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A New Conference

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Jan 8, 1914

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 91, No. 2.

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A New Conference

By Guy Dail

GUY DAIL.
THIS year's conference session for the Roumanian field convened here in Bukharest Nov. 13-16, 1913. It was the largest and in all respects the best meeting we ever had in this interesting and from rapidly developing land.
Great thoroughness and much care were used in preparing the way for the conference, and our brethren were successful in securing legal permission for holding three public lectures, the first permission of this sort ever granted us in Roumania.
The conference was remarkable for the spirit of brotherly love and unity manifested in all business transactions, for the missionary zeal shown in the accomplishment of the work before us, and for the liberality displayed in supporting the message in the “regions beyond.”
A two days’ workers and church officers’ institute led up to the conference proper. The instruction of J. T. Boettcher, J. F. Huenergardt, and H. Boex, the visiting brethren, was very timely and much appreciated. Church organization and finance and our tract society and colporteur work received attention.
On November 13, the thirteen churches of the field were organized into the Roumanian Conference, with a membership of four hundred and fifteen. Brother P. R. Paulini was unanimously chosen president. The Roumanian brethren have loyally supported the cause, and constitute the strongest field, financially, in the Danube Union. The conference bids fair to be self-supporting from the first, and the steady growth shown in the face of much persecution gives reason for encouragement as to the future development of the cause in this land.
Friday morning, in the business meeting, the attention of the delegation was directed especially to the ten-cent-a-week plan for the support of foreign missions, and in a short time about fourteen hundred francs in cash and pledges was raised, and the work was completed at the close of the Sabbath when the sum was increased to over seventeen hundred, while the Sabbath school donations for missions amounted to one hundred and fifty-one francs.
The services of the Sabbath were especially blessed of God. At the close of Brother Boettcher’s sermon in the forenoon, thirty-six came forward, giving themselves to the Lord for the first time, and expressing their desire to become fellow pilgrims with us to the heavenly city. In the afternoon Brother S. Demetrescu was ordained to the ministry, and a church elder and a deacon were set apart to their offices for the Ployeschi church. The occasion was one of solemnity and great blessing. This gives us now three ordained Roumanian ministers here.
We have three churches in the city of Bukharest,—the North, the Central, and the South (or German church),—each with its own place of meeting. The workers’ and conference meetings were held in the North and in the Central church halls, while the Sabbath and the Sunday forenoon, as well as the Thursday, Friday, and Sabbath evening services (lectures for the public), were in the beautiful Transylvania Hall, near the center of the city.
These lectures for the general public were illustrated with lantern slides, and the hall, which would accommodate about six hundred, was packed to overflowing by interested listeners, some of whom were men high in civil and ecclesiastical life. The doorkeepers were two brightly uniformed gendarmes sent by the city government to preserve order. The first two lectures were delivered by Brethren Paulini and Demetrescu in the language of the country, while Brother Boettcher delivered the third in German, it being interpreted into Roumanian by Brother Paulini.
Sunday forenoon was given to the young people’s society, and we must confess that we were never in a more interesting youth’s meeting. The participants gave ample evidence of hard work, of developed talent, and of a real missionary spirit. Among the singers were several members of a Seventh-day Adventist gypsy family, for whom the message has done much. They were also in the choir that sang at the beginning and at the close of each lecture,—a choir which harmoniously did its work without any visible leadership. As the large hall was otherwise occupied, we held the Sunday evening meetings in our local church halls, which were well filled.
We shall never forget the kind hospitality of the brethren, and we trust that the coming year may prove by far the best they have ever had. We feel that our people in all parts of the world will be pleased to remember in prayer this most recently organized European conference, with its seven million inhabitants, who must hear the gospel of the kingdom before Matt. 24:14 can be fulfilled.