Your ShelfYour Projects

CHESAPEAKE CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS

7%

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 28, 1901

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 78, No. 22.

Read the full edition

CHESAPEAKE CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS.

By O. O. Farnsworth; Chas. D. Zirkle

The second annual session of the Chesapeake Conference was held in the First Seventh-day Adventist church in Baltimore, Md., May 6–12, 1901. There was quite a full representation of delegates from the ten churches in the Conference. Professor Frederick Griggs and Brother S. N. Curtiss assisted in the meetings.
The report of labor for the Conference year of ten months, performed by three ministers, two licentiates, and four Bible workers, is as follows: Days of labor, 2,360; sermons preached, 713; Bible readings held, 850; other meetings, 290; visits, 4,410; pages literature distributed, 95,608; periodicals distributed, 25,324; subscriptions taken for periodicals, 1,162; number of persons baptized, 40. Five church schools were conducted during the year, with an enrollment of 125 pupils. Some work was also done with “Christ’s Object Lessons,” about thirteen hundred dollars’ worth being sold in the Conference.
Financially the Conference has prospered since its organization a little more than two years ago. Beginning with no property, the Conference has now tent equipments, etc., valued at $750. During the Conference year of ten months there have been received tithe to the amount of $4,823.18; First-day offering, $737.23; for tent fund, $151.30; annual offering, $1,468.80; offering for Haskell Home, $48.18; for International Tract Society, $8.17; donations (received by our laborers), $230.71; total, $7,467.57. After settlement in full with all the laborers, there was in the treasury a little over $200.
Resolutions were passed encouraging our people to take more interest in the young people among us, and recommending that, in harmony with plans formulated by the General Conference, young people’s societies be organized; that we continue to encourage all to adopt the ten-cent-a-week plan of supporting foreign missions; that tried and accredited laborers be paid in full at the end of each month; that the Chesapeake Sabbath-school Association be made a department of the Conference; that the matter of how to raise a Conference fund for the support of the church-school work, and the advisability of raising such a fund, be left to the Conference Executive Committee; that we recognize the wisdom of God in establishing for us, in order to warn the world, our excellent books, tracts, and periodicals, and that we do our utmost to use each in its proper sphere.
The officers chosen are: President, O. O. Farnsworth; Secretary and Treasurer, Chas. D. Zirkle. Executive Committee: O. O. Farnsworth, A. Kalstrom, T. M. Bradford, J. H. Neale, William Hurlock. Missionary Committee: O. O. Farnsworth, Chas. D. Zirkle, R. M. Rosin. Secretary of the Sabbath-school Department, Miss Helen V. Price. Custodian Conference Property, Chas. D. Zirkle.
Credentials were granted to O. O. Farnsworth and John F. Jones; ministerial license was given to H. W. Herrell, C. T. Shaffer, Chas. D. Zirkle, Fred H. S. Seeney; missionary license to M. A. Baker and L. M. Slocum.
A spirit of unity and freedom prevailed throughout the Conference session, and the delegates said this was the best Conference they ever attended. All returned to their respective churches with renewed courage and strength for the work before us.
It was planned that four tents be in the field this summer: At Havre de Grace, Md.; Cambridge, Md.; Annapolis, Md.; and Cheswold, Del.
At the late session of the General Conference several of our workers were called to foreign fields: Elder Ballenger and wife to England; Brother Fischer and wife to Porto Rico, West Indies. The same Conference recommended that V. H. Lucas, of Atlanta, Ga., and F. W. Mace, of New England, labor in the Chesapeake Conference.
The office of the Chesapeake Conference for the coming year will be at 903 Woodley St., Baltimore, Md.
O. O. FARNSWORTH, Pres.
CHAS. D. ZIRKLE, Sec.
Encouraging facts, with others, in foregoing report:—
  1. Conference prospered financially since beginning.
  2. Financial help rendered to worthy organizations and objects.
  3. Laborers settled with in full, and funds still in the treasury.
  4. Laborers to be settled with promptly, and at short intervals.
  5. Resolutions which will bear good fruits, if carried out heartily and liberally in looking after and encouraging the young, and keeping the streams of liberality open by weekly offerings. Vows are made effective by being faithfully paid. The Lord will follow all such with His blessing.—Ed.