The term “local ecumenism” may be used with reference both to informal cooperative activities among congregations and dioceses and to the historic ecumenical concern for the more formal unity of “all in each place.” Local ecumenism may be distinguished (though not separated) from efforts to realize unity and shared mission at national, regional, and global levels.

“The ecumenical movement is not alive,” said delegates to the Lund Conference on Faith and Order (1952), “unless it is local.” Nine years later, this conviction was amplified by the World Council of Church’s New Delhi Asse…