As a fellowship of churches approaching its 70th anniversary and embracing 560 million Christians worldwide, the World Council of Churches has transformed itself several times in its perennial quest for a deeper unity among Christians and justice and peace for humanity.

In this fresh and enlightening historical sketch, Donald Norwood traces that journey of faith from its roots in pre-World War I Europe through ten successive assemblies. Each, he shows, has visited and engaged a specific regional context while also addressing the evolving concerns of world Christianity in a rapidly changing ecclesial and geopolitical landscape.

"The WCC is located wherever you are as member churches. You are the WCC," said its general secretary at its most recent assembly. Norwood's account not only recounts the important issues and events that have stamped this fellowship but also the deeper animating impulses of the worldwide movement it embodies.