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Australian Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

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The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Australia is formally organised as the Australian Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists (often abbreviated by Australians as "the Union"), a subentity of the South Pacific Division of Seventh-day Adventists. As of 30 June 2021, baptised church membership stands at 63,401.[1] Despite its small size, the Australian church[2] has made a significant impact on the worldwide Adventist church.

There is a particularly large Seventh-Day Adventist Church presence in the suburb of Cooranbong in the Lake Macquarie region of Newcastle.[3] As of the 2021 census, 23.5% of the suburb is Seventh-day Adventist, which is higher than every other religious denomination besides "no religion".[4]

History

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See also: South Pacific Division of Seventh-day Adventists

The first Seventh-day Adventist church in Australia was the Melbourne Seventh-day Adventist Church, which formed on 10 January 1886, with 29 members.[5] Ellen White, one of the church's founders, spent nine years ministering to the Australian Adventist community from 1891 to 1900.

Outreach to the Australian Aborigines has occurred since the 1890s.[6]

For a representative sample of Adventist theology as taught by Australian lecturers and church leaders see the textbook Meaning for the New Millennium: The Christian Faith from a Seventh-day Adventist Perspective. It is not an "official" statement of belief (the 28 Fundamentals play this role), but rather "constitute[s] how a representative group of Australian teachers explain their beliefs".[7]

Statistics

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The number of people who consider themselves Seventh-day Adventists is:

  • 1911. 6095
  • 1922. 13965
  • 1947. 17550
  • 1961. 31633
  • 1971. 41617
  • 1981. 47474
  • 1991. 48341
  • 1996. 52655
  • 2001. 53844[8]
  • 2006. 55257[9]
  • 2011. 63003[10]
  • 2016. 62945[11]

The 1996 National Church Life Survey revealed that of all churches in Australia, Seventh-day Adventists have the highest level of church attendance, highest proportion of members with post-graduate degrees, and the highest proportion who regularly contribute financially to their church.

Organisations

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The church's main tertiary educational institution is Avondale University College in the Lake Macquarie region in New South Wales. It offers numerous degrees including nursing, teaching and theology.[citation needed]

Despite being one of the smaller churches in Australia, the Seventh-day Adventist church in Australia operates a large number of schools In 1992, the church had the 3rd largest number of faith-based schools (with the Catholic and Anglican churches having a larger number of schools each). However, the number of students at each Adventist school was low compared to other independent schools.[12]

The Signs Publishing Company which serves the South Pacific Division, is based in Victoria and prints the Signs of the Times magazine. There are also two other magazine's printed by the Signs Publishing Company for the church. The first is the internal church magazine called The Record. The second is a youth focused magazine called The Edge. The church also operates the Sydney Adventist Hospital and the Sanitarium Health and Wellbeing Company based in Australia and New Zealand.[citation needed]

The Seventh-day Adventist church in Australia is a senior member of the Australian Christian Research Association.[13]

Local Conferences

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The Canberra National Seventh-day Adventist Church

The Australian Union Conference (website) comprises nine smaller subdivisions of "local Conferences".

Greater Sydney

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The Greater Sydney Conference (website) covers the city of Sydney and its surrounds, in the state of New South Wales.

North New South Wales

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The North New South Wales Conference (website) covers the region of New South Wales north of Sydney.

Northern Australia

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The Northern Australia Conference (website) covers the northern part of the state of Queensland as well as the adjacent Northern Territory.

South Australia

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The South Australia Conference covers the state of South Australia.

South New South Wales

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The South New South Wales Conference (website) covers the region of New South Wales south and west of Sydney including the Australian Capital Territory.[14]

South Queensland

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The South Queensland Conference (website) covers the southern part of the state of Queensland.

Tasmania

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The Tasmanian Conference (website) covers the island state of Tasmania.

Victoria

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The Victorian Conference (website) covers the state of Victoria. The Adventist church in Victoria is likely best known to the community for its annual production "Road to Bethlehem" (website), a dramatic reenactment of events leading up to the birth of Jesus.[15]

Western Australia

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The Western Australia Conference (website) covers the state of Western Australia.

See also

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Further reading

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  • Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia, "Australia", esp. 135-40
  • S. Ross Goldstone. The Angel Said Australia (Warburton, Victoria, Australia: Signs, 1980)
  • Alwyn Salom, ed. The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Australia. Kew, Victoria: Christian Research Association, 2002 (publisher's page)
  • Brown, Reginald K. (2005). Beginnings Down Under: The Story of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Australia New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. Victoria, Australia: Signs Publishing Company. ISBN 0-646-44928-1.
  • Arthur Patrick. Christianity and Culture in Colonial Australia: Selected Catholic, Anglican, Wesleyan and Adventist Perspectives, 1981-1900 (Sydney: Fast Books, 1993). PhD dissertation
  • Milton Frederick Krause, The Seventh Day Adventist Church in Australia, 1885–1900. MA Thesis, University of Sydney, 1969

References

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  1. ^ Adventist Directory Retrieved 1 March 2022
  2. ^ "Seventh-day Adventist Membership:Countries Compared". NationMaster. Retrieved 3 December 2018.
  3. ^ https://www.aussietowns.com.au/town/cooranbong-nsw
  4. ^ https://abs.gov.au/census/find-census-data/quickstats/2021/SAL11052
  5. ^ "Seventh-day Adventist Church South Pacific | Australia". Archived from the original on 19 July 2011. Retrieved 27 March 2007.
  6. ^ Milton Hook, "Descendants of the Dreamtime: The Adventist Mission to the Australian Aborigines". Department of Education (South Pacific Division): Seventh-day Adventist Heritage Series. as cited by Brown. Nathan G. Brown, Pastor George: The Story of the First Aboriginal Adventist Pastor (Australia: Australian Union Conference, 2010), pp. 21–24 and elsewhere; ISBN 978-0-646-53284-4
  7. ^ Meaning for the New Millennium: The Christian Faith from a Seventh-day Adventist Perspective, p.iii
  8. ^ Australian Census 2001
  9. ^ Australian Census 2006
  10. ^ Australian Census 2011
  11. ^ Australian Census 2016
  12. ^ "Special Feature: Religion and education". Australian Bureau of Statistics. 27 May 1994. Archived from the original on 17 October 2017. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
  13. ^ Adventist pastor Bob Steed was voted its president in 2007. See Record 112:44 (17 November 2007), p. 5
  14. ^ SNSW Conference Church Locations. See "South New South Wales Conference – SNSW Churches". Archived from the original on 17 December 2014. Retrieved 12 November 2014.
  15. ^ See http://www.signsofthetimes.org.au/archives/2007/december/article1.shtm Archived 18 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine for instance
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