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Advisors: Martha Smalley and Paul Stuehrenberg, Yale University Divinity School
Formation of the WSCF
The formation of the WSCF was a radical step toward ecumenical cooperation at a
time when no other worldwide, non-Roman Catholic Christian agency based on independent
national organizations existed. Advances in transportation and communication at the
end of the nineteenth century made realization of the WSCF vision feasible. The work
was carried out through conferences and committee meetings, publications, exchanges
of literature, and visits to national movements by its secretaries and agents. From
its purely Protestant origins, it expanded its membership in 1911 to include Orthodox Christians.
Training ground for Church leaders
The Federation served as a training ground for many individuals who later became
prominent in the worldwide life of the Church, including Bishop Azariah of India, Bishop Honda of Japan,
T.Z. Koo of China, Nathan Söderblom of Sweden, J.H. Oldham and William Temple of Great Britain,
John R. Mott, and W.A. Visser 't Hooft. The reports and letters included in this collection provide
insight into the contexts and issues that informed the development of the Church in North and
South America, continental Europe, Great Britain, Ireland, Asia, Australia, South Africa, and other areas.
Also, the role of women in the international student Christian movement is well documented.
New perspectives on world issues
In its early years, the WSCF focused its energies on the formation and stabilization
of national student movements, calling students to the Christian faith and the evangelization
of the world. The First World War and its aftermath changed the emphases of the Federation as
social problems, international relations, and the issues of pacifism and war came to the foreground.
In 1920, the WSCF founded European Student Relief, a vast program of social service provided to
thousands of students (later to be carried on by an independent body called International Student Service).
Turbulent time in Church history
The WSCF has been an international interpreter and mediator for national student Christian movements
through decades of changing issues, goals, and events. This material has been collected under the
supervision of John R. Mott. Detailed reports from the field have been combined with records of
theological reflection to provide fascinating reading and valuable "on the ground" documentation
of a turbulent time in the world and in Church history.
Organization of the collection
While the WSCF archives at Yale date primarily from the period when John R. Mott
was General Secretary and Chairman of the organization (1895-1929), the Geneva materials
are the official archives of the WSCF from 1925 onward. This collection focuses
on the period 1919 to 1956, with some overlap of dates with the earlier collection
in order to avoid gaps of documentation during the period of transition of the base
of operations from North America to Geneva.
Correspondence and Reports
The materials chosen for inclusion in this collection are of the same genre as
those selected from the earlier archives, including reports and correspondence
of committees, conferences, national student movements, secretaries, and officers
of the WSCF. Whereas the WSCF archives at Yale were organized according to geographical
or topical divisions, and then chronologically within those divisions, the organization
of the Geneva archives tends more toward division first by chronological periods, and
then by categories such as "Countries," "Secretaries," "Conferences," "Correspondence," etc.
This publication was made possible by the generous support of the Kenneth Scott Latourette Fund, Yale Divinity School Library
Martha Smalley
Yale Divinity School Library
Paul Stuehrenberg
Yale Divinity School Library
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