Our Biennial Council for 1911
By Arthur G. Daniells
At the General Conference session in 1905, it was decided thereafter to hold the General Conference sessions every four years instead of every two, as we had been doing. When this proposal was under discussion, the fear was expressed that four years was too long a period for our world-wide work to be looked after in the ordinary way by the members of the General Conference Committee who might be able to get together in North America. It was therefore decided to hold a full meeting of the committee midway between the sessions of the conference. This, it was thought, would take the place of a full session of the General Conference, and thus save great expense and loss of time. At the time this arrangement was agreed upon, no decision was made as to where this biennial meeting of the committee should be held. When the time came to arrange for the date and place for the first one, in 1907, our European brethren requested that it be held on their side of the Atlantic. In view of the rapid development and growth of our cause in all parts of Europe, it was thought best to hold the council over there. We met at Gland, Switzerland, where our Latin Union sanitarium and school are located. This was the first General Conference Committee Council of Seventh-day Adventists ever held outside the United States. So great was the interest of our European brethren and sisters in this meeting, that about three hundred ministers and leading church workers came to the council from all parts of the European field. All felt that we had a most profitable and encouraging meeting. It gave our American representatives new and larger views of our growing work in Europe, and united the hearts of American and European workers in closer and stronger bonds of brotherhood. The time has now come for another biennial council, and it has been decided to hold this one in Europe. It is to convene July 4, at Friedensau, Germany, where our German seminary and sanitarium are located. For several months the brethren in Europe have been making preparations for this council. They write us that the interest of our people throughout Europe is so great that more than two thousand are planning to be present. This will give our people in the States some idea of the progress our cause has made in Europe. Many can remember well when we sent our first ministers across the Atlantic. They remember, too, that for many years our cause in Europe was small, and had to be supported almost wholly by contributions from the States. But a great change has taken place. Now there are more than twenty thousand of our people in the European Division of our world-field. This is as many as there were of us in all the world in 1885. Our European brethren pay a tithe of two hundred thousand dollars a year, and contribute gifts amounting to fifty thousand dollars annually for the support of the work they are carrying on. They have a thousand laborers at work in the field. They are operating publishing-houses, schools, and sanitariums, and have their work organized exactly as it is in the States. The European Division is closely and firmly united to the North American Division, and must receive its due share of attention. It has large and varied interests, which are growing larger each year. Therefore it appears to the members of the General Conference Committee that it is best to hold the biennial council of the committee in the European Division. The time may come when it will be decided to hold a session of the General Conference in Europe. When that occurs, the biennial council of the committee will no doubt be held in the North American Division. We surely have reason to rejoice and praise God for what he has wrought in Europe. And now we should pray for his special blessing to rest upon the council. Although much has been accomplished, a great work remains to be done. We need the blessing of Pentecost to enable us to finish the work in this generation. Nearly all the ministers of the European Division will be present. These laborers will represent twenty or thirty tongues and millions of people. This council should be an occasion of great help to them especially. We believe it will.