What happened to the British Council of Churches?
Churches Together in Britain and Ireland grew out of the British Council of Churches (BCC), but it is not quite the same kind of organisation. The British Council of Churches existed for a long time until 1990, but it didn’t include the Roman Catholics. When they became partners in 1990, the organisation not only changed its name but took on a new way of working. The new body was to be understood as a way of helping churches work together, not a separate level of ecumenical work. That means it can speak and act only when there is consensus among the churches. From 1990 to 1999 it was called the Council of Churches for Britain and Ireland, because for legal reasons it had to have a name similar to that of the BCC. It adopted its present name in 1999.
