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Second Meeting

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 20, 1909

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 86, No. 20.

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Second Meeting

By A. G. DANIELLS; W. A. SPICER

May 13, 3 P. M.
A. G. Daniells in chair.
No. 172 in the new edition of “Christ in Song” was the opening hymn.
H. W. Cottrell offered prayer.
A. G. Daniells: We closed the morning meeting in the midst of the admission of union conferences that have been organized since the 1905 Conference. The next on the list is the South American Union. Elder Westphal has just arrived, and will make the request.
Brother Westphal then presented a request that the South American Union Conference be admitted to the General Conference. A motion to admit was unanimously carried.
A. G. Daniells: The next is the West Indian Union. Elder Bender, president of that conference, will tell us about it.
Elder Bender then made formal request for the admission of the West Indian Union, stating that the conference was organized in 1906. It has six local conferences, and includes the West Indian Islands, with the Guianas, Venezuela, the United States of Colombia, Panama, and all Central America.
A. G. Daniells: The next is the Russian Union. We thank the Lord that Russia has been united in this work and comes to us as one of our unions. Elder Boettcher, the president, will present the request.
J. T. Boettcher (reading): To the Seventh-day Adventist General Conference assembled at Washington, D. C., May 13 to June 6, 1909, greetings:—
In October, 1907, the Russian Union Conference, which had heretofore been a part of the territory of the German Union Conference, was duly organized, the organization to go into effect Jan. 1, 1908. Elder L. R. Conradi, representing the General Conference, was present.
The territory of this union includes European and Asiatic Russia, excepting the grand duchy of Finland, with a population of 148,442,000. The union is composed of the following fields: The Caucasian, the Baltic, and the South Russian conferences, and the Middle Russian, West Russian, Little Russian, Siberian, and Central Asian missions.
As a union we respectfully request that the Russian Union Conference be admitted into the sisterhood of union conferences of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination, and that our five delegates be allowed to take their seats at this session of the General Conference.
A motion to adopt this request was unanimously carried.
Elder L. Tieche, president of the Latin Union Conference, presented a request that this union conference, having 24 churches and a membership of 963, be admitted to the General Conference.
A motion to admit this conference was unanimously adopted.
Elder E. L. Stewart then presented a request for admission from the Western Canadian Union Conference. This conference has a present membership of 817.
Upon motion this union conference was admitted.
The Columbia Union Conference sent in a request for admission, which was read by the president of the union, Elder G. B. Thompson.
Motion to admit was unanimously adopted.
Elder W. A. Westworth, president of the Southeastern Union Conference, read a request for the admission of that conference to the General Conference.
Upon motion, the request was granted, and the conference admitted.
The District of Columbia Conference, newly organized, composed of five churches and two companies, applied for admission to the General Conference, through B. G. Wilkinson, its president. Since its organization in February the Columbia Union, of which it should naturally be a part, has had no meeting; so in order to be represented at this session it must needs come in as a local conference, not a member of any union.
On motion it was received, and its delegates were seated:
A. G. Daniells: Next will be a report from the European division of our field. Elder Conradi will now present his report.
Before presenting his report Elder Conradi called for a quartet by delegates from Great Britain.

Report of the European Division of the General Conference

L. R. CONRADI, VICE-PRESIDENT FOR EUROPE
Nearly three thousand years ago the prophet counseled the Israel of God: “Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes; for thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left. . . . For thy Maker is thine husband; the Lord of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole earth shall he be called.” Isa. 54: 2-5.

Growth of the Work

When, in 1863, the first General Conference was held, we had some 3,500 believers and a tithe of about $8,000. The following year the brethren were strongly entreated to send a missionary to Europe, but they felt unable. However, the missionary went back to the Old World, where Christian Sabbath-keepers had never been lacking since the days of the apostles, and where, immediately after the disappointment of 1844, some began to keep the Sabbath in southern Germany, and where some others had by this time begun its observance in Prussia, simply from reading the Bible. A company of believers was soon raised up in French Switzerland, and in May, 1869, Elder Erzenberger was sent as their first delegate, and he remained in America until March, 1870, to represent Europe for the first time at a General Conference. Later the same year another delegate was sent; but it was not until 1874 that the Macedonian cry was heeded, when we had over 7,000 Sabbath-keepers in the States, and an income of more than $31,000 tithe; and with his being sent, the offerings to missions set in, beginning with $5,000, which revealed possibilities heretofore unthought of by our people. Elder J. N. Andrews left for Central Europe in 1874, Elder Matteson followed for Scandinavia in 1877, and Elder J. N. Loughborough for England one year later. In 1880 our first missionary, a European, left for Africa, where he and some of his helpers met death in the massacre of Alexandria, in 1882. That same year our first missionary was imprisoned in Sweden, and in 1886 two missionaries were imprisoned in Russia, at the time of the organization of our first Russian church. In 1889 one of our missionaries working in Europe, entered Asiatic Russia.

European Conferences

In 1889 the work was begun at Hamburg; in 1891 both the German and the Russian mission fields were organized; in 1893 the mission property in Hamburg was purchased, to which the publishing work was removed from Basel in 1897. In 1890 the Pacific Press established a branch house at London. Although the membership rapidly increased on the Continent, yet organization of other fields was retarded till in 1898, when the German Conference was founded, with about 1,500 members. While Elders Irwin and Moon were with us the same year, a European Union Conference was organized, consisting of four main parts.In 1901 two German conferences, the first Russian conference, and the German Union Conference were organized. In 1902, while Elder Daniells was with us, two conferences and a union conference were organized in Great Britain, and a fourth conference in Germany. In 1903 the Scandinavian Union followed, and in 1907 the Latin Union (and the French) conferences, and in 1908 the Russian Union, were organized. There are now in the European division, five fully organized unions, a union mission field, 24 conferences, and 28 mission fields; of these, one conference and four mission fields are in Asia, and five missions in Africa.

Training-Schools

As to the training of workers: At first we held institutes of a few months’ duration; but in 1889 a more permanent school was opened at Hamburg, which was transferred to Friedensau in 1899, where it still serves as the training center for the German and Russian unions. From 1894-97 the Frydenstrand High School was in operation; and this was followed in 1899 by Nyhyttan, and in 1908 by the Scandinavian Union school, at Skodsborg. The Duncombe Hall College began its existence in London in 1901, and since 1907 has its permanent quarters at Stanborough Park. In 1905 a Latin Union school was opened in Gland. There are about 350 students enrolled in the European schools at present. Three of the schools have their own buildings, another is nearly completed, and the fourth will be erected this year. There are about $90,000 invested in educational buildings, and a Russian Union school is planned for. Some thirty teachers are employed.

Medical Work

Our medical work commenced at Basel and Skodsborg about 1896; later on, Frydenstrand began to be used as a sanitarium; in 1901 the Friedensau Sanitarium was opened; in 1902 the Caterham Sanitarium was purchased, and in 1905 the work of the Basel Sanitarium was transferred to Gland. There are now seven sanitariums and four health homes, supplying accommodations for four hundred patients, and working in connection with them are five prosperous food factories. About $460,000 is invested in our health work. We have nine physicians, two hundred nurses, and in preparation for the medical work there are seven medical students attending European universities. Not only do we find our nurses laboring in Europe, but also at Jerusalem, Jaffa, Haifa, Cairo, Algiers, Eritrea, and in German and British East Africa.

Publishing in Chassu

We have seven publishing houses and three branches, employing in all about 125 hands. There are 472 canvassers laboring under 12 general agents, and our sales for 1908 were $308,000, while for the four-year period they amounted to $935,000. We have invested in this department $302,000. We do only our own publishing, and our houses have been able not only to improve their facilities, but the Hamburg and London houses have contributed liberally to other missionary enterprises, in addition to doing a great deal of missionary publishing in various tongues. Our Hamburg publishing house has issued the first publication in the Chassu language, (East Africa), and expects to print the Gospels in that tongue this year. This language was first reduced to writing by Seventh-day Adventist missionaries; and their writings are the first to be printed by any publishing house in that tongue.

Evangelical Workers

As to the greatest department in our work—the ministerial and evangelical—we have now 116 ministers, 70 licentiates, and 195 Bible workers. These, with those engaged in office and treasury work, make a total of 435 workers, or nearly twice the number employed four years ago. Including the physicians, nurses, colporteurs, and teachers, we have a total of over 1,200 laborers of all classes who are engaged in the European division. Of these there are, in the Asiatic portion of the field, 8 ministers, 5 licentiates, and 12 Bible workers. In Africa there are 4 ordained missionaries, 11 licentiates, and 9 other workers, or 24 in all.

Work Self-Supporting

The work in Europe proper, with its 425,000,000 people, is more than self-sustaining, as we spend in our operations in Asia and Africa more than the $10,000 received from the Mission Board. Comparative statistics of the past four years with the previous four years will best show our growth:—
During the years 1900-04 there were received into the churches, by baptism, 4,900 members; by vote, 1,736 members; these paid a tithe of $256,805; Sabbath-school offerings, $19,446.50; weekly offerings, $4,923.30; annual offerings, $14,651.10; the book sales amounted to $295,825. In the years 1905-08 there were received into the churches, by baptism, 9,374; by vote, 1,738; the tithe paid was $539,072; Sabbath-school offerings amounted to $41,561.40; weekly offerings, $21,088.30; annual offerings, $31,806.30; the book sales amounted to $633,525.

Net Increase

Our net increase from 1900 to 1904 was from 7,000 to 11,028, or 4,028 members; and from 1905 to 1908 it was raised from 11,028 to 17,362, or 6,334 members; while our tithe for the two quadrennial periods more than doubled, and our offerings nearly trebled. The present membership of the European division equals the total membership of the denomination in 1883, and the tithe equals that of the denomination in 1888. The tithes and the offerings for 1900-04 amounted to $295,826, and for 1905-08 to $633,588. Sixteen of our conferences already pay a second tithe for the support of missionary work outside of their own borders; and this year a number of them gave, in addition to this, sums of $250 to $500 for missionary operations in other fields besides. None of our conferences or union conferences is financially involved.

Extent of the Work

Our work to-day extends from Lisbon and the Irish coast in the west to Charbin, Tarschkand, and Ararat in the east, and from Iceland and Lapland in the north to Nyassaland and the Kongo in the south; in other words, our stakes are being set up to the border of China, Korea, India, Persia, and the South African Union Conference, covering a territory that extends about 8,000 by 6,000 miles. There are to-day hundreds of believers in London, Berlin, Hamburg, Riga, and Copenhagen; there are strong churches in Petersburg, Christiania, Stockholm, Edinburgh, Paris, Zurich, Geneva, Basel, Bucharest, Dresden, Cologne, Leipzig, Stuttgart, Breslau, Munich, Nuremberg, Augsburg, Erfurt, The Hague; besides smaller churches at Constantinople, Prague, Eisenach, Jerusalem, Cairo, Rome, Barcelona, Lisbon, Budapest, Brussels, Amsterdam, Dublin, Moscow, Warsaw, etc.

Summing Up

But when we consider that there are over 535,000,000 people, or one third of the world’s inhabitants, living within the territory worked by the European division of the General Conference, we must confess that the work is only begun. Workers are called for everywhere, new fields in the three continents should be entered, the few workers in some portions should be increased, our schools enlarged, and our educational funds to help young people obtain a training for the work should be increased. Our publishing work needs urgent help to assist in getting out more publications adapted to our various fields, and to make translations into still other languages. Consecrated medical missionaries should be fitted to qualify for different countries.
We can not close without mentioning in tenderest remembrance our noble pioneers who have died in Africa and in Europe: Brother Sander, Brother Wunderlich, Dr. George, Brother Kueller, and Sister Ehlers.
The European field extends a hearty invitation to the General Conference to hold its coming biennial meeting in Europe, that the presence of the General Conference Committee may be a blessing to us, and that its members may also be blessed by coming in contact with so many of various nationalities, where God has a great work to be done. While we have lengthened our cords, and strengthened our stakes, we do honor our Maker as the true husband of the church, as the Redeemer of Israel, and as the God of the whole earth.
After the close of this report, a quartet from the German Union sang a hymn in German.
Meeting adjourned, with benediction by I. H. Evans.
A. G. DANIELLS, Chairman, W. A. SPICER, Secretary.