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{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2023}}{{Notability|Organization|date=March 2023}}{{Seventh-day Adventism}}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.Adventist Directory Retrieved 1 March 2022 Despite its small size, the Australian churchWEB,weblink Seventh-day Adventist Membership:Countries Compared, NationMaster, 2018-12-03, has made a significant impact on the worldwide Adventist church.

History

{{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.WEB,weblink Seventh-day Adventist Church South Pacific {{!, Australia |access-date=27 March 2007 |archive-url=weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20110719035300weblink">weblink |archive-date=19 July 2011 |url-status=dead }} 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.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}}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".Meaning for the New Millennium: The Christian Faith from a Seventh-day Adventist Perspective, p.iii

Statistics

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. 53844Australian Census 2001
• 2006. 55257Australian Census 2006
• 2011. 63003Australian Census 2011
• 2016. 62945Australian Census 2016

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

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|date=May 2021}}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.WEB,weblink Special Feature: Religion and education, 27 May 1994, Australian Bureau of Statistics,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20171017083356weblink">weblink 17 October 2017, live, 17 October 2017, 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|date=May 2021}}The Seventh-day Adventist church in Australia is a senior member of the Australian Christian Research Association.Adventist pastor Bob Steed was voted its president in 2007. See Record 112:44 (17 November 2007), p. 5

Local Conferences

(File:Canberra National Seventh-day Adventist Church July 2021.jpg|thumb|The Canberra National Seventh-day Adventist Church)The Australian Union Conference (website) comprises nine smaller subdivisions of "local Conferences".

Greater Sydney

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

North New South Wales

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

Northern Australia

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

South Australia

The South Australia Conference covers the state of South Australia.

South New South Wales

The South New South Wales Conference (website) covers the region of New South Wales south and west of Sydney including the Australian Capital Territory.SNSW Conference Church Locations. See WEB,weblink South New South Wales Conference – SNSW Churches, 2014-11-12, dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20141217173605weblink">weblink 17 December 2014,

South Queensland

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

Tasmania

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

Victoria

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.Seeweblink {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081218190909weblink |date=18 December 2008 }} for instance

Western Australia

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

See also

• South Pacific Division of Seventh-day Adventists
• Seventh-day Adventist Church
• Seventh-day Adventist Church in Brazil
• Seventh-day Adventist Church in Canada
• Seventh-day Adventist Church in the People's Republic of China
• Seventh-day Adventist Church in Colombia
• Seventh-day Adventist Church in Cuba
• Seventh-day Adventist Church in India
• Italian Union of Seventh-day Adventist Churches
• Seventh-day Adventist Church in Ghana
• New Zealand Pacific Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists
• Seventh-day Adventist Church in Nigeria
• Adventism in Norway
• Romanian Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists
• Seventh-day Adventist Church in Sweden
• Seventh-day Adventist Church in Thailand
• Seventh-day Adventist Church in Tonga
• Seventh-day Adventists in Turks and Caicos Islands

Further reading

• 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 (weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20070903114124weblink">publisher's page)
• BOOK

,

• 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

{{reflist}}

External links

{{commons category|Seventh-day Adventist churches in Australia}}

• {{Official websiteweblink}}
• weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20110719035300weblink">Australian Beginnings on the official Adventist website
• Statistics from AdventistStatistics.org
• "A snapshot of the church in Australia" by Ken Vogel. Record 113:42 (1 November 2008), pp. 8–9
• weblink" title="archive.today/20121210192411weblink">"Australian Union Conference" articles as catalogued in the Seventh-day Adventist Periodical Index (SDAPI). See also weblink" title="archive.today/20121212184749weblink">"Australia" articles