The Seventh-day Adventist Church in New Zealand is formally organised as the New Zealand Pacific Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists (often abbreviated as NZPUC), a subentity of the South Pacific Division of Seventh-day Adventists. As of 31 December 2008, church membership stands at 16,943. The population to member ratio is 1 Adventist to every 280 people.
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History
Stephen N. Haskell, an Adventist missionary visited New Zealand four months after his first visit. He began marketing The Bible Echo and Signs of the Times (Australia/New Zealand version), two religious papers of the church. His truth was soon accepted by Edward Hare and his wife, who ran the boarding house in which he stayed. His success caused the Seventh-day Adventist church in America to send Arthur G. Daniells, an evangelist and former teacher, to further the work. Daniells' preaching soon paved way for the first Seventh-day Adventist church in New Zealand was opened in Ponsonby (a suburb of Auckland), on 15 October 1887. Daniells later became the world president of the church.
Organisations
The union operates 6 educational facilities in New Zealand and the Pacific Islands between elementary and secondary school level. Its network of schools educates nearly 2000 students. The church also operates a radio station in Tahiti, 6 Adventist Book Centres, a nursing home and retirement centre and Sanitarium Health Food Company NZ.