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An Explanation

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Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 4, 1883

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 9, No. 1.

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An Explanation.

By Editor

AT the General Conference we learned that the question had been raised, why the California Conference failed to give credentials to Eld. Loughborough, also that, by this failure on the part of that Conference, he had been left without credentials. An explanation is due, and we give it as follows:—
1. When his name was presented by the Committee on Credentials, we were informed that he received credentials from the General Conference.
2. We knew that he should have received credentials from the General Conference; it did not appear to us fitting that he should have to look to California for permission to labor in a foreign land under the direction of the General Conference.
3. Since our connection with the California Conference, we have tried to have the same order carried out which we carry out in the church. In the church of Oakland we have frequent examinations of the roll of membership; if any are delinquent or in trial, we have them visited; if any are so far fallen away that we cannot benefit them, we cut them off; if any have moved away, we promptly invite them to transfer their membership to some church nearer to their residence, if any such there be. Our object is to make our church roll represent, as nearly as possible, our actual working force.
And so in the Conference. We have opposed the practice, too prevalent in many places, of granting licenses where there was little or no prospect of their being used. And we have been working toward the point of granting credentials only to actual laborers within the bounds of the Conference. We have not been able yet to carry this out fully, but we are approaching to it. If this were carried out in all the Conferences, it could more easily be told what the working force of the Seventh-day Adventists is. In many cases the list of credentials and licenses badly misrepresents the standing of the Conference by which they are given. We invite the officers of all the Conferences to join us in the effort to work a reform in this respect. And if the California Conference hereafter declines to give credentials to ministers of other Conferences, they may understand that it is not b cause of want of respect to them.