A.L. Warnshuis

Nationality

U.S.A.

Date of Birth

1877

Date of Death

1958

Political
Preference

Abbe Livingston Warnshuis was born in 1877 in Clymer, New York. In 1900, he graduated from New Brunswick Seminary, New Jersey. The same year he was ordained in the Reformed Church of America and went to China to serve as a missionary until 1915. From 1915 to 1920, Warnshuis served as the National Evangelistic Secretary of the China Continuation Committee in Shanghai. In 1920, Warnshuis became the first American secretary of the International Missionary Council. He held this position until 1943. In 1921, he also became Junior General Secretary of the FCC and the General Secretary in 1931, which he remained until 1954. Warnshuis played an important role in the organizing of the IMC meetings in Jerusalem (1928) and Tambaram (1938). He was also involved in the organizing of the Orphaned Missions’ Service of the IMC during the Second World War. In 1944, Warnshuis was asked by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to use his ecumenical knowledge and network to report on the condition of churches in Europe. After his return to America in 1946, Warnshuis became Executive Vice President of the Church World Service until 1948. In 1954, Warnshuis became Executive Secretary of the WCC until his retirement in 1957.