A History of the Mennonite Brethren Church, Ja Toews

he great distance to the congregations in the South constituted real difficulties in participation. 23 In 1903, a special committee was appointed to prepare a plan ( Vorlage) for the expansion of the conference. The committee recommeded ORGANIZATION FOR UNITED ACTION 201 that since our church is expanding into Saskatchewan and possibly into the northwestern territory beyond, the need for enlarging into a northern and southern conference has become evident, to make possible a more active participation and thus help promote the extension of the kingdom of God. '" Detailed proposals for implementation of this recommendation were also presented. However, no action was taken on these proposals. In 1904 the matter was again tabled for another year. In 1905 a new committee was appointed which recommended that the conference be divided into five districts: (1) Oklahoma, (2) Kansas, (3) Nebraska and Colorado, (4) Minnesota, South Dakota, and North Dakota, and (5) Canada. The churches in Oregon and California could join the district of their choice. Although the recommendation was accepted, no steps were taken for immediate implementation. A major reason for postponing implementation appears to have been the concern of many leading brethren that decentralization might lead to disunity in the brotherhood and to disintegration of conference efforts in missions, publication and education. To safeguard against such dangers, the conference meeting in 1906 agreed to make proper provisions "so that upon the basis of a constitution the Conference be expanded without impairing the overall brotherhood unity."" A constitution was drafted in which the conference organization and activities were defined, and provision was made for their implementation and execution. According to this constitution the name of the organization was to be: "Conference of the Mennonite Brethren Church of North America." 2 " At the 1907 convention the brethren Heinrich Voth and N. N. Hiebert, who had been elected to serve on the "constitution committee," submitted the first draft of this document to the conference. It was published in the Zionsbote in the following year and after some revisions adopted by the conference in 1908. This constitution provided guidelines for conference work until 1936, and according to J. H. Lohrenz, "served a useful purpose, since work in the business sessions was now done more rapidly and efficiently." 21 The conference of 1909 marks the end of an era, since it was the last annual convention in which the entire brotherhood participated. At this convention the General Conference interim was raised to three years. (The first triennial conference met in 1912.) Moreover, the following recommendation was accepted for the division of the conference into districts: (a) That the Conference expand into three district conferences as follows: The Southern District Conference — Oklahoma, Kansas, and Escondido,