Church Assembly Council for Ecumenical Co-Operation (CACEC)

Includes Council administrative papers, Secretary's correspondence and the papers of the various bodies which were involved in the Anglican-Presbyterian Conversations which were held through the 1960s. Also includes papers in relation to an Ecumenical House for Prayer (Benifold), to which the Council Secretary acted as a Governor.

The Church Assembly Council for Ecumenical Co-Operation was founded in 1949, with its terms of reference being:

'To bring forward in the Church Assembly such matters arising out of the business either of the World Council of Churches or the British Council of Churches which require action by the Church of England'.

The Council was constituted by the Church Assembly at the Spring Session, 1949, and the first meeting held on 5 July 1949 at Church House, Westminster, under the Chairmanship of the Bishop of Chichester. The Council consisted of 20 members, with the Secretary of the Church Assembly acting as Secretary for the Council, and meetings were generally held three or four times per year.

During its first year the Council considered two questions; the position which would arise with the winding up of the Committee for Christian Reconstruction in Europe; raising the additional sums asked for from the Church of England over and above the amounts voted by Church Assembly in the Budgets for 1949 and 1950. Further early work of the Council included investigating the financial problems resulting from the Church Assembly's acceptance in 1940 of the invitation to the Church of England to be represented on the World Council of Churches.

In 1957 the Council appointed a Sub-Committee to make recommendations 'as to the changes desirable in its composition and terms of reference'. This was in light of the growth of the 'increasing demands' arising as a result of the expanding activities of both the World and British Council of Churches. Acting on the recommendations made by the Sub-Committee, a new Council with enhanced functions and terms of reference was constituted on the 1st of January 1959 having been passed at the Autumn Session of the Church Assembly.

Chairmen

- Bishop of London, 1949-1956

- Bishop of Guildford, 1956-1960

- Bishop of Rochester, 1960-1963

Secretaries

- (Sir) John Arthur Guillum Scott 1949-1959

- Canon D Paton, 1959-1963

In 1963 the Council combined with the Overseas Council to become the Missionary and Ecumenical Council of Church Assembly (MECCA).

Largely retains the arrangement created by an archivist in the 1990s. This follows a departmental structure of the central Board and its sub-committees, and then the areas of work of the Council. Within the series the files are generally in chronological order.

A number of the files continue beyond 1963, the point when CACEC became part of the Missionary and Ecumenical Council of Church Assembly (MECCA).

Open

The material was appraised in line with the Lambeth Palace Library/Record Centre appraisal policy when cataloguing took place in 2014/2015.

No accruals are expected.