History
WSCF was formed at a meeting of student leaders from ten North American and European countries in 1895 at Vadstena Castle, Sweden. The founders included John R. Mott (U.S.), J.Rutter Williamson (U.K.), Martin Eckhoff (Norway), Luther D. Wishard (U.S.), Johannes Siemsen (Germany) and Karl Fries (Sweden).
WSCF was the first international student organisation. Together with YMCA and YWCA, it is among the oldest extant youth movements. WSCF is known in French as FUACE—Fédération Universelle des Associations Chrétiennes d'Étudiants—and in Spanish as FUMEC—Federacion Universal de Movimientos Estudiantiles Cristianos.
Forces affecting WSCF have been:
- the rise of the ecumenical movement,
- the turbulence of the 1960s student movements,
- the mid-twentieth century shift in balance of power from liberal to evangelical Christianity,
- the shift in balance of influence within Christianity between the developed and the developing world,
- the pressures of maintaining unity across the spectrum of Christianity
Leaders of the WSCF have included:
- John R. Mott
- Karl Fries
- Ruth Rouse
- Nathan Söderblom
- Sarah Chakko
- Willem Visser 't Hooft
- D.T.Niles
- Suzanne de Diétrich
- Risto Lehtonen
- Philip Potter
- Tissington Tatlow
- Alan Brash
- Mercy Oduyoye
- Feliciano Carino
- Paulouse Mar Paulouse
The WSCF newsletter Federation News started in 1921 and is published twice a year. The WSCF journal Student World was begun in 1908. In 2004 it was re-started after a hiatus of several years; both these publications can be found on the WSCF website www.wscfglobal.org
Read more about this topic: World Student Christian Federation
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The only history is a mere question of one’s struggle inside oneself. But that is the joy of it. One need neither discover Americas nor conquer nations, and yet one has as great a work as Columbus or Alexander, to do.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“The thing that struck me forcefully was the feeling of great age about the place. Standing on that old parade ground, which is now a cricket field, I could feel the dead generations crowding me. Here was the oldest settlement of freedmen in the Western world, no doubt. Men who had thrown off the bands of slavery by their own courage and ingenuity. The courage and daring of the Maroons strike like a purple beam across the history of Jamaica.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)
“Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon than the Word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind.”
—Thomas Paine (1737–1809)