The Canadian Union Conference by E. R. PALMER

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 22, 1908

The Canadian Union Conference

By E. R. PALMER

THE fourth biennial session of the Canadian Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists convened according to appointment at Williamsdale East, Nova Scotia, Sept. 10-20, 1908.

This session of the union conference was called in connection with the annual camp-meeting of the Maritime Conference.

The meetings were held in Williamsdale Academy, and all who attended were pleasantly entertained in the students' home, and among friends in the immediate neighborhood.

Although this was not the most central place in the union for the meeting, it was thought best to hold it at Williamsdale because previous meetings had been held in the local conferences farther west. But when we take into consideration the distance that Elder C. H. Keslake and others from Newfoundland and Prince Edward's Island had to travel from the east in order to attend this meeting, Williamsdale was really not so far east of the center of the union as might at first appear. The Canadian Union Conference covers a territory noted for "magnificent distances," stretching from the Great Lakes to Newfoundland, a distance which requires about the same time and nearly the same expense as to travel from San Francisco to Boston. Delegates were present from all the conferences and mission fields of the territory, besides a fairly good attendance of the brethren and sisters in the Maritime Conference. Elder W. H. Thurston, president of the Canadian Union Conference, and the writer were present throughout the meeting as general laborers.

The key-note of the conference was renewed consecration to God and his service. Resolutions were passed, and definite plans were laid, for strengthening all features of the union conference work. An important step was taken concerning the location of the union conference headquarters. For several years the secretary and treasurer, Brother B. B. Noftseger, has been located in Toronto, Ontario, far from the eastern portions of the union; and in addition to the responsibilities he has carried in the union conference and publishing house, he has been drawn largely into the detail work of the Ontario Conference. At the same time the president and general agent have been in distant parts of the union, where there was very little opportunity for counsel between the officers. Now that the work is developing more rapidly in the east, it is thought advisable to locate the headquarters in a more central place, and arrange for the officers to have a common general office, so as to be able to counsel together frequently. Accordingly, a resolution was unanimously adopted recommending that the Canadian Union Conference and the Canadian Publishing Association move their offices to Ottawa, the capital of the Dominion, and that the president, secretary and treasurer, and general agent establish a common office there. It is the purpose of the officers of the conference to make this move before cold weather sets in.

Resolutions were also passed having as their object the strengthening of the publishing, educational, and religious liberty work.

Officers were elected as follows: President, W. H. Thurston; vice-president, William Guthrie; secretary and treasurer, B. B. Noftseger; general missionary agent, Ira S. Jones; superintendent Newfoundland Mission Field, C. H. Keslake; religious liberty secretary, Eugene Leland; educational secretary, W. J. Blake; auditor, R. A. Heard. Executive committee: The

president, the secretary and treasurer, the educational secretary, the general missionary agent, the presidents of the three local conferences, the superintendent of the Newfoundland Mission Field, and Elder Geo. H. Skinner. Directors of the Newfoundland Mission Field: C. H. Keslake, W. H. Thurston, William Guthrie, J. R. Johnston, and G. H. Morgan.

A spirit of unity and deep devotion characterized all the meetings, and the delegates returned to their respective fields rejoicing in the privileges they had enjoyed, and with fresh courage and faith in the speedy triumph of the third angel's message.

Such gatherings mean much to laborers who are so widely scattered as are those in the Canadian Union Conference. To the writer this meeting and the local camp-meetings attended in the Canadian field were among the most pleasant experiences enjoyed in field work.

We shall earnestly pray that the Lord will greatly bless this struggling work in the eastern Canadian field.

E. R. PALMER.