Book: Clarence Creager Crisler, Organization: Its Character, Purpose, Place, and Development in the Seventh-day Adventist Church (Washington, DC: Review and Herald, 1938). HTML, PDF.
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Chapter 17: Division Conferences
The General Conference of 1913 saw a further development of the organization of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination, in the provision made for the formation of division conferences, made up of groups of union conferences and union missions in continental districts where the work has prospered and become practically self-supporting.
The probability of having to take such an advance step had been foreseen a score of years before. Even prior to the time the first union conference was formed, O. A. Olsen, in a stirring address before the delegates assembled in General Conference in 1893, outlined the need for divisional organization. He said:
“Our work is extending in foreign lands with wonderful rapidity. It will soon be impracticable to attempt to get delegates together from all the fields in foreign lands. Groups of conferences in distant fields must be formed for the purpose of holding district conferences, which conferences can elect delegates to the General Conference. At such conferences there can be representatives from the General Conference, and the work can be made to blend in all parts of the world. We would ask, What can be the objection to organizing district conferences for the convenience of foreign lands? … It would seem that the problem of unity of effort in many distant fields, such as Australasia, South America, etc., could not be solved so [p. 178] well in any other way as to provide such fields with district conferences.”—General Conference Bulletin, 1893, pp. 24, 25.
A Memorial From Europe
For nearly twenty years after this prophetic forecast by Elder Olsen, the work in Europe, under the prospering hand of God, advanced from strength to strength. Conference after conference was formed, and union after union was developed, until the time seemed ripe for the creation of an ecclesiastical body embracing all the unions in that great division of the field, with legislative and executive authority, for the conduct of the work in the future. Accordingly, in 1912 the members of the General Conference Committee having charge of the union conferences and union missions in the European field, prepared a memorial, which was spread before the Fall Council of the General Conference Committee at Washington, D.C., in 1912. Their views are clearly expressed in the paragraphs that follow:
“To the Brethren Assembled in the Autumn Council of the General Conference Committee (1912): Greeting! …
“Any one who studies the divine plan of organization will find that it is one of natural growth, and that it must keep pace with the steady development of the world-wide work.
“Seventh-day Adventists existed nearly twenty years ere the first conferences were organized. Then, as there came to be several conferences, the need was seen, as early as 1863, of the General Conference organization. Thirty-one years passed before it was felt necessary to introduce a new factor of organization, the union conference, between [p. 179] the General Conference and the local conferences. Today there are twenty-three union conferences. Beginning with January, 1913, there will be twenty-five union conferences and four union missions. Nearly thirty union organizations have been created in the short period of eleven years.
“Another want, however, has made itself felt, and different solutions have been tried to remedy it. In North America, where the General Conference has its headquarters, and where the General Conference can deal directly with the union and local conferences, this want is not felt so keenly as in Europe. Councils of European workers were held as early as 1884. As the fields were far apart, however, and the difference of languages raised natural obstructions, it was soon found that even the union system was not fully adequate to the needs of the field. The European General Conference was the first suggestion, but the term chosen caused just misapprehension. In 1903 the General Conference at Oakland created as a remedy the vice-presidents in Europe and North America, with the right to meet with their respective union presidents, and thus as a committee supervise the division. In 1909 the Asiatic Division was added, and thus ninety-five thousand members, in fields having about one thousand million of population, are already comprised in the divisional arrangement. But this new factor was only in name, as far as the constitutional basis for action by the people of a division is concerned.
“To give the European workers more generally the possibility of meeting in a council to consider the immediate and the peculiar needs of this great division, the General Conference Committee held its biennial session [p. 180] in 1907 at Gland, and in 1911 at Friedensau. But the last meeting especially only demonstrated that, while these meetings were a great factor in binding the workers together and in bringing spiritual blessing to thousands of our people who could not attend the General Conference session in the United States, yet one apparent lack was manifest,—a proper organization of the division as such. All could see the need of such a divisional meeting, but the representative and constitutional basis for it was lacking.
“Feeling this, the European members, … in their last session, decided to kindly ask the General Conference Committee at its autumn session to take into consideration such a divisional organization, and, if favorably reported, to appoint a committee which could do the necessary preliminary work, and introduce a well-considered plan by the time of the next General Conference session.
“Europe’s needs today will be the needs of South America, Asia, and other parts of the world tomorrow. It can be only a matter of time until the world, as such, will have to be comprised fully in this divisional organization. …
“Hoping sincerely that the appeal of the European members of the General Conference Committee, will receive a due hearing at this Fall Council, we would humbly submit this memorial to the members present.”—Id., 1913, pp. 50, 51.
Response to the Memorial
The General Conference Committee gave careful study to the main features of this memorial, and recommended that the proposed plan be fully considered at the next General Conference.
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During the 1913 General Conference, the committee on plans and resolutions recommended—
“1. That, in response to the memorial submitted by the European brethren to the Fall Council, 1912, we adopt the general plan of organizing important territories and groups of union fields into General Conference divisions, and that this form of divisional organization be effected in the various fields as the conditions of the work require.
“2. That the numerical basis of representation from the division conferences and division missions to the General Conference be that called for by the General Conference Constitution.
“3. That the general mission funds of the division be reported quarterly to the treasurer of the General Conference, and that they be included in the financial statements of the General Conference.
“4. That steps be taken at this conference for the organization of the European Division Conference, with a constitution in harmony with the provisions of the General Conference Constitution.”—Id., p. 91.
With this report, the committee on plans submitted a form of constitution and bylaws for the European Division Conference; and the committee on constitution submitted a report recommending changes in the General Conference Constitution which opened the way for the formation of division conferences and division missions.
All these reports and recommendations concerning the creation of division conferences and missions, were spread before the delegates on May 21, 1913, just fifty years to a day from the time the General Conference itself was organized in 1863. This was an undesigned coincidence; and when the conference delegates were apprised of the fact by [p. 182] J. N. Loughborough, who had participated in the day’s proceedings half a century before, some wished to act upon the reports at once, in order that the European Division Conference might be formed on the jubilee anniversary. While the general sentiment was in favor of providing for division conferences, the delegates decided to defer final consideration of the reports, so as to give ample opportunity for all to study the proposals carefully. “The very fact that we are fifty years old today,” suggested W. T. Bartlett, of the British Union delegation, “is a good reason why we should not be moved by sentiment.”—Id., p. 101.
The European Division Conference
The discussion of the reports and recommendations, the following day, resulted in favorable action on all the measures proposed.
One of the delegates raised the question, “If these divisions are organized, does it not take away from the General Conference a large amount of work that it is now doing? Will not a large proportion of the work that the General Conference is now doing, be handed over to the European Division Conference?”
In reply, the president of the General Conference reviewed the part the General Conference organization had acted from the beginning, and would continue to act, in unifying all branches of the cause of God. He said, in part:
“The organization of either a local conference or a union or a division conference does decentralize detail work. It distributes it. If we had no conference at all, except a central body, then of course our duties would be many. We should then have to look after churches, and [p. 183] all that. But when we organize a local conference, that steps in between the central body and the church, and looks after those details.
“When we organized the union conference, we distributed many duties of a detail character that the General Conference Committee was looking after. The interests of local conferences and those cares were then thrust upon the union conference officers. But in doing that, brethren, we did not take out of the hands of the central body the general administration of affairs of the denomination.
“We found many a question that passed by the local conference to the union conference, and had to go on to the General Conference; and I think our General Conference sessions have been as greatly pressed with affairs of large character as ever passed before a union conference organization. Instead of legislating regarding matters pertaining to local conferences, we have been able to lengthen our vision with reference to great missionary enterprises. We have been able to make the General Conference a little more educational. We have been able to give more attention to the departments of work than we could have done without the union conference organization.
“Now when we organize the division conference, we do not cut off the interests of Europe from this central body. There are great questions of administration, departments of work, institutional interests, all of which will always have to go under the general legislative work of the General Conference. If you should organize North America into a division conference, there would still come to the General Conference many important questions relating to administrative, institutional, and departmental work. You do not cut those things off. You cut off details, but not [p. 184] the great, important problems that are always arising.”—Id., p. 111.
Final action was taken, authorizing the accredited delegates from the union conferences of the European field to organize the European Division Conference, and then the brethren united in singing,
“Blest be the tie that binds
Our hearts in Christian love!”
The delegates from Europe and adjacent territory proceeded immediately to the organization of the European Division Conference, adoption of constitution, and election of officers, as reported in the columns of the General Conference Bulletin.
Other Division Conferences
Before the close of the 1913 General Conference, the North American Division Conference was formed, and provision was made for the organization, “at such time and place as they [the General Conference Committee] may deem advisable,” of the South American Division. The General Conference territory in the Far East was organized into the Asiatic Division Mission.
Enlarging the Border
Commenting on this development of the denominational organization to meet the demands of a growing work, F. M. Wilcox, in a Review editorial, wrote:
“The month of May, 1913, marked the fiftieth anniversary of the organization of the General Conference. It is interesting indeed to contemplate the many changes that have taken place in our work in organization during this period, and it is not only interesting, but most encouraging as well.
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“Fifty years ago this movement had but a meager following. The work had reached that stage that only several State conferences had been organized. Our system of institutions in printing houses, schools, and sanitariums which we possess today, had no existence. Our work had not extended outside of the American border.
“At the present time, in its various ramifications, this movement encircles the earth. There have been called to the standard of truth more than one hundred thousand loyal believers, representatives of many of earth’s nationalities. Surely we can exclaim, in view of this, ‘What hath God wrought!’ But even with all that has been gained, we cannot cease our efforts. The voice of an onsweeping Providence speaks to us, ‘Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes.’ Isa. 54:2.
“We have now not only a General Conference in the sense in which that term was understood five decades ago, but a world conference with divisions one thousandfold more important in the interests they embrace than was the whole General Conference at the time of its organization.
“This meeting has witnessed the organization of what is known as the European Division of the General Conference, also the North American Division of the General Conference. Then there will be the great mission fields of India, of China and Japan, of South America, the organized work in South Africa, the West Indies, and Australasia. These in time, as strength and membership increase, no doubt will be organized into divisions, the same as has been done for North America and Europe.
“These changes in our work are inevitable. They [p. 186] come as a result of the added volume and strength and widespread influence of this movement. It is the firm conviction of all that the important changes made at this meeting will greatly make for the strength of our work in coming years.
“The Lord is doing a great work in the earth. Let us be true and loyal to Him, and to the part He gives us to act.”—Review and Herald, June 5, 1913.
Note.—Since the year 1913 the organization of our work in Europe has been further divided. It is now, in 1938, composed of three division conferences, with assigned mission territory in various parts of the world as a special responsibility for each division.—Editor.