Sanitarium in New Zealand is extending community support, including a new partnership with Kiwi Harvest.

In early April, the first of 90 pallets of Weet-Bix was delivered to its distribution centre in Auckland, with a further delivery to reach its Christchurch distribution centre in June.

Kiwi Harvest distributes food to more than 280 charities throughout New Zealand that provide for people in need. Read more

Reagan Aliklik, the elder and landowner who donated the land for the church, shared a brief history of Adventism in the small nation.

He said a small group of Adventists made up of I-Kiribati and Solomon Islanders came to work in the phosphate mines in 1975 and started worshipping together.

Later, Nauruans who had studied in Adventist schools in Fiji, Kiribati and Papua New Guinea returned and joined the group.

Eventually, church ministers were sent to nurture and grow the small group.

Today, total membership has grown to more than 50.

Construction of the church began last year after lengthy negotiations. Land in Nauru is expensive and not easily transferred to others.

A three-bedroom house has also been built under the church for the resident pastor who up until now has lived in rented houses and temporary shelters.

There is enough space of the land to build a primary school, and plan are in hand for this.

The church reports that Church members have also been actively involved in visiting asylum seekers at the processing centre on Nauru.

Religious affiliation in Nauru
Protestant 60.4% (includes Nauru Congregational 35.7%, Assembly of God 13%, Nauru Independent Church 9.5%, Baptist 1.5%, and Seventh Day Adventist .7%), Roman Catholic 33%, other 3.7%, none 1.8%, unspecified 1.1%

Source

• adventistreview.org
• adventistreview.org
• record.adventistchurch.com
• httgcatholic.org
• Image: adventistreview.org

According to Pastor Irving Vagha, who holds the portfolios of Adventist Volunteer Services and Global Mission for SIM, Anuta's Anglican priest together with a large group of supporters demolished the church.

Anuta Island is predominately comprised of Anglicans and this is believed to be one of the reasons compelling the chief of the island to have ordered for the tearing down of the church.

Seventh-day Adventist Selwyn Faramarama has been working on the island since last year as a Bible worker funded by Volunteers in Action (VIA) and supported by the Solomon Islands Mission (SIM) of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Three people have been baptised and Mr Faramarama has been studying the Bible with five more people in preparation for baptism.

Putanakipenu Arikifaka, son of the first chief of Anuta Island told the Solomon Star that the SDA followers were told not to construct a church building; but to instead, conduct their worship within their homes.

"They should listen to us while living on the island," said Arikifaka, "We have our own laws. "

"We only listen to our chiefs. We [do] not even recognise the government…"

"We are asking all Adventist members living on the Island to… leave on any available transport that reaches the island this month."

SIM president Pastor George Fafale is attending regional Church meetings in Fiji at the time but was going to seek urgent meetings with Solomon Islands' Council of Churches and Anglican national leaders upon his return.

Source

• emtv.com.pg
• news.adventist.org
• Image: www.adventistreview.org

At the church's General Conference in Texas, the vote was 1381 to 977.

The outcome was reportedly influenced by delegates from Africa and South America.

Before the vote had been tallied, a spokesman said the status of women who have been ordained by local church bodies despite the church's official position "will remain the same".

There have been decades of division over the issue among Seventh Day Adventists.

Several of the church's 13 worldwide divisions have approved theological reviews suggesting that women's ordination should be widely accepted.

Continue reading

The deal could net Asklepion Pharmaceuticals - reportedly controlled by Sanitarium's shareholder, the Seventh day Adventist Church - more than $100 million over the next few years, plus royalties. Continue reading

The St Helena Star in the United States reported that John Brantley, who claims to be an Anglican Rite Old Catholic priest, is hoping to get to Pitcairn.

At present, the Seventh Day Adventist Church is the only form of organised religion on Pitcairn.

The Star article stated the isolated island's population is about 60, with about 25 being active Adventists.

A Saturday worship service draws between 20 and 45 people.

But there are members of other faiths on Pitcairn including Buddhists, Catholics and Protestants.

An article in the Wall Street Journal last month puts the population at only 49, with many of them at or near retirement age.

Locals are trying to encourage immigration to the remote island 5300kms east of New Zealand, but without success.

"We have heard rumours about this Anglican clergyman coming to Pitcairn," Pitcairner Kari Young said.

"If he does come, he will have to go through the same process as other immigrants or visitors, we can't discriminate," she said.

"I doubt if anyone here will be keen to attend his church meetings though," she added.

Meralda Warren, another Pitcairner, said: "We have had many people come to try and turn the Pitcairn Island people to their religion."

"I am not a not a church-goer, but I do believe in God. People like our current (Seventh-day Adventist) pastor, who is from Tahiti, a genuine believer, are the kind of people we listen to," she said.

Pitcairners are descended from sailors who mutinied on the HMS Bounty and the Polynesians who accompanied them.

In the 19th century, Anglicanism was the faith of the islanders, although for much of that time they had no clergy.

In the 1870s and 1880s, Adventism established a presence on Pitcairn.

According to the funding website, Indiegogo.com, Brantley's appeal for funds started on June 22 and is set to close on August 21.

With 23 days left, no one had donated.

A sex-abuse scandal in 2004 saw several Pitcairn men convicted and sentenced to imprisonment.

Sources

• St Helena Star
• Wall Street Journal
• Image: Big World Out There