General Conference Session (Seventh-Day Adventist)

The General Conference Session is the official world meeting of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, held every five years. At the session, delegates from around the world elect the Church's World Leaders, discuss and vote on changes to the Church's Constitution, and listen to reports from the Church's 13 Divisions on activities going on within its territory.

The first session was held on May 20, 1863 in Battle Creek, Michigan with 20 delegates in attendance. The early sessions were held every year in a small church. As the Church's membership grew, time between sessions lengthened, meeting places got bigger, and more delegates attended. Today the sessions are held every five years in cities with stadiums that can seat more than 70,000 attendees, which includes the more than 2,400 delegates attending and the visitors from around the world who are watching the session.

List of sessions ^[1]

Session	Date	City	Venue	Theme	Comments
1.	May 20–23, 1863	Battle Creek, Michigan
2.	May 18–21, 1864	Battle Creek, Michigan
3.	May 17, 1865	Battle Creek, Michigan
4.	May 16–17, 1866	Battle Creek, Michigan
5.	May 14–19, 1867	Battle Creek, Michigan
6.	May 12–18, 1868	Battle Creek, Michigan
7.	May 18–24, 1869	Battle Creek, Michigan
8.	March 15–20, 1870	Battle Creek, Michigan
9.	February 7–12, 1871	Battle Creek, Michigan
10.	December 29, 1871 - January 3, 1872	Battle Creek, Michigan
11.	March 11–14, 1873	Battle Creek, Michigan
12.	November 14–16, 1873	Battle Creek, Michigan
13.	August 10–15, 1874	Battle Creek, Michigan
14.	August 15–18, 1875	Battle Creek, Michigan
1st Special	March 31 - April 4, 1876	Battle Creek, Michigan
15.	September 19–24, 1876	Lansing, Michigan			First session to be held in another city in Michigan
2nd Special	November 12–13, 1876	Battle Creek, Michigan
16.	September 20–28, 1877	Lansing, Michigan
3rd Special	March 1–4, 1878	Battle Creek, Michigan
17.	October 4–16, 1878	Battle Creek, Michigan
4th Special	April 17–23, 1879	Battle Creek, Michigan
18.	November 7 - December 1, 1879	Battle Creek, Michigan
5th Special	March 11–15, 1880	Battle Creek, Michigan
19.	October 6–12, 1880	Battle Creek, Michigan
20.	December 1–19, 1881	Battle Creek, Michigan
21.	December 7–19, 1882	Rome, New York			First session to be held outside of Michigan
22.	November 8–20, 1883	Battle Creek, Michigan
23.	October 30 - November 20, 1884	Battle Creek, Michigan
24.	November 18 - December 6, 1885	Battle Creek, Michigan
25.	November 18 - December 6, 1886	Battle Creek, Michigan
26.	November 13 - December 12, 1887	Oakland, California			First Session to be held west of the Mississippi River
27.	October 18 - November 8, 1888	Minneapolis, Minnesota			see article 1888 Minneapolis General Conference
28.	October 18 - November 5, 1889	Battle Creek, Michigan
29.	March 5–25, 1891	Battle Creek, Michigan
30.	February 17 - March 6, 1893	Battle Creek, Michigan
31.	February 15 - March 4, 1895	Battle Creek, Michigan
32.	February 19 - March 8, 1897	Lincoln, Nebraska
33.	February 15 - March 7, 1899	South Lancaster, Massachusetts
34.	April 2–23, 1901	Battle Creek, Michigan
35.	March 27 - April 3, 1903	Oakland, California
36.	May 11–30, 1905	Washington, D.C.
37.	May 13 - June 6, 1909	Washington, D.C.
38.	May 15 - June 8, 1913	Washington, D.C.
39.	March 29 - April 14, 1918	San Francisco, California	San Francisco Municipal Auditorium		First Session to not be held in a church building
40.	May 11–28, 1922	San Francisco, California
41.	May 27 - June 14, 1926	Milwaukee, Wisconsin
42.	May 28 - June 12, 1930	San Francisco, California
43.	May 26 - June 8, 1936	San Francisco, California	Exposition Auditorium
44.	May 26 - June 7, 1941	San Francisco, California
45.	June 5–15, 1946	Washington, D.C.	Sligo SDA Church		Last Session to be held in a church building
46.	July 10–22, 1950	San Francisco, California
47.	May 24 - June 5, 1954	San Francisco, California
48.	June 19–28, 1958	Cleveland, Ohio
49.	July 26 - August 4, 1962	San Francisco, California
50.	June 16–25, 1966	Detroit, Michigan
51.	June 11–20, 1970	Atlantic City, New Jersey
52.	July 10–19, 1975	Vienna, Austria			First session to be held outside of North America
53.	April 16–26, 1980	Dallas, Texas			27 Fundamental Beliefs Created; now 28 Fundamentals
54.	June 27 - July 6, 1985	New Orleans, Louisiana
55.	July 5–14, 1990	Indianapolis, Indiana	Hoosier Dome
56.	June 29 - July 8, 1995	Utrecht, Netherlands[2]
57.	June 29 - July 8, 2000	Toronto, Canada
58.	June 29 - July 9, 2005	St. Louis, Missouri	Edward Jones Dome		28th fundamental belief added to the 27
59.	June 23 - July 3, 2010	Atlanta, Georgia	Georgia Dome	Go Forward, Not Backward
60.	July 2–11, 2015	San Antonio, Texas	Alamodome	Arise! Shine! Jesus is Coming!
61.	2020	Indianapolis, Indiana	Lucas Oil Stadium	TBD	Future Session

See also

• General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists
• 1888 Minneapolis General Conference
• Seventh-day Adventist Church
• History of the Seventh-day Adventist Church

External links

• GCSession.org
• General Conference Session Bulletins from Adventist Archives

References

1. https://www.adventistarchives.org/general-conference-sessions
2. Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia Vol 10., p.593-54