The Work in the European Division During 1910
By Louis Richard Conradi
As the statistics showing the results of another year's work are before us, we believe the readers of the REVIEW will be interested to catch a general glimpse of the details. The European Division conducts the work not only in every country in Europe, but also in all of northern and eastern Africa, and in northern and western Asia. Our territory is tremendous, extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the arctic regions to the equator. Our population is equally appalling, there being about five hundred fifty million souls living within our boundaries. Europe proper is divided by us into six great union conferences, European Turkey and Greece, with about six million people, being in the Levant Mission field. In Asia we have the Levant and the Siberian union mission fields; in Africa, the Latin Union is working in Algeria, and the Levant Union in Egypt; while the European Division of the General Conference looks after the mission fields in British, German, and Italian East Africa. As a rule, progress has attended our work in the various fields. It may be of interest to specify these. East German Union Conference
This union, with a population of about 75,000,000, is now conducting the work in the eastern part of the German empire, in all of Hungary, in the Balkans, and in a large portion of Austria. Last year it added 1,339 members by vote and baptism, and increased its membership to 6,012. At the close of the year, there were within its boundaries eight conferences and four mission fields, a new conference and mission field being organized near the close of the year. Its tithe last year amounted to $63,500. Of its membership, 5,000 are in the German empire, and they contributed $57,000 tithe, not less than $13,000, or twenty-three per cent, of which was given to mission purposes. This conference worked its own territory, containing some 30,000,000 people, with $44,000; and contributed to its own mission fields, with a population of 45,000,000, about $10,500. It then gave about $3,000 of its tithe, and over $13,000 in offerings, to the General Conference for its mission territory. One can readily see how our local German conferences might have retained their funds, on the plea that they had such a large population in their own territory to provide for, rather than allow their means to flow so liberally into the regions beyond. However, we find that the Lord prospered the East German Union Conference not only in its work among its local German conferences, but that he is steadily giving it fruit in Hungary, and in the Adriatic, the Galician, and the Balkan mission fields, where it now has more than 1,000 members. Nor is there any lack of large cities in the territory of this union conference. Greater Berlin has a population of about 3,000,000; Budapest has nearly 1,000,000; and Dresden, Leipzig, and Breslau have over half a million each. We now have eight churches, with more than 700 members, in Berlin. There is a church of 175 members at Dresden; in Leipzig we have 100 members; in Chemnitz, 108; in Stettin, 172; in Bucharest, 127; in Breslau, 159; and in Koenigsberg, 100. Thus large churches are growing up in the more important and populous cities. Although rent is very expensive, yet we have not invested our meager means in chapels, but have preferred to save all we possibly could for the furtherance of the gospel. At present there are 130 active workers in this union, only thirty-one of whom are ordained ministers. About 100 canvassers are at work here, and their sales amounted to over $55,000. Each conference has its general agent, and we have recently appointed a union general agent as well. The East German Union led the list in the gain of its membership last year. West German Union Conference
The territory of the West German Union includes the western part of Germany, Holland, all of Belgium, German-Switzerland, and quite a proportion of Austria. Its population is about 68,000,000. Last year it added 1,151 members by baptism and vote, and increased its membership to 5,418. At the close of the year it had eight conferences and three mission fields, one new conference being added during the latter part of December. It includes within its borders the most wealthy part of Germany, among whose 34,000,000 it has nearly 4,700 members; while in the German-Swiss Conference we have thus far secured a membership of 500 from among the 3,000,000 people living there. Thus the local conferences of the West German Union have 5,200 members. The tithe of the union was $63,500, of which the conferences paid $57,000; and twenty-three per cent, or $13,000, of this was turned over to mission work last year. The local conference territory, containing some 37,000,000 people, was worked with $44,000; and the conference contributed to its own mission fields, with 31,000,000 population, some $11,000; and gave the General Conference $2,500, in addition to $13,500 in offerings, making a total of $16,000 turned over to the European Division. The Lord has prospered this union conference in its work, not only in Germany and German-Switzerland, but also in other parts of its territory. It now has over 300 members in Austria, over 100 in Belgium, and over 200 in Holland. Nor does it lack large cities in its territory. Vienna contains about 2,000,000 population; Hamburg-Altona has 1,200,000; and Amsterdam, Cologne, Munich, and Brussels have over half a million each. Besides these there are many cities of over 100,000 inhabitants in the territory of the West German Union Conference. There are now two churches in Hamburg, with 360 members; there are 122 members in Munich, 127 in Nuremberg, 145 in Frankfort, 109 in Hanover, 115 in Stuttgart, 90 in The Hague, 150 in Cologne, 100 in Elberfeld, 158 in Essen, 100 in Basel, and 124 in Zurich. This field has 128 active workers, thirty of whom are ordained ministers. Last year 140 book canvassers were at work, and the total sales of literature—part of which is made up by the retail value of the Hamburg Publishing House sales not otherwise reported—amounted to $90,000. Scandinavian Union Conference
This is the smallest of our European union conferences, as it contains a population of only 14,000,000. At present there are four conferences and two mission fields in its territory. Last year it added 330 members, bringing up its membership to 3,145. The Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian conferences retained only eighty per cent of their tithe, and will pay the five per cent for the Sustentation Fund to the General Conference, beginning with Jan. 1, 1911. Last year the union tithe amounted to $27,800, $25,000 of which came from the three conferences mentioned, so it will have to work its field this year with about $20,000. The union contributed $5,600 in regular offerings, and $3,700 in special offerings to missions. Our Scandinavian brethren greatly rejoice that God has enabled them to support not only their own work, but also that in other mission territory. This union has eighty-eight canvassers. Its sales last year were $76,500, the highest average of any union conference in the European Division. Until the first of January, 1911, the great Russian empire, with its 154,000,000 (save little Finland and her three millions, that formed a part of the Scandinavian Union Conference) composed only one union conference. Last year there were received into this union 597 members by baptism and 134 by vote, making a total of 731, so that its total membership at the end of last December was almost 4,000 members—3,952, to be exact. But Russia shows the greatest increase in its finances; for its tithe has been doubled within three years, coming up to $21,242 for 1910. Heretofore there have been three conferences and six mission fields in Russia; but since Jan. 1, 1911, Riga and the surrounding country15have been organized into the Union District, with nearly 400 members. The Russian Union's appropriations last year were $5,721, so this union spent only about $26,000 in this mighty field, with nearly twice the population of the United States. Russia has sixty evangelical workers, eighteen of whom are ordained ministers. Much yet needs to be done to develop a strong working force for this mighty empire. As Russia returned $4,000 in gifts to the European Division of the General Conference, it was really almost self-supporting in 1910. Its canvassing work is developing. Last year its sales amounted to $10,500, with forty-seven canvassers employed.