Seventh-Day Adventist Church

Seventh-Day Adventist Church

The Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA) is a Protestant Christian denomination with a number of distinguishing beliefs, including the observance of Saturday as the Sabbath (“Biblical Sabbath”) and emphasis on the imminent “Second Coming” (advent) of Jesus.  The church is rooted in the Millerite movement of the 1830s – 1840’s.  Based on their interpretation of the Bible, the Millerites believed Christ would return to earth in October 1844.  The SDA church was formerly established in 1863.

The Seventh Day Adventist missionaries came to Africa in July 1887. The “Cape Conference” was organized in 1892 with headquarters at Cape Town.  There was an early interest in “carrying the gospel” north to the “Matabeles” in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) “but owing to the hostility of the native rulers, little progress was made until in 1893 Lobengula was overthrown, and the British government took possession of the country.”  The following year, a missionary party arrived in Bulawayo and established the Solusi mission on a grant of 12,000 acres secured from Cecil Rhodes.  From Solusi, many other missions were later established in Southern and Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) and Nyasaland (Malawi).

As of 2016, the Zimbabwe Union Conference (providing administrative oversight for Zimbabwe), had membership of 885,000; the Malawi Union Conference had membership of 516,000 and the Southern and Northern Zambia Union Conferences had a combined membership of 893,000.  Globally, as of 2007, there were over 20 million members in 215 countries and territories (the twelfth largest religious body in the world).

Divisions

Mission Fields

Unattached Missions

Institutions

Missions

Southern Rhodesia
Northern Rhodesia
Nyasaland
Zimbabwe

References

Contributors
  • Mark Loomis