Our Roots, Pt. 28

When it came time to hold the 1897 General Conference Session W. C. White traveled from Australia to attend the meeting. He was determined to urge the Session toward substantial organizational reform. He was joined in this purpose by A. T. Jones, E. J. Waggoner, and W. W. Prescott. These three men had different reasons for wanting organizational reform—they thought it necessary from a theological standpoint while W. C. just wanted a more practical and functional system—but all four agreed on what was needed, whatever the reason. Ellen White remained in Australia.

The efforts of this coalition for change did bear fruit. A new General Conference President, George A. Irwin, was elected. They decided to organize Union Conferences in Europe and North America. The Session also decided to move the headquarters of the mission board to one of the states along the Atlantic coast as a way of physically decentralizing. Some thought that it only needed to move as far as Chicago, but the original proposal of placing the new mission board headquarters along the Atlantic coast won out. Another change was the expansion of the General Conference executive committee to a membership of 13.

There was one other change which was much more dramatic. A plan was devised and approved for dividing the territory of the General Conference into three “divisions.” These were to be North America, Europe, and Australasia. Each of these divisions was to have its own president and be known as a General Conference. All territory not falling within one of these three areas was to be under the supervision of the mission board. The plan called for the mission board, General Conference (the overall one, which theoretically still existed), and the General Conference in North America to each be led by different individuals. In this way there would be a separation in which the three regional General Conferences and the mission board were effectively all separate and equal entities that answered to the overall General Conference.

This theory of separation didn’t work out. The mission board got its own president, but then the Session elected George Irwin to be president of the General Conference in North America as well as being president of the overall General Conference. This functionally merged the overall General Conference and the General Conference in North America and left the other two regional General Conferences and the mission board answering to the General Conference in North America.

These actions by the 1897 General Conference Session demonstrated that there was finally general acceptance of the need for organizational reform and a willingness to embark on that reform. Unfortunately, the changes made during this Session didn’t resolve all the governance issues the organization was facing. And, while it started out as a good idea, the three General Conference divisions ended up adding to the confusion because of the functional merge between the overall General Conference and the General Conference in North America. The movement for organizational reform was underway, but more changes still needed to be made.

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