Sweeping Changes

The proposed changes were sweeping. They called for the various independent and separate international organizations—the Sabbath School Association, the Religious Liberty Association, the Foreign Mission Board, et cetera—to be blended into the General Conference. The Executive Committee was to be a much larger group with much wider representation. The medical missionary work, which had grown so strong, was to be integrated, with a definite representation on the General Conference Committee.WV 389.2

An early proposal was that union conferences, after the order of what had been done in Australia, be formed throughout North America and the European fields. At the business session held Thursday afternoon, April 4, a memorial was presented from the Southern field, or what might be termed the Southern district, embodying three conferences and six missions. On Tuesday, April 9, the organization of the Southern Union Conference was completed, a constitution adopted, certain officers elected, and members of the executive committee named. This represented the first full-fledged union conference to be organized in the United States. It was the bellwether, and before the conference closed two weeks later there were six union conferences in North America.WV 389.3

On this same day the basic action embodying reorganization was framed and presented to the General Conference in these words:WV 389.4

“5. That the General Conference Committee be composed of representative men connected with the various lines of work in the different parts of the world.WV 389.5

“6. That the General Conference Committee, as thus constituted, should take the place of all the present boards and committees, except in the case of the essential legal corporations.WV 389.6

“7. That the General Conference Committee consist of twenty-five members, six of whom shall be chosen by the Medical Missionary Association, and nineteen by the General Conference. That five of these members be chosen with special reference to their ability to foster and develop true evangelical spirit in all departments of the work, to build up the ministry of the word, and to act as teachers of the gospel message in all parts of the world; and that they be relieved from any special business cares, that they may be free to devote themselves to this work.WV 390.1

“8. That in choosing this General Conference Committee, the presidents of the union conference be elected as members” (Ibid., 185).WV 390.2