European General Conference Committee Meetings by L. R. Conradi

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 26, 1910

European General Conference Committee Meetings

By L. R. Conradi

L. R. CONRADI

THIS meeting was held in Friedensau, March 23–25, and then from Friday till Monday (the Easter holidays) in Berlin, in connection with the first East German Union District meeting. The six union conference presidents, with W. C. Sisley and other leading workers, were all present. Besides these we had invited our medical men to hold a council with us; and Dr. A. B. Olsen from England, Dr. J. C. Ottosen and Brother Juhl from Skodsborg, and Dr. P. A. DeForest from Gland, met with the General Conference Committee and the physicians and managers of the Friedensau Sanitarium.

In one day the auditing was finished for the African missions and the Levant field. We were grateful that our tithe and offerings had increased to such an extent in Europe, and our people had responded so freely to the call for annual offerings, that we were able to meet all the extra expenses on this side of the waters. A carefully prepared report of the growth of each union and mission field in Europe for the last eight years showed the last to be our best year so far. Not fewer than 20,000 members had been added from 1902 to 1909, while the membership has increased from 8,274 to 19,626. Our gospel workers have increased from 187 to 499; our tithe from $59,000 to $194,500; Sabbath-school offerings from $4,000 to $15,000; First-day offerings from $800 to $7,800; annual offerings from $2,500 to $13,000; and sales from $103,000 to $304,000. Every union conference showed a decided increase, except the Levant Union Mission field. Our African missions, which have developed during the last few years, now have twenty workers, and during the past three years thirty-two persons have been baptized, and their tithe and offerings have increased to $1,000. All the union conference presidents desired these figures printed for the use of themselves and their fellow workers, as they plainly reveal the strong and the weak points in each field.

According to suggestions made in the recent union committee meetings, a number of resolutions were unanimously passed. Some of these are: That steps be taken to organize a new union conference soon in Russia; that the French-Belgian field be transferred to the West German Union; that the Hamburg Publishing House be encouraged to secure a building for its branch office in Riga; that the two German unions invite the General Conference Committee to hold its biennial session in Friedensau in July, 1911, and that we then make a grand rally for the great European field; that Europe raise a supplementary $10,000 to the $300,000 Fund to strengthen its educational work in the Levant, Russian, and Latin union conferences; and that the number of our workers in the African fields be increased as fast as possible.

Special attention was given to considering the needs of the mission fields under the charge of the General Conference in Europe, such as the Levant and African missions. Good, strong general meetings were planned for both the Turkish and the Syrian-Egyptian field this coming fall. Some new missionaries were selected for Africa, and it was advised to increase the number of our stations in Victoria Nyanza and among the Abyssinians. It was also decided to begin the work in Persia by sending several workers this fall to Baku, where there seems to be a favorable opening from the Russian border all along the Persian line.

While the doctors had a number of profitable meetings among themselves, the General Conference Committee also considered some important propositions with them, especially the education of our nurses and their preparation for mission fields. In the evening, large meetings were held for the two hundred students and the many nurses and other employees. Then our committee proceeded to Berlin, where a large hall had been secured in the very heart of that city; and the first night more than one thousand persons were present.

As Berlin alone had over six hundred members, and the union district of Friedensau over nine hundred, and a number also came from other conferences, there was a large company of our people at this meeting. As far as possible, we accommodated the audience in our large hall. Sunday and Monday there were no fewer than eight meetings in different parts of Berlin, various brethren filling the appointments. All the members of the European General Conference Committee appreciated these large and attentive audiences, consisting of both our own people and strangers in the very heart of this great capital.

Sabbath we had an excellent day, and one of our promising young men was ordained to the ministry. We are truly grateful to the Lord for his blessing throughout the great European Division, for the harmony which prevails in all our councils, and for the bright prospect before us; and we ask our people in the United States and throughout the world still to remember us in their prayers, and to help us in our great responsibility to give this gospel to the more than five hundred twenty-eight million people in the European Division.

Hamburg.