Nils Ehrenström

Nationality

Sweden

Date of Birth

1903

Date of Death

1984

Political
Preference

Nils Ehrenström, from Sweden, joined the Life and Work Movement’s Study Department in 1930, when it was still called the Christian Social Institute. Together with Hans Schönfeld, he was responsible for developing international study programmes surrounding the churches’ response to social and ethical challenges of the decade, such as unemployment, the advance of fascism, and the relationship between church and state. After the Oxford Conference and the merger of Life and Work into the World Council of Churches, Ehrenström operated as Visser ‘t Hooft’s closest collaborator during the war. Together, they used the neutral position of Geneva to clandestinely keep in touch with German resistance groups, as well as forwarding their memoranda to Allied countries. They attended some of the British Peace Aims Group meetings, too. Post-war, Ehrenström continued his ecumenical efforts in the fields of research and international affairs: he participated in the CCIA and became the World Council’s Study Department Director, responsible for the programme ‘Christian Action in Society’, that ran from 1948 to 1954. Through his war-time experiences, Ehrenström had become an avowed adherent of the idea of European unity and thus he was one of the founding members of the Ecumenical Commission for European Cooperation, although he soon transferred coordinating responsibilities for this commission to his subordinate, Paul Abrecht.