(Union Conference; Union Mission). A unit of church organization formed by a group of several local conferences or missions (or fields, sections, districts, or area “churches,” according to varying modes of organization in different areas of the world), and in turn forming a constituent part of the General Conference in one of its geographical divisions. The union conference organization is similar to that of the local conference, and it is governed by a constitution and bylaws. The president, secretary-treasurer, committees, and departmental secretaries of a union conference are elected biennially by delegates appointed by the local conferences. The executive committee, which has administrative authority between sessions, consists of the union officers and departmental secretaries, local conference presidents, and heads of union conference institutions. The president of the union is a member of the General Conference Committee.
Institutions that serve the entire union, come under union control. The constituent conferences sustain to the union conference a relationship similar to that of the churches to the conference.
In areas in which the church is not self-sustaining, the union organization (called a union mission or simply a union) appoints the officers of the local missions, sections, fields, et cetera; and the union officers, and in some cases the departmental secretaries, are appointed by the division of which it is a subsidiary.
The original union conferences developed from the six General Conference districts into which the United States and Canada had been divided at the 1889 General Conference and the two overseas districts, Europe and Australasia. In 1894 the Australasian Union Conference was formed, becoming something of a model for the reorganizing of districts into unions in North America in 1901 in connection with the General Conference reorganization ( see Organization ).