World War I and the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the South Pacific

Abstract

The First World War (1914-1918) radically affected New Zealand and Australian society, but its impact on the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the region was limited by its geographic remoteness from the theaters of conflict and the Church’s circumspection over participation in the war. While almost all other religious groups actively promoted the war and the enlistment of their young men, the denomination walked a largely successful but very fine line between loyalty to the government and opposition to a worldly war that conflicted with the Church’s global mission and vision. Church leaders managed ultimately successful negotiations with governments to ensure that military service requirements accommodated Adventist positions on non-combatancy and the Sabbath. As far as possible, the Church remained firmly fixed on its mission, which by global standards was relatively unaffected by the war or by government policies.