Visser 't Hooft

Willem Visseer't Hooft  (September 20, 1900 - 4 July 1985)  Dutch Protestant Theologian

Dutch Student Movement

Social Gospel

"When the 1937 Oxford Conferences of the Life and Work and Faith and Order Movements resulted in the establishment of a Provisional Committee to set up the World Council of Churches, Visser't Hooft was the obvious choice for the job of general secretary." The theme of the Oxford Conferences: "Let the Church be the Church"

Secretary YMCA's World Alliance

Editor of The Student World

Head of the World's Student Christian Federation

Active in resistance against Nazism

1st Secretary General WCC  1948-1966

First Assembly WCC Evanstan, Ill

Influential in "historical entry of the Eastern Orthodox churches into the World Council in 1962"