p. 685 | ORGANIZATION OF CUMBERLAND MISSION FIELD INTO A CONFERENCE

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 23, 1900

ORGANIZATION OF CUMBERLAND MISSION FIELD INTO A CONFERENCE.

By Smith Sharp; J. W. Franklin

At a meeting held on the Harriman camp-ground, Sept. 14, 1900, steps were taken to organize the Cumberland Mission Field into a Conference. After the opening exercises, Elder G. A. Irwin spoke of the necessity of organizing this mission field into a Conference. The mission field now comprises four hundred and fifty members, and pays an annual tithe of about thirty-eight hundred dollars.

The Chair appointed the following committees: On Plans of Organization: Elder C. A. Hall, Prof. C. W. Irwin, W. E. Haskell. On Nominations: Elder N. W. Allee, E. R. Gillett, J. W. Franklin. On Credentials and License: A. F. Harrison, G. W. Wells, E. D. Haskell.

The Committee on Organization offered the constitution that is usually adopted in our State Conferences, with the following exceptions: Art. VII, Sec. 1, “Each organized church in the Conference shall be entitled to one delegate, and an additional one for every ten members.” The constitution was so amended that the delegates to the General Conference are to be elected at the annual Conference session. It was decided that the organization shall go into effect Jan. 1, 1901; also that the general Conference shall settle with all laborers and receive tithe until that time; and that one half of the tithe of the last quarter of 1900 go to the Cumberland Conference, and the other half to the General Conference.

The constitution for the Sabbath-school Association, and also the one for the tract society, were adopted without amendment.

Credentials were given to Elder Smith Sharp. Ministerial license was given to Geo. Wells, Hugh W. Jones; and missionary license to E. W. Carey, W. E. Haskell, J. W. Franklin, Mrs. Mettie Lenker, Mrs. Laura Whitgrove, Miss Carrie Lowwell.

The officers elected were as follows: Conference President, Elder Smith Sharp; Secretary, J. W. Franklin; Treasurer, the Tract and Missionary Society. Executive Committee: Smith Sharp, A. F. Harrison, and Geo. W. Wells. Sabbath-school Association: President, Geo. W. Wells; Secretary, Miss Ethel Craw; Third Member of the Advisory, or Executive, Committee, Mrs. A. F. Harrison. Tract and Missionary Society: President, Elder Smith Sharp; Vice President, Hugh W. Jones; Secretary and Treasurer, E. W. Carey; State Agent, R. H. Patterson; District Directors, E. W. Carey (District 1, eastern Kentucky), Hugh W. Jones (District 2, eastern Tennessee).

It was decided that this Conference present a request to enter the General Conference, at its next session; also that it send a representative to the next General Conference; that the new officers of Sabbath-school Association of the Cumberland Conference enter upon their duties at once; and that the funds for the last quarter of the Sabbath-school

society of the Cumberland Mission Field go to the Sabbath-school society of the Cumberland Conference. The financial condition of the Conference is good. The expense of the camp-meeting this year was fifty-one dollars, and the receipts were fifty-three dollars. Seventy-two dollars and fifty cents was raised for the tract and missionary work. There was also a hearty response to the call for pledges in behalf of the educational work.

SMITH SHARP, Pres., J. W. FRANKLIN, Sec.