The Columbia Union Conference by Arthur Grosvenor Daniells

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park, Washington, D. C. · Jun 6, 1912

The Columbia Union Conference

By Arthur Grosvenor Daniells

THE third biennial session of the Columbia Union Conference was held in Pittsburgh, Pa., April 11-21, 1912. The meetings were held in the Carnegie Library auditorium in Homewood, one of the suburbs of the city. The location of the meeting was excellent. The place was central, and easily accessible from any part of the city, and the large auditorium made a splendid place for the public meetings. Besides this, other rooms in the building were made available for committee work.

We are glad to see the advance steps that are being taken by some of our conferences to hold their large and important meetings in good, first-class halls, centrally located, where the people can attend and be favorably impressed. In New York City our churches occasionally hold union meetings in one of the large Y. M. C. A. auditoriums in Brooklyn on the Sabbath. They also had an excellent hall for their recent conference. More careful consideration should be given to the locating of our general meetings than has been done in the past. Greater publicity is being given to our work than formerly, in consequence of its growth and extension. Through the agency of the press, the attention of the world is being turned more and more to this movement. I feel sure that it will be advantageous to our cause to go to any reasonable expense, as the brethren did in the Pittsburgh meeting, in securing a good location for our meetings.

Some of the distinctive truths of the message were presented at the evening services during the conference, and some have since embraced the Sabbath as a result of these meetings, and others are interested. Brother W. L. Burgan, secretary of the Press Bureau, attended the meeting, and secured the publication of a number of splendid reports of the proceedings in the daily papers of Pittsburgh. In this way the attention of a large number of persons was called to our work.

The reports rendered during the conference indicated an encouraging growth in various lines of work. Over five hundred persons were reported as having accepted the truth the past year. The total tithe paid in the union showed an increase of about forty thousand dollars over that of the previous biennial period. There was also quite a marked increase in the funds raised for the advancement of our work in both the home and foreign fields over that of the previous biennial period. In the sale of our literature a gain of about thirty thousand dollars was reported over that of the previous period.

This union has the largest population of any union in the United States. Some of the larger and more important cities are in this territory.—Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Richmond, etc.,—and a strong, aggressive work must be continually carried forward that the message may be firmly established in all these strong, populous centers. There is a constant demand for earnest, consecrated workers to answer the calls coming from many places. It seems that the need of devoted, prayerful laborers was never so urgent as at the present time.

During the session of the conference the boards of the Review and Herald, Washington Sanitarium, and the Foreign Mission Seminary held their annual legal meetings. They were thus able to lay the reports of the various institutions before a large gathering of the constituency, and have the benefit of counsel in forming plans for the future. All the reports submitted were very encouraging.

Prof. B. G. Wilkinson was reelected president of the union conference, and the other officers chosen were practically the same as for the past term.

During the most of the meeting, daily studies were given by the writer on the sacred work of the gospel ministry and the responsibility of accepting a call to be a laborer in the vineyard of the Lord. Much interest was shown in these studies, and a desire was expressed on the part of all in attendance to put forth earnest efforts to reach the high standard set forth in the Word of God for those who labor for souls. May the special blessing of the Lord attend the proclamation of the message, and lead many souls to obey the truth. This message is designed by the Lord not simply to warn men, but to save them. A. G. DANIELLS.