The Ecumenical Conference on Foreign Missions was held in Carnegie Hall and several other local churches in New York City from April 21 to May 1, 1900. The Conference developed out of a growing sense that the responsibility for grappling with the problems related to the world's evangelization should not be placed wholly upon administrative boards and missionaries but on the Church as a whole. Thus, the Conference sought to amass the "united thought of Christendom" by convening thoughtful Christian men and women from all over the world who had been engaged in the study of such problems, so that they might relate their findings to the world-wide missionary movement. Inspiration for the Conference was drawn from the work of the Foreign Missions Conference of North America (FMCNA) and the International Missionary Council (IMC), as well as two previous gatherings that had taken place in London: the 1878 Conference on Foreign Missions and the Centenary Missions Conference held a decade later in 1888. During a 1896 meeting of the FMCNA, Rev. F. F. Eillinwood expressed his "hope that in the year 1898, ten years from the great London Conference, we might invite our brethren from all lands to a great Ecumenical Conference on Missions." In response to this suggestion, a committee of five was appointed to begin the work of convening such a conference. For this task, Ellinwood was joined by Judson Smith, A. B. Leonard, S. W. Duncan, and William S. Langford. Although only Protestant denominations were represented at the Conference, Rev. William R. Huntington of Grace Church in New York assured that it was to be considered 'ecumenical' "not because all portions of the Christian Church are to be represented in it by delegates, but because the plan of campaign which it proposes covers the whole area of the inhabited globe." President William McKinley presided over the Conference's opening ceremonies, and participants included former president Benjamin Harrison, New York Governor Theodore Roosevelt, and Seth Low, president of Columbia University. Official delegates were numbered at 2,500 (including more than 600 foreign missionaries from fifty countries), and total attendance at the Conference was estimated to have been between 160,000 and 200,000, making it the largest sustained formal religious event in the history of the United States, and the largest international missionary conference ever. Over 500 addresses were given on a variety of topics during the 10-day conference including: "the missionary idea" – asserting the claims of the Great Commission; the economics of missions and the organization, location, and strength of stations; departments of work – literary, evangelistic, medical, educational, industrial, women's work, and special classes; home administration and means of enlisting the Church; and geographical surveys of the missionary efforts and current conditions in various parts of the world. Particular emphasis was given to the increasing number of female missionaries, and a variety of sessions were planned under the heading of "Women's Work" including: evangelism, education, giving, medicine, and literature. Additionally, April 26 was designated as "Woman's Day," which included reports from Women's Work sectional meetings that had already taken place at the Conference, as well as a Mass Meeting for the female delegates at Carnegie Hall. Though there was some discussion concerning a higher level of collaboration among missionary societies, with an unofficial post-Conference recommendation for a permanent international committee, nothing official was resolved at the 1900 Conference. However, the issues raised in 1900 returned in 1910, along with at least 125 delegates from New York's Ecumenical Conference of Foreign Missions, at the World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh, Scotland.