[Oe List ...] EI history

[John Cock]

W. J., whoever he is, has spoken again and the community delights in his
forthrightness!

  _____  

 
The "Evanston Institute of Ecumenical Studies" -- housed in an old
mansion/carriage house in Evanston -- had a library for scholars and was
directed by Walter Liebrecht, who left his post when he decided to stay in
Europe after Vatican II. The Church Federation of Greater Chicago became the
umbrella group that invited Joe Mathews to the directorship. The carriage
house burned down, the Evanston Institute of Ecumenical Studies became the
Ecumenical Institute: Chicago, and the faculty decided to move to the inner
city of Chicago. In order to acquire Bethany Seminary (with a balloon note
on the mortgage), 'EI' became a separate legal entity as an independent
division of the Church Federation. 
 
Though in theory there was a parallel between EI:Bossey and EI:Chicago, in
that the latter was formed as a result of an unfunded resolution of the WCC
Assembly in Evanston in 1954 that called for a North American study center
similar to Bossey, it was the energy and financial support of Chicago area
churchmen who after several years saw a need for a practical study center to
facilitate ecumenical dialogue among laymen that got the Evanston entity set
up and running. 
 
I would imagine that Bishop Jim had something to do with the invitation to
Joe Mathews to come to Evanston, but probably in a smoke-filled back-room
kind of way. I think it was Edgar Chandler who got it done for the Church
Federation -- or at least who got us to the West Side. 
 
Flash forward to 2009: the Church Federation is no more, and I think their
little skyscraper headquarters on Lakeshore Drive was sold. All I can find
is some sort of ecumenical media center function in Chicago which may still
originate broadcasts/cablecasts etc on behalf of the original Protestant
mainline denominational members. The explosion of nondenominational local
churches never became part of the Chicago religious 'establishment' which
has faded in its hegemony, prestige, legitimacy, and funding. 
  
Meanwhile, as the result of an extraordinary gift by James S. Kemper, the
Ecumenical Institute continues to flourish as the landowner & landlord of
4750 Sheridan Road, providing a 'container' for a multidimensional,
multicultural, multiorganizational social services center serving the people
of Uptown Chicago. 
 
Marshall Jones
 
 
 
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