“We contributed to the perpetuation of slavery, through our theology we justified the abuse”, said a Protestant leader. The Dutch king also apologised.

“We are not against sanctions but for human rights”, says the World Evangelical Alliance representative at the UN Human Rights Council.

While the UK imposes sanctions on Patriarch Kirill for supporting the war in Ukraine, the World Council of Churches rejects a ban and hopes to see “dialogue and encounter”.

Part one of five.

Norman Tendis worked in Austria and was on the way to a UN conference in Nariobi as a representative of the World Council of Churches.

The World Evangelical Alliance admits that “evangelical-Catholic relations are a highly sensitive issue for evangelicals in many parts of the world”, and says it will seek better communication with its members.

So far, Evangelicals and Pentecostals have been talking about unity among “born again” believers. If they commit to “greater oneness” with the Roman Catholic Church and WCC, they need to reflect on what they become committed to.

Rereading Schaeffer some thirty years later seems eerily prophetic.