The Church of Sweden has been active in the ecumenical movement from the start. One of its pioneers was the Archbishop of Uppsala, Nathan Söderblom, who arranged the Life and Work conference in Stockholm in 1925. At the conference, the church leaders discussed how churches could cooperate in social endeavour.
It was soon realized that cooperation in spreading the Gospel and diaconal service would not ultimately increase unity unless the questions of doctrine on which the churches are divided were addressed. This led to the Faith and Order movement, which was inaugurated at a conference in Lausanne in 1927.
Various Swedish theologians have been active in the doctrinal wing of the ecumenical movement. The two branches of the ecumenical movement, Life and Work and Faith and Order, were amalgamated into one organization when the World Council of Churches (WCC) was founded in Amsterdam in 1948. The Church of Sweden has been represented in this body since then. In 1968, it hosted the Fourth General Assembly in Uppsala.