A Union Conference Is Born

Following the camp meeting a business session of the Australian Conference was conducted. Eight meetings were held, beginning on Monday morning, January 8, and running through the week.WV 303.8

As was the case with all local conferences and missions throughout the world, those in Australia were separate units under the direction of the General Conference, with headquarters in Battle Creek, Michigan. Local conferences, when formed, were accepted into the General Conference. The arrangement oftentimes proved awkward.WV 303.9

One problem was the time element. Mail to and from the United States took a month each way. Then there was the distance between local conference or mission and the General Conference. Institutions were developing to serve the peoples of the whole South Pacific, and they needed careful supervision. All this led A. G. Daniells and W. C. White to give study to a type of organization that would bind together the local organizations in a given area into an administrative unit, which in turn would be responsible to the General Conference. In several trips they took together to New Zealand and back they had time to canvass the matter carefully and to outline a course that might be followed.WV 304.1

With the business of the Australian Conference out of the way by the end of the second week, the key workers turned their attention to the creation of a new type of organization, which would stand between local conferences, missions, institutions, and the General Conference. In this way matters of local concern could be studied and acted upon by those nearby.WV 304.2

On Monday morning, January 15, with W. C. White, who had been appointed by the General Conference as the “superintendent of the Australasian Field,” in the chair, some 250 persons came together to consider the matter of forming a union conference. Olsen was asked to preside at the meetings—nine in all during the next 10 days. Committees on organization, nominations, and resolutions were appointed.WV 304.3

The committee on organization presented a constitution that would foster the beginning of the new union conference and called for steps to be taken to enable it to hold church and school property. The nominating committee recommended for officers: president, W. C. White; vice president, A. G. Daniells; secretary, L. J. Rousseau; treasurer, Echo Publishing Company.WV 304.4

It was a trailblazing meeting, setting up in essence what the church as a whole would adopt within a few years. Olsen was strongly in favor of what was accomplished and worked closely with their church leaders. The development of the union conference organization would relieve the world headquarters of many administrative details. The union conference plan was well thought through and devised with understanding and care. It opened the door for true advancement throughout the Australasian field and in time the world field.WV 304.5