p. 15 | The West Pennsylvania Camp Meeting

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 5, 1916

The West Pennsylvania Camp Meeting

By B. G. Wilkinson

It is with pleasure we tell of the good things which took place at this year's camp meeting for the West Pennsylvania Conference. It was held in Homestead, a suburban city about thirty-five miles from Pittsburgh. The attendance was unusually large. Sixty tents were pitched on the grounds, and the great pavilion which had been used for the tent effort in Pittsburgh, was divided into twenty apartments; but these were not enough. It was necessary to rent about twenty rooms in the vicinity. The attendance kept increasing until the number recorded in the last Sabbath school of the camp meeting was 425.

Undoubtedly the large meetings held in the Pitt Theater at Pittsburgh, followed by the excellent tent effort, had sent a wave of enthusiasm throughout the conference, which rolled back in a large attendance of persons filled with the spirit of devotion and liberality. The revival services saw many claiming a new-found hope in God. The spirit of rejoicing and devotion pervaded the camp.

We were favored throughout the meeting with the labors of Elder George F. Enoch. For part time we had also with us, in addition to the regular Union and local conference laborers, Elders A. G. Daniels and C. S. Longacre.

When the weather permitted, there was a good attendance from the city of Pittsburgh, about an hour's ride on the trolley. Some of those who heretofore had been uncertain and hesitating, accepted the truth at this camp meeting. The spirit of liberality was such that the gifts at this assembly doubled the record of any previous occasion. When the new administration building for the Columbia Union was presented, the brethren liberally subscribed in cash and pledges about $1,300. The foreign mission donations of the last Sabbath school and of the offering in response to the call Sunday morning, brought in more than $2,000.

Elder F. H. Robbins was reelected president of the conference, while a new secretary, Dr. H. S. Brown, was chosen to fill the place made vacant by the resignation of H. K. Hackman. The report of the president showed splendid progress in all lines of conference work during the past year. We are pleased to say that the West Pennsylvania Conference has now passed the one-thousand mark in her membership. This gives promise of a new era of growth.

B. G. WILKINSON.