Abstract/Overview The term “ecumenical” in theology today generally refers to the movement which seeks to achieve external unity among the world’s denominationally divined churches.The original meaning of the word (from oikeo:to dwell, inhabit; and oikos: house, household; oikoumene: the whole inhabited earth[Lk. 4: 5]) has lapsed into disuse, as did the later development of the sense of a common basic attitude or into disuse, as did the later development of the sense of a common ba...