Language in the Ecumenical Movement. Language Planning Newsletter, Vol. 4., No. 2 / David Lewis.

Despite the fact that the twentieth-century ecumenical movement was coeval with the beginning of a "language revolution" and the "theology of crisis," it was only at the beginning of the present decade that the problem of unity in verbal formulations reached the agenda of the World Council of Churches (WCC). At that time the WCC had no policy concerning language, apart from the choice of 3 official languages: French, German, and English. In 1971, the newly created Education and Communication Unit established a Language Policy Task Force (LPTF) to review the language policy of the WCC. The investigations uncovered a large degree of insensitivity on the part of English mother-tongue speakers and a rising level of frustration on the part of others. The efforts of the LPTF resulted in a series of practical recommendations and steps, including the distribution of a questionnaire to all staff members, which yielded the information that over 50 languages were spoken by staff. Other steps included the broadening of membership of the LPTF to include more staff from Asia, Africa and Latin America; encouragement of a multilingual style in WCC meetings; and subsidized courses to encourage staff to learn second language skills. Other practical steps were taken in subsequent years, notably the 1976 decision to add Russian and Spanish to the group of official WCC "working languages." (AM)

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