In the early part of the council the workers stepped forward one by one to report the progress of the work in their areas. J. G. Matteson led off with his report of the work in Scandinavia, He had been working in Copenhagen since April and had succeeded in raising a church of eleven members. There were 258 Sabbathkeepers in Denmark by this time, 279 in Sweden, and about 160 in Norway. Matteson reported that in all of Scandinavia there were seven ministers, seven men with licenses to preach, eight colporteurs, and 18 churches. EGWE 67.4
England's Sabbathkeepers were organized into four churches. Two hundred and twenty-four believers were scattered throughout Switzerland, Germany, France, Romania, and Italy. In addition, there were 39 Sabbathkeepers in churches not connected with the conference. EGWE 68.1
France and Corsica claimed 35 believers. Two small churches in Italy, at Naples and Torre Pellice, accounted for 25 members. There were 14 believers in Pitesti, Romania,*SDA doctrine was first preached in Romania by M. B. Czechowski in the winter of 1868-1869. Aslan was a convert of Czechowski. Bourdeau organized the church at Pitesti. This church was soon scattered by persecution, not long after the Second European Council in 1884. where Thomas G. Aslan followed A. C. Bourdeau in the work. EGWE 68.2
The editors were also proud of their missionary and health journals. In all, nine different periodicals were in publication in Central Europe, Scandinavia, and England. But there was still a crying need for more books in the languages of Europe, especially Spirit of Prophecy volumes so that colporteurs could offer more to the hungry people than a few tracts and magazine subscriptions. One of the earliest actions of the council was to establish a permanent committee to recommend books for translation and publication. EGWE 68.3