Portland (Oregon) Camp Meeting by FREDERICK GRIGGS

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 6, 1916

Portland (Oregon) Camp Meeting

By FREDERICK GRIGGS

The annual meeting of the Western Oregon Conference was held in Portland, June 1–11. It was a large meeting, there being more than two hundred tents on the ground. The campers, together with the members of the nine churches in Portland not camping on the ground, furnished a large audience at each meeting. The location of the camp was good, and all the appointments were excellent.

The main tent seated fully 1,500 people, and it was well filled at the opening meeting. Nearly all who encamped on the ground were present at the opening and stayed till the close of the conference. An excellent choir of more than one hundred voices led the large congregation, so that the singing was unusually good.

An excellent spirit prevailed in the camp from the beginning. There was an earnest seeking of God. About sixty were baptized, and many scores of discouraged and backslidden church members reconsecrated themselves to Christ and his service.

The young people of the Western Oregon Conference have purchased a tent capable of seating four or five hundred, and it was well filled at nearly all their meetings, both morning and afternoon. Their prayer bands and the personal work which they carried forward were productive of great good.

The business of the conference passed off pleasantly and profitably. Elder H. W. Cottrell was again elected president, and there were no changes of consequence in the other offices or the committees. The offerings, including cash, pledges, and gifts of land, jewelry, etc., approximated $10,000. The conference has had a prosperous year financially in all its departments. The religious liberty work received special attention, owing to the fact that a referendum vote is to be taken this fall throughout the State upon a one-day-in-seven-rest measure, and provisions were made for a vigorous campaign in defense of religious rights.

The laborers outside of the union and local conferences were Elders E. W. Farnsworth and G. F. Watson and the writer. The meeting was altogether an excellent one, and can but result in great benefit to the cause of truth in that conference. FREDERICK GRIGGS.