270 / A Conference in Transition

with the Mennonite Church's publication program, missionary activity, and mental health service. Delegates to the Mennonite General Conference and to the Mennonite World Conference are elected.

The conference, in keeping with trends in the nation, has expressed itself on the race issue and asked "that congregations actively welcome all races into their congregations and communities." In 1966 for the first time in its long history the conference convened in a large Ohio urban center-in the cite of Cleveland. The delegates, besides transacting conference business, visited poverty areas and interviewed the agencies ministering to them.

The Christian Workers' Conference: Stimulator and Guide

The Christian Workers' Conference in its long history has testified to the strong belief that Christian education is necessary to build and extend the church. The present conference is the successor to the Ohio State Sundae School Conference which was first held at the Salem Church in Wayne County in September 1895.`' Year after year the Christian Workers' Conference has deepened the fellowship of its delegates, shared practical ways of improving the church's teaching ministry, and broadened the vistas of Christian service. The vitality and growth of the churches are closely related to this annual conference which is relevant to the local church's program of teaching and witness.

The conference has encouraged and guided local congregations in Bible study classes, teachers' meetings, mission study classes, Sundae school libraries, youth meetings, and summer Bible schools. For mane years this conference was the largest and best attended Mennonite meeting in the state. In 1965 the Christian Workers' Conference began to meet jointly with the Ohio and Eastern Mennonite Conference at the latter's annual meeting.

A Widening Sense of Mission

Of all the activities of the Ohio and Eastern churches, nothing occupies as much space as the missionary emphasis, judging be the Ohio Evangel and other media which report on the mission activities of the congregations. It is the goal of the conference that each congregation be active in its mission which includes the sponsoring of at least one mission outpost.

The sense of mission can be seen, of course, in the annual