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Seventh-day Adventist Church in Canada

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Seventh-day Adventist Church in Canada
ClassificationProtestant
OrientationAdventist
PolityModified presbyterian polity
PresidentMark Johnson
RegionCanada
FounderJoseph Bates, James White, Ellen G. White, J. N. Andrews
OriginMay 21, 1863
Battle Creek, Michigan
Aid organizationAdventist Development and Relief Agency
Other name(s)Adventist church, SDA (informal), SDACC
See also: North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists

The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Canada (SDACC) is organized as a subentity of the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists (SDA).

The Adventist presence in Canada dates back to the early and mid-1800s and the Millerite movement. William Miller, Joshua Himes, and Josiah Litch all helped build the Millerlite cause on Canadian soil.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church became an organized Canadian entity in the late 1870s starting in Quebec. By the first decade of the 1900s, the church had its roots down all across the continent. Today, all of Canada and the French possessions of St. Pierre and Miquelon comprise the official territory of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Canada.

Its administrative units are the British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba-Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec, and Maritime Conferences and the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Newfoundland and Labrador. The 2011 Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook lists 356 churches and a membership of 61,468. [1]

Adventist enterprises include worship services in local congregations, annual regional "camp meetings", a world session every five years, the publishing of tracts and journals, lengthy evangelistic meetings, and the operation of schools, medical facilities, and humanitarian enterprises.

Early History

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Seventh-day
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Millerites in Canada

The Seventh-day Adventist Church developed from the Millerite movement of the 1830s and 40s. William Miller traveled in response to invitations. This led him to the Eastern Townships of Quebec. Miller, Joshua Himes, and Josiah Litch all visited Canada. Miller's sister lived in the Eastern Townships of Quebec.[2] Josiah Litch lived in that district and led in Millerite activities there. Canada became an integral part of their activities. The interest in Miller's teachings was extensive in the Canadas and the Maritimes.[3] Under the leadership of Josiah Litch, the first Millerite camp meeting took place in Canada, at Hadley, Quebec.

Sabbatarian Adventists

After the disappointment of October 22, 1844, Millerites developed into several divergent groups. The Sabbatarian group led by the Whites, Joseph Bates and others sought out the scattered Millerites and presented the Sabbath to them. In the early 1850s Joseph Bates and Hiram Edson traveled along the northern shore of Lake Ontario trudging through knee-deep snow seeking out the Millerites. Thirty years later, the Adventist presence in Canada was still in its nascent stage. The first Seventh-day Adventist church in Canada was at South Stukely. It organized on September 30, 1877,[4] with 16 members.[5] Fifteen years later and Adventists formally organized the Canadian Union Conference following which the Canadian church began to grow.

1901-1913

In the year 1901, the Seventh-day Adventist Church introduced new mid-level administrative units called "Union Conferences". These union conferences took over much of the oversight of the local conferences from the General Conference Committee. On the East coast of the United States, the Eastern Union Conference was created. The first session of this union conference took place between November 27 and December 5, 1901, at South Lancaster, Massachusetts. [6] During this end of year session, a number of meetings were held with members of the General Conference Committee along with representatives from Canada. The purpose of the meetings was to organize a Canadian Union Conference. By vote, all present were constituted a committee of the whole for the transaction of business. On motion of Professor Prescott, it was voted to proceed with the organization of a Canadian Union Conference. A constitution was established. Even though the new entity was called "The Canadian Union Conference", the territory included was only that of Eastern Canada, i.e. Ontario, Quebec, the Maritimes and Newfoundland. They agreed that their work would go into effect on January 1, 1902 if two thirds of the Canadian churches agreed. [7]

Membership Statistics

Canadian Seventh-day Adventist Membership by Decades

The Presidents

(after Eastern and Western Union Conferences were merged)

  • M. N. Campbell, 1932-1936
  • W. B. Ochs, 1936-1943
  • H. L. Rudy, 1943-1950
  • W. A. Nelson, 1950-1962
  • James W. Bothe, 1962-1973
  • L. L. Reile, 1973-1981
  • James W. Wilson, 1981-1989
  • Douglas D. Devnich, 1989-1993
  • Orville Parchment, 1994-2001
  • Daniel R. Jackson, 2002-2010
  • Mark A. Johnson, 2010-

National Organizations

Canadian Adventist Messenger

Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA)

Canadian University College

Kingsway College

VOAR - Voice of Adventist Radio

Christian Record Services

It Is Written Canada

Local Conferences

The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Canada comprises seven smaller subdivisions of "local Conferences".

Newfoundland

The SDA Church built radio station VOAC in 1933 and changed its name to VOAR in 1938. [8]

Maritimes

The Maritime Conference organized in 1902. [9]

Quebec

In 1880, the Quebec Conference organized. [9]

Ontario

In 1890, the Ontario Conference organized. [9]

Manitoba-Saskatchewan

The Manitoba Conference organized in 1903. [9]

The Saskatchewan Conference organized in 1912. [9]

Alberta

Adventists first came to Alberta in 1895. They were colporteurs Thomas Astleford and George W. Sowler. Sowler was the field agent for Manitoba and the Northwest, which included Alberta.[10] Astleford and Sowler both sold "Bible Readings".[11] Astleford left Winnipeg and went to Edmonton. Sowler stopped off at Calgary and started work there. Sowler sold about two hundred copies of Bible Readings in Calgary. He also sold books to the ranchers from Calgary to Fort MacLeod from the Bow River to the foothills. He worked in Edmonton and Fort Saskatchewan and the mountain towns as far as Revelstoke. Eastward, he worked along the main line of the C.P.R. to Port Arthur.[12]

Thomas Astleford began in the Edmonton. He then sold books in the towns along the railroad to the south. His work led to the first converts in the province; Gustave Litke of Leduc and Dr. Menzel and his family, of Stony Plain. Litke shared his new faith with his German friends. In response to their request, H. J. Dirksen was sent from Manitoba. Dirksen led in the organizing of a church at Leduc on May 14, 1898, the first SDA church in the Northwest Territories.[13]

Up until 1903, the work of the Adventist church in Alberta was administered as part of the Manitoba Mission. Beginning in 1901, the Adventist Church reorganized itself to include union conferences. The Northern Union Conference, established in 1902, managed the work of the Adventist church in Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.[14] In 1906, the Alberta Mission was organized into the Alberta Conference. [9] The newly organized Alberta Conference consisted of about 180 members.[15] A year later, the Western Canadian Union Conference was formed. It comprised the conferences of British Columbia, Alberta, and Manitoba and the Saskatchewan Mission.[16] (See the map)

British Columbia

The British Columbia conference organized in 1902. [9]

Endnotes

  1. ^ Seventh-day Adventist Church in Canada. Seventh-day Adventist Online Yearbook Retrieved July 14, 2011
  2. ^ Fortin (1997)
  3. ^ Monteith & Graham 1983, p. 12
  4. ^ Willis 2000, p. 18
  5. ^ Monteith & Graham 1983, p. 29
  6. ^ Daniells, A. G. (December 24, 1901). "Eastern Union Conference" (PDF). Review and Herald. 78 (52). Battle Creek, Michigan: Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association: 11, 12. Retrieved July 10, 2011. Daniells mentions that the co-founder of the SDA Church, Ellen G. White, was present at this gathering in Massachusetts. He also mentions that the name of the union conference was changed to the Atlantic Union Conference.
  7. ^ Daniells, A. G.; Ford, I. A. (December 17, 1901). "Organization of the Canadian Union Conference" (PDF). Review and Herald. 78 (51). Battle Creek, Michigan: Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association: 12, 13. Retrieved July 10, 2011.
  8. ^ Webb, Jeffrey A. (2008). The voice of Newfoundland: a social history of the Broadcasting Corporation of Newfoundland, 1939-1949. Toronto, Ontario: University of Toronto Press. pp. 20–23. ISBN 978-0-8020-9820-7.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Land, p. 54
  10. ^ Review and Herald, August 10, p. 14
  11. ^ Bible Readings for the Home Circle 1888
  12. ^ Western Canadian Tidings. Pioneer Colporteurs in Western Canada. Vol. 8 Calgary, Alberta, December 4, 1918 No. 23 p. 5
  13. ^ Sudds, D. R. Colporteurs Were First in Alberta. Canadian Union Messenger, October 19, 1966, p. 11
  14. ^ Yearbook of the Seventh-day Adventist Denomination, 1907, p. 47
  15. ^ Statistical Report of Seventh-day Adventist Conferences, Missions, and Institutions For the Year Ending December 31, 1906, p. 2
  16. ^ Yearbook of the Seventh-day Adventist Denomination, 1908, p. 88

References

Books
Journals

See also

Further reading


Regional Conferences


National Organizations

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