Barnes was requested to perform the burial service for John Foster Dulles due to their close personal friendship with him and their activities together with the WCC and despite Barnes' bitter opposition to Dulles' foreign and domestic policies. His appeal as a religious leader and thinker would continue to give him popularity among a wide set of followers. In keeping with his ideas on (conservative) Protestantism, and (liberal) social justice and politics, he wrote the influential, "A Christian Imperative: Our Contribution to a New World Order" (1941) and "Under Orders: the Churches and Public Affairs" (1961). As a leader of ecumenism, Dr. Barnes often said it was through work that agreement could be reached rather than expecting accord on the basis of faith. From that he coordinated a multitude of religious-based charitable works and community building. After almost two decades of leadership, his retirement from the WCC came as a result of his increasingly poor health. Said a July 1964 Time Magazine article,