Scandinavian Union Conference (1901–1931)

In July 1901 Friedensau, Germany, was the venue for the consideration of changes within the Adventist Church in Europe. A camp meeting began on July 18 during which the 19 delegates from the Scandinavian countries formed what was to become the Scandinavian Union Conference, comprising the Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish Conferences, and the mission fields of Finland, Iceland, and Greenland.¹

Formation of the Scandinavian Union Conference

In the following days, July 23-26, 1901 the European General Conference was formed with L. R. Conradi as its chairman and headquarters located at 453 Holloway Road, London. The Scandinavian Union Conference was officially chartered on July 24 with P. A. Hansen as chairman and J. C. Raft as secretary. Its statutes were to be published in Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish. Reporting in the Missionären, Raft shared the background of this new administrative unit, “for many years we have had but one general conference. Now when the work has expanded to such a large extent, it is necessary to share the burdens and responsibilities. America [meaning North America] has been divided into six big union conferences which together constitute a general conference. Something similar is now being made in Europe as well. Several union conferences have been established and thus they now constitute together a general conference of Europe. One of these unions is the Scandinavian Union Conference.”² The others were the German, British, Latin, and Oriental Unions.³ Together it was an area four times that of the United States and inhabited by one third of the earth’s population.⁴

The statutes of the Scandinavian Union Conference were of a conventional type, establishing the responsibility of the conference in each country, as well as clarifying the field of interest for the Scandinavian Union as a whole. A detailed financial plan was given as to the flow of money and how these funds would be audited.⁵ There was, however, an echo of the controversy at this time in Battle Creek, Michigan, between J. H. Kellogg and the leadership of the Church. In the fourth meeting, on July 23, the election of board members was brought to the table. Raft writes: “After much discussion and energetic support of one name, it was finally decided to delete the name of N. P. Nelson on the board in favor of J. C. Ottosen.”⁶

Dr. Ottosen was the leader of Skodsborg Sanatorium and a strong man throughout Scandinavia, while Dr. Nils Peter Nelson was a younger and not so experienced doctor from Skodsborg (having graduated from medical school in Copenhagen in 1901). There might have been a fear that Ottosen would lead out too strongly and too independently, just as his colleague and mentor J. H. Kellogg was doing in Battle Creek. As a member of the union board, he vigorously helped form the budding health work in the Scandinavian Union.⁷

The first board meeting of the Scandinavian Union was held on February 12, 1902, in Stockholm, Sweden. The headquarters, however, was to be in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Leadership

The first leader of the Scandinavian Union Conference was Peter A. Hansen, born in Iowa to Danish parents. He was a farmer, ordained pastor, and nicknamed “the millionaire” as he was a skillful economist and a wealthy man. While in the United States he had supported the Church in Scandinavia financially. In 1901 he had been asked to return to take leadership of the Danish Conference and, in so doing, saved the Church from financial crisis with his own private fortune. In July he was elected the first president of the Scandinavian Union Conference, an office he held until 1908. In 1904 he provided his large estate, Högsholt to establish the first union school.

Another Danish-American, Julius Christensen Raft,⁸ became the second dynamic leader of the union in 1908 and was to serve in this role until 1922. Just like Hansen, he had attended J. G. Matteson’s mission school in Battle Creek. This was not without importance. Matteson, “the apostle” to Scandinavians on both sides of the Atlantic, had stressed a Christo-centric Adventism. This theological focus was continued by his students, the future leaders, when they re-entered Scandinavia at the beginning of the 20^th century. Raft was also a visionary leader, but foremost a brilliant evangelist, preacher, and writer. He was heavily involved in the purchase and development of Skodsborg Sanitarium. Although the vast territory of the union demanded incessant travel and preaching, he authored a number of tracts, as well as books. Ett ord i rätt tid (A Word for Our Time) ⁹ was widely distributed by colporteurs in Scandinavia and led to the conversion of many who had no possibility of attending an evangelistic campaign. As a church leader Raft planted a new, vibrant, church on the Swedish side of the Öresund, Helsingborg, as no other pastor was willing to take on the task of converting the highly secular people in southern Sweden.

The Swedish American, George Nord, was elected in 1922 and took over the leadership of the union when Raft was called to Berne. The new European Division had seen the capacity of Raft and wanted him as a field secretary. Nord had become an Adventist in Chicago at the age of 17 in 1898. He had spent two years at the school in Battle Creek and later a year in the Swedish department of Union College in Lincoln, Nebraska. In 1909 a Swedish seminary, Broadview, was founded close to Chicago. Nord was elected as its first principal. The Danes and Norwegians had founded a school in Hutchinson, Minnesota, no doubt due to the similarity in language and common history of Norwegians and Danes. Scandinavians may be brethren, but the cultures of the countries differ.

Growth and Change

In 1901 the membership of the Scandinavian Union Conference was 2,135. In spite of the Great War (World War I) membership in the union had grown. Raft had been a constant traveler during his 14-year term. In 1920 Estonia and Latvia, free countries since 1918, were added to the union, which added to the total membership of 7,544. In 1923 there was another reorganization, Iceland became a separate mission field directly under the European Division, and toward the end of 1923 the Baltic Union was organized, including Estonia and Latvia. In total the reorganizations of 1923 led to a decrease of 3,000 in the Scandinavian Union Conference membership.¹⁰

One of the reasons for the reorganizations had been stated by Nord himself, who found that trying to lead and supervise so many interests, languages, and people, and the extensive travel required to be taxing. He had thought in 1922 that the Baltic provinces¹¹ should form one union and Iceland should be a mission field on its own.

When the final reorganization came in 1931, with Denmark, Norway, the Faroe Islands, and Iceland becoming the West Nordic Union, and Sweden and Finland the East Nordic Union, Nord stated that Sweden and Finland were the poorer of the two, both in finances and membership. There were twice as many members in the West-Nordic Union compared to the East Nordic Union. The Scandinavian Union had been able to assist some of the weaker fields with subsidies: North Sweden, Finland, South Sweden, and, foremost of all, the mission in Iceland.¹² Swedish membership was mainly focused in its central regions due to historical reasons.

Health Work and Foreign Mission

There were two things that would connect all of Scandinavia, both before and after 1931: Skodsborg Badesanatorium and the School of Physiotherapy was one, and the annual Ingathering campaign¹³ for foreign missions was the second. These two grew in importance during the years of the Scandinavian Union. At the reorganization in 1931, Skodsborg was to remain in the interest of both new unions, though eventually it became a West-Nordic Union institution. Since its beginning in 1898, Carl Ottosen had led its remarkable development both in size, fame, and respect, as an alternative medical institution of high quality. From its small beginnings, by 1931 it had become the largest health institution in Scandinavia and one of the largest sanitariums in the Adventist Church, mainly due to Ottosen’s foresight and vision.

The guests, patients, and students continued to come from all over Scandinavia and the Baltic States, as well. Within the Adventist Church, this provided a most important bonding and a continuous link to mission fervor. Countless graduates of the School of Physiotherapy went into foreign mission service, often as a married couple. Both came with their professional skills, having met at Skodsborg. Often, they were from two different Scandinavian countries. From its beginning Skodsborg was a hub of the Scandinavian Adventist Church, and it became the sending institution to foreign fields. In 1924, 16 young Adventists left the Scandinavian Union for mission service in Africa, India, and China. Most were Danes, and most had trained at Skodsborg.¹⁴

It had not taken long before the area of responsibility of the Scandinavian Union had been expanded from the countries it was comprised of. In 1906, Guy Dail wrote in his report of the Scandinavian Union Conference: “as it now has a small surplus in income and assets a proposal was made to launch a mission into Abyssinia.”¹⁵ Valdemar Toppenberg (Danish) and his wife Minnie Hansen began work in Tanganyika (Tanzania) in 1913.¹⁶ The Swedes, Per Lindegren and Julius Persson, left for East Africa in 1907 in an attempt to enter Ethiopia. From America, Bernhard Petersen (Danish) and his wife Bertha Erickson (Swedish) went to Manchuria where they founded a mission in 1913.¹⁷

The Importance of Ingathering

Ingathering campaigns for mission projects were launched by the European Conference at the end of 1919, but actually started in 1921 in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.¹⁸ In the 1920s Scandinavia consisted mostly of farming communities. These communities were open to giving generously when the yearly harvest was in place. Among the general public, since the 19^th century, there was a keen interest in foreign missions from all the Scandinavian countries. The annual Ingathering campaign attracted the members’ involvement from the very beginning and also the interest of the general public to contribute. It was a win-win situation, combining Scandinavians’ great interest in mission with the rather simple way of witnessing and doing something worthwhile for the cause of spreading the gospel of mercy.

Evangelism

Except for Finland, all Scandinavian countries had stayed neutral during the Great War of 1914-1918. But the war had its consequences. In 1919 there was a Spanish flu epidemic that claimed the lives of many young people. In Tidens Tecken, the Swedish Signs of the Times, advice on hygiene, etc. was published, as well as directions from the State Medical Board on how to avoid spreading infection. Public evangelistic campaigns could not be held during the pandemic.

At the union board meeting in February 1919, led by Raft, three key elements were stressed in the Church’s advancement for the future: preaching, education, and health.¹⁹ These were the Scandinavian Adventist way of building up society after the war. Evangelism and health work grew steadily in the union during the 1920s and 1930s, up to World War II.

Education

Educational possibilities varied greatly between the countries. Denmark had a long liberal tradition that provided legal possibilities to start church schools. While this was true in Norway, as well, the widely scattered members did not make church schools a viable possibility. In Sweden there were laws which worked against the establishment of private and denominational elementary schools. That political situation was to remain for the rest of the century. During the time of the Scandinavian Union, there was only one small “children’s school” in Sweden that moved to different locations. It ceased existence in 1943.

However, in Sweden two “mission schools” provided denominational workers, as well as missionaries, with training, most having further training at Skodsborg. Before the Nyhyttan school started in 1898, Swedish students went to Frydenstrand, Denmark, where there were Swedish teachers as well. In 1907-1908 an attempt was made to have one union school at Nyhyttan, situated halfway between Oslo and Stockholm. In spite of the fact that it had been a union decision, it did not work well trying to educate in the different languages.²⁰ On Dr. Ottosen’s initiative, a mission school for Danes and Norwegians was established in Naerum, close to Skodsborg.

Parting Ways in 1931

The reorganization came because of the positive growth of church membership, institutions, and means. The West-Nordic Union came out strong with 5,700 members, more than the Scandinavian Union’s membership in 1920. It would grow during the rest of the century until 1992 when economic disaster impacted the entire West-Nordic Union.

The East-Nordic Union had a shorter existence. It was dissolved in 1955. The reason was the growing membership, especially in Finland, and thus the increasing language barrier.

Legacy

The legacy of the Scandinavian Union is foremost in how the early visionaries forwarded the work in all the Scandinavian countries. This was done in a way that could not, at that time, have been done by any single country on its own. The fostering of foreign mission involvement continued long after this administrative structure had ceased. In a sense, it brought life into the other partition of the European Division: namely the Northern European Division, formed in 1928. Scandinavians once more joined in spreading the work, not least to its assigned foreign mission fields. Their keen interest in foreign missions initiated a wide variety of involvement launched in order to spread the gospel: preaching, educating, and healthful living.

Sources

Ahren, Emil. “Protokoll ofver svenska sjundedags adventistkonferensens 25:te ars-mote i Vasteras den 19-24 juni 1906.” Missionären, July 1,1906.

Dail, Guy. “Ar 1905 I den Europeiska General-konferensen.” Missionären, August 15, 1906,

Dail, Guy. ”The European General Conference.” ARH, September 3, 1901.

“Evangeliets Sendebud.” Missionären, October 1921.

Muderspach, L. “Carl Ottosen” (obituaries), Missionsefterretninger nr 8, August 1924.

Muderspach, L. “Organisation och samarbete, ordning sch ledning.” Missionären, March 1, 1916.

Muderspach, L. “Scandinaviens Tribut Till Hednamissionen Ar 1925.” Missionären (Skordenummer), October 1925.

Nord, G. E. “Skandinaviska Uniones 30- arsjubileum och delning.” Missionären, May 1931.

Raft, J. C. “Den Skandinaviska Unionkonferensen.” Missionären, November 1901.

Raft, J. C. Ett ord i rätt tid, Stockholm: Skandinaviska Förlagsexpeditionen, 1927.

Raft, J. C. “Från februarimötet i Skodsborg.” Missionären, April 1, 1919.

Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia. Second revised edition. Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1996.

Skodsborgersamfundet, 1924.

Notes

1. Guy Dail, ”The European General Conference,” ARH, September 3, 1901, 576.↩

2. J. C. Raft, “Den Skandinaviska Unionkonferensen,” Missionären, November 1901, 106-107.↩

3. Guy Dail, ”The European General Conference,” ARH, September 3, 1901, 576.↩

4. Guy Dail, “Ar 1905 I den Europeiska General-konferensen,” Missionären, August 15, 1906, 114.↩

5. Each country had its own currency.↩

6. J. C. Raft, “Den Skandinaviska Unionkonferensen,” Missionären, November 1901, 105.↩

7. L. Muderspach, “Carl Ottosen” (obituaries), Missionsefterretninger nr 8, August 1924, 57-58; Skodsborgersamfundet 1924, 26-28.↩

8. See Yvonne Johansson Öster, “Raft, Julius Christensen (1863-1934),” Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=DICW&highlight=Raft.↩

9. J. C. Raft, Ett ord i rätt tid (Stockholm: Skandinaviska Förlagsexpeditionen, 1927), 392.↩

10. G. E. Nord, “Skandinaviska Uniones 30- arsjubileum och delning,” Missionären, May 1931, 50.↩

11. The Baltic countries had long been provinces first under Sweden and then under Russia. Independence came first in 1918.↩

12. L. Muderspach, “Organisation och samarbete, ordning sch ledning,” Missionären, March 1, 1916, 34.↩

13. In 1917 the membership was in Denmark and Norway: 2936, In Finland and Sweden 1687. In Iceland 127 Missionären, April 15, 1918, 61.↩

14. L. Muderspach, “Scandinaviens Tribut Till Hednamissionen Ar 1925” Missionären (Skordenummer), October 1925, 14-15.↩

15. Guy Dail, “Ar 1905 I den Europeiska General-konferensen,” Missionären, August 1, 1906, 117.↩

16. Toppenberg left for Eritrea as a single man in 1909. Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia (1996), 784.↩

17. Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia (1996), s.v. “Petersen, Bernhard.” They both had trained and worked in the U.S.A. previously.↩

18. “Evangeliets Sendebud,” Missionären, special Ingathering issue for Denmark and Norway,

    October 1921. The intent was to start in 1920, but the pamphlets were delayed. In Sweden there were thus two periods of ingathering, one in the spring and one in the autumn.↩

19. J.C. Raft, “Från februarimötet i Skodsborg,” Missionären, April 1, 1919, 54.↩

20. Emil Ahren, “Protokoll ofver svenska sjundedags adventistkonferensens 25:te ars-mote i Vasteras den 19-24 juni 1906,” Missionären, July 1, 1906, 98.↩