BY RYAN TELLER, EILEEN NELSON, and DENNIS N. CARLSON

p until a few short months before the opening meeting of the 1946 General Conference session, the gathering was scheduled for St. Louis, Missouri. However, according to Lora E. Clement in the June 6 (1946) session report (number 1) in the Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, the session was moved at the last minute because of a lack of housing in the St. Louis area.

"Word had come that rooming facilities available in that great, overcrowded city were entirely unequal to the needs of a General Conference. The hotels regretted that they could not guarantee housing for the close to 900 delegates expected, let alone the thousands of visitors who were sure to attend. A house-to-house canvass proved that few additional rooms in private homes were obtainable, and that tourist cabins for at least twenty miles beyond the city limits were occupied by permanent residents."

After much prayer and discussion, church leaders moved the session to Takoma Park, Maryland, in order to take advantage of the many Adventist institutions in the area.

Even today, on the eve of the present session, St. Louis--the heart of Missouri's largest metropolitan area--has been rapidly building hotels in order to house the more than 70,000 visitors expected at this session.

Now boasting a metro area of more than 3 million people, St. Louis is the namesake of Louis IX of France. This thirteenth-century monarch was widely celebrated for his kindness to the poor in his country.

Although not established as a city until 1822, St. Louis traces its roots back to a trading post founded in 1763 by Pierre Laclede, for whom the famous downtown riverfront area Laclede's Landing is named.

From its vantage point on the easternmost edge of the Louisiana Territory, a vast tract of land covering the middle third of what is now the United States, the city watched the French control the area, then by the Spanish in 1768. The French regained control of the area in 1800, and promptly sold it to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803.

Lewis and Clark
The city also provided the logical starting point for the famed Lewis and Clark expedition. The year 2004 marked 200 years since this group of explorers set forth up the Missouri from St. Charles, now part of the St. Louis metro area.

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were two young military officers commissioned by Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, to follow the Missouri River to its source, and then the Columbia River to its confluence with the Pacific Ocean. The purpose was to explore the newly acquired Louisiana Territory and to open the way for commerce and settlement. President Jefferson also had the dream of seeing the United States stretch all the way to the Pacific Ocean. It would take nearly all of the nineteenth century to accomplish that dream.

Lewis and Clark led a team of about 35 people across the land, traveling more than 8,000 miles by water, horseback, and on foot to the Pacific Ocean and back to St. Louis over 28 months. Most of the journey was over land unknown to European people. Even the native tribes that inhabited the land did not travel far from their own areas. But the story includes the help of several tribal representatives who are credited with providing essential assistance on the journey, especially Sacagawea--a young woman carrying a small child--who served as an interpreter for the English-speaking leaders of the expedition.

The Modern Era
St. Louis proved to be of strategic value because of its prime location at the fork of the two rivers slicing the center of the continent--the Mississippi and the Missouri. These two great waterways provided the primary pathways for shipping and travel for much of the United States. By the mid-1850s, St. Louis had established itself as a major American city, possessing the country's second-largest port.

Not a stranger to large crowds, St. Louis hosted the 1904 World's Fair, known as the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, which drew 20 million people. At the height of the fair on St. Louis Day, more than 400,000 people packed the fairgrounds. The fairgrounds also played host to the 1904 Olympic Games, the first to be held on American soil.

St. Louis also holds the record for the largest indoor gathering in the world. Recorded in the America's Center (site of the session), more than 100,000 people packed the downtown convention center for a mass given by the late Pope John Paul II during his 1999 visit to St. Louis.

Points of Interest
The Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, made famous by the 630-foot-tall Gateway Arch, stands on the banks of the Mississippi as a monument to President Jefferson's vision for the United States to reach across the continent. Besides overlooking the countryside from atop the arch, visitors can explore a museum and park grounds.

Next to the memorial, Laclede's Landing provides a home for many restaurants and shops along the riverfront.

The Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, located in St. Louis County, was also one of the recruitment stations of the Buffalo Soldiers. After the Civil War, Congress created several regiments of African-American cavalry and infantry that served on the plains and earned the nickname "Buffalo Soldiers" from the Native Americans. Cathy Williams was the only known female Buffalo soldier. She enlisted here on November 15, 1866.

The beautiful and immense Forest Park is one of the largest city parks in the United States. Forest Park contains a world-famous zoo, a highly ranked art museum, the Missouri Historical Society Museum (a well-attended Adventist evangelistic meeting was held there just a few years ago), the municipal Open-Air Theater, the Steinberg Skating Rink, the Jewel Box (a beautiful, glass-encased building of live flowers and plants), the science museum, the planetarium, a large public golf course, plus countless other public accommodations.

The Old Courthouse building sits in downtown St. Louis between Chestnut and Market Streets. The famed Dred Scott slave-freedom trials were held there in the mid 1800s.

Busch Memorial Stadium in downtown St. Louis is the home of the 2004 National League baseball champions, the St. Louis Cardinals. A new stadium is now under construction and will be completed in 2006.

Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine is located in West St. Louis. Founded in 1853, Washington University Medical Center is world acclaimed as a research center.

Adventism in St. Louis
The St. Louis Central church, which at one time was pastored by former North American Division president Al McClure, is considered to be the mother congregation of all the churches in the area. In 1886 a Mrs. Rapp and her daughters accepted the Adventist message after being visited by two colporteurs. Before long others began worshipping in the Rapp home. The fledgling congregation of 12 then rented a store building, and Pastor Heycock became the first pastor. Now the congregation boasts more than 400 members and has spawned churches all over the city.

In 1889 Charles Kinney, the first ordained African-American Adventist minister, spent six months working in St. Louis. "No churches were organized, but no doubt many of the converts attended services in the White churches," recounts page 314 of the SDA Encyclopedia.

Not until 1904 did the first African-American church organize. Last year the Berean church celebrated its centennial anniversary with the help of former pastors, including another former North American Division president, Charles E. Bradford. Now with a membership close to 600, this congregation also planted churches throughout St. Louis, including the Northside church, the largest Adventist congregation in the area, with more than 1,300 members.

More recent endeavors have resulted in the planting of four churches in the past seven years. Following a multisite series of evangelistic meetings, the 250 converts formed the New Life company near downtown St. Louis. Adventists also reached out to the non-English-speaking population by planting the St. Louis Spanish and St. Louis Korean companies.

Adventism Today
Today nearly 3,500 Seventh-day Adventists make up the congregations of 13 churches. In addition, two elementary schools, a full-time community service center, and numerous church-based food pantries and clothing services serve St. Louis' residents. Also, a weekly radio program called Bible Answers Crusade, operated by lay members from the various churches, has been instrumental in leading many people to Christ for more than 25 years.

Several churches in the area led into the session by hosting two large-scale evangelistic meetings, one by television evangelist Walter Pearson, another by William Pergerson at the St. Louis Art Museum. The goal is for these meetings to lead to another church plant like the New Life company in 1999.

St. Louis area Adventists have planned many events for the region during the session. Please keep alert for announcements during the session.

_________________________
Ryan Teller is communication director of the Texas Conference; Eileen Nelson is the first elder of the Berean Adventist Church, St. Louis, Missouri; and Dennis N. Carlson is the president of the Mid-America Union, in Lincoln, Nebraska.