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In 1892 Sir Wilfred Grenfell, a British medical missionary, was sent to Labrador, a large peninsula in northeastern Canada. He found the white settlers, the Eskimos, and the Indians there suffering from much illness, especially beriberi and tuberculosis, in an area where there were no doctors. Within three months he treated more than 900 patients. Grenfell spent the next forty years serving the people there. Once he spoke about his work in a New England Congregational church, and told the people how he had to amputate the leg of a Roman Catholic woman in Labrador, but he had no artificial limb for her. After the service, a Methodist woman said she had an artificial limb that had been worn by her Presbyterian husband until he died. Sir Wilfred returned to Labrador with the leg. Later, he explained: "When I, an Episcopalian, took that Presbyterian leg given to me by a Methodist woman in a Congregational church and fitted it on my Roman Catholic friend, it enabled her to walk perfectly!" That's a vivid example of the Ecumenical Movement in action.

The word ecumenical comes from the Greek word "oikoumene," referring to the inhabited world and meaning world-embracing. The Ecumenical Movement seeks to promote unity among all Christians. It was first organized at the International Missionary Conference held in Edinburgh in 1910. An Episcopal bishop, Charles Brent, attended the Edinburgh Conference, caught a vision of Christian unity, and worked for the first World Conference on Faith and Order held at Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1927. In 1938, at Utrecht, Holland, plans were made for a World Council of Churches, inaugurated at Amsterdam in 1948. In 1962, Pope John XXIII convened the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) which encouraged Roman Catholics to participate in the Ecumenical Movement. Jesus knew unity among his people was necessary for the credibility of his mission. He prayed:
"May they be one, so that the world may believe that you sent me."