 He was ordained in 1950, received a doctorate of theology in 1952, and, in 1953, he was appointed as Reformed minister in Herblingen, a small Swiss industrial town near Schaffhausen.Vischer's tenure with the World Council of Churches began in 1961 with his appointment as research secretary on the council's Commission on Faith and Order.From 1962 to 1965, he was a WCC observer at the Second Vatican Council.