hesselgrave's paper with my comments and notes – The Skinny on Hesselgrave and the Edinburgh Error [PDF]. Open it with Adobe Reader, comment on it and send it back to me with your notes and I might add them. Here it is:
Theskinnyonhesselgravesedinburgherror

Andrew

Andrew Jones launched his first internet space in 1997 and has been teaching on related issues for the past 20 years. He travels all the time but lives between Wellington, San Francisco and a hobbit home in Prague.

6 Comments

  • preacherman says:

    Sounds like it was great.
    I really enjoyed reading your blog.
    I am looking forward to reading more in the future.
    God bless you and your ministry.
    In Him,
    Kinney Mabry
    Aka
    Preacherman

  • chad says:

    Wow…this is so much great information. I have been trying to convince the wife to let me come in 2010. I turned down a job opp in Edinburgh and I always wonder what that would have been like.

  • Tony Stiff says:

    Thanks for an amazing resource link. And for some good back and for retrospects at the bottom. Blessings, Tony Stiff

  • Hi. I’ve just been invited to be part of a group preparing worship for this, so this information is invaluable. Blessings on the blogging and the Sorting Room. Pete

  • gonkhang says:

    I could not find any material on Indian contribution to the World Missionary Conference 1910.But i knew that there are some contribution which Indian made to the 19910 WMC.Please kindly Post this material to help the students,missionaries and the lay people.
    Thanking you in anticipation

  • gonkhang says:

    I could not find any material on Indian contribution to the World Missionary Conference 1910.But i knew that there are some contribution which Indian made to the 19910 WMC.Please kindly Post this material to help the students,missionaries and the lay people.
    Thanking you in anticipation

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