OE/EI/ICA?

For those who may visit this site and find these names and abbreviations unfamiliar, a brief word of explanation:

The Ecumenical Institute (EI) was founded by a resolution of the World Council of Churches in 1954. It became a division of the Church Federation of Greater Chicago, working primarily in the arenas of church renewal and local community development.

The Institute of Cultural Affairs (ICA) began as a program division of the Ecumenical Institute and was itself incorporated in 1973. It carried the community development work of the Ecumenical Institute to the global level and developed a wide range of programs, including what has come to be known as the Technology of Participation (ToP). The ICA continues to operate through offices around the world today. (For more information, go to www.ica-international.org).

The Order:Ecumenical (OE) was the name assumed by the intentional community experiment that provided the primary staff for both Institutes for many years. The Order:Ecumenical was a self-sustaining residential community whose members pooled their income and so were able to contribute major time to being staff of the Institutes. It came into being in the early 1960s and formally ended in 1988.

-- GordonHarper - 06 Jun 2006