The 1925 Life and Work Conference in Stockholm was a significant early milestone in the ecumenical movement that later contributed to the formation of the World Council of Churches. Its place in Dag Hammarskjöld’s story is unusually personal: as a young man, he attended not as a speaker or principal organizer but as an usher, within the religious world shaped by Nathan Söderblom.

Leadership and Historical Setting

The conference was held in Stockholm in 1925, during Söderblom’s influential leadership in the Swedish Lutheran church. The book identifies him as responsible for the gathering and situates it within the development of the ecumenical movement. It does not detail the conference’s sessions or resolutions; its significance is framed by what followed, as one of the milestones leading to the World Council of Churches after the Second World War.

Hammarskjöld’s Attendance

Hammarskjöld’s connection to the meeting began in childhood. His father served for almost twenty-five years as governor of Uppsala, and the nearby archiepiscopal palace brought him into close proximity with Söderblom’s household. Hammarskjöld was a childhood playmate of the archbishop’s children, and he attended the Stockholm conference as an usher. The account thus places his participation within a formative environment, rather than presenting it as an isolated public appearance.

Years later, when someone suggested that the World Council of Churches’ general secretary explain the ecumenical movement to Hammarskjöld, he replied, “Oh, I know all about that. I was brought up under Soderblom.” The recollection connects his attendance at the conference to a wider early familiarity with Söderblom and ecumenical life.

Significance

The conference matters on two related scales. Historically, it is presented as part of the movement toward the creation of the World Council of Churches. In Hammarskjöld’s biography, it marks an early point of contact with that movement and helps explain why he later regarded its ideas as familiar. The evidence supports this connection without establishing that the conference itself determined his later religious or public commitments.