Abstract
The theme “Black Ecumenism and the Liberation Struggle" is important, because it connects the movement for unity among the
churches with the struggle for freedom in the larger society. When the World Council of Churches was formed at Amsterdam in 1948, the term “ecumenical” had acquired a modern meaning that referred to “the relations between and unity of two or more churches (or of Christians of various confessions).”1 This definition remained dominant in theological and church contexts until the recent appearance of highly articulate and radical theological voices from Asia, Latin America, Africa and its diaspora. Third World theologians began to insist on a definition of ecumenism that moved beyond the traditional interconfessional issues to the problems of poverty and the struggle for social and economic justice in a global context. In their attempt to connect ecumenism with the economic and political struggle for a fuller human life for all, Third World theologians also began to uncover the original and more comprehensive meaning of the term oikoumene. In the Greco-Roman world generally and also in the New Testament, oikoumene referred to the whole inhabited world2 and not simply religious activities. With this broader perspective in mind, it is appropriate to apply the term “ecumenical” to “both secular and religious aspirations toward achieving a united human family living in harmony with its global habitat.”3 In this essay, I will examine the meaning of black ecumenism in the context of black people's struggle for freedom.