13 AUGUST 1948, Page 28

On the Road to Amsterdam. By 0. J. Beard. (Independent

Press. is.) THE General Assembly of the World Council of Churches, which opens at Amsterdam on August 24th, may justly be regarded as the most important gathering of Christian Churches ever held since the Reformation. It represents incidentally the realisation of one of the most earnest aspirations of Archbishop Temple. To appreciate its importance it is necessary to know something of its genesis, with the Edinburgh Missionary Conference of 1910 as its starting-point. In this admirable pamphlet Mr. Beard has told the story as it needs to be told, with terseness and lucidity a series of diagrams makes the message clearer still. There could i3e no better introduction to the great conference which is about to open,