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Seventh-day Adventist Church of Tonga
Main church of Seventh-day adventists in Nukuʻalofa, Tonga
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Country	Tonga
Denomination	Seventh-day Adventist
History
Founded	1895
Founder(s)	Edward Hilliard

The Seventh-day Adventist Church of Tonga, or SDA of Tonga, (Template:Lang-to) is one of the smaller religious groups in the South Pacific island state of Tonga, started by missionaries from the United States who visited in 1891 and settled in 1895. For twenty years the church ran schools but made very little progress in conversion, handicapped by its insistence on dietary rules that prohibited popular local foods such as pork and shellfish, and also banned tobacco, alcohol and kava.

The church was revitalized in 1912 with a fresh emphasis on evangelism. In 1922 it resumed its strategy of providing education, which resulted in an increase in conversions. After keeping a low profile during World War II (1939–45), the church grew quickly from 1950 to the 1970s. However, membership subsequently declined due to emigration and competition with other churches including the Mormons. The SDA of Tonga is part of the South Pacific Division of Seventh-day Adventists. It operates several schools in Tonga, and provides opportunities for further studies at Adventist institutions abroad.

The SDA is stricter than other churches regarding the Sabbath, which it observes on Saturday. In Tonga, the SDA church does not recognize Tonga's position relative to the international dateline, and as a result observes the Sabbath on the same day as other churches.

History

Growth of the Seventh-Day Adventist church in Tonga was initially poor, taking almost twenty years to become established. Growth was affected by SDA prohibitions on dancing, smoking and alcohol, and the insistence on eating only "clean" foods (e.g. not pork). Their refusal to eat pork or shellfish posed a difficulty at feasts, impacting on their ability to evangelize. The use of kava was particularly problematic, as the widely used drug was considered similar to alcohol and its use was tied to traditional religious practices, but refusing a cup of kava is considered insulting.

Background

Seventh-Day Adventists became active in the South Pacific in 1886 when the missionary John Tay visited the Pitcairn Islands. His report caused the Seventh-Day Adventist church in the United States to build the Pitcairn mission ship, which made six voyages in the 1890s, bringing missionaries to the Society Islands, Cook Islands, Samoa, Tonga and Fiji. On its first voyage, the Pitcairn visited almost every "white family" in the Tongan islands, and sold books worth more than $500. In June 1891, E. H. Gates and A. J. Read visited Tonga, then called the Friendly Islands, on the fourth journey of the Pitcairn. King George Tupou I (c. 1797 – 18 February 1893) authorized the entry of the missionaries. They left without making any Adventist converts.

Initial work 1895–12

The SDA missionary Edward Hilliard, his wife Ida, and daughter Alta arrived at Nukuʻalofa on 30 August 1895. Ida Hilliard was a teacher, and started a small school late in 1895. At its peak the school had 28 pupils, paying $3 per quarter. The school closed in mid-1899 just before the Hilliards left the islands for Australia. Edward Hilliard earned an income as a carpenter. He understood the importance of learning the local language and translated some religious tracts into the Tongan language, but found it difficult; consequently, he focused on converting Europeans.

On 29 September 1896, more Adventist missionaries arrived in Tonga on the Pitcairn, including Sarah and Maria Young, two nursing trainees from Pitcairn Island, and Edwin and Florence Butz with their daughter Alma. The Butz family initially had difficulty being accepted, as they were Americans and most European visitors were British; this was eased by Florence Butz' provision of medical services. The Butz family tried to establish a permanent mission, but worked primarily with the small papalagi (European) colony. They made sporadic missionary efforts in the islands of Haʻapai and Tongatapu. Edwin Butz also had difficulty with the local language, but noted that the Tongans were very interested in learning English. The Butz family moved to Vavaʻu, as it was thought that there were too many missionaries at Nuku'alofa, but they returned after the Hilliard family left in 1899. The Butz family left Tonga on 27 December 1905.

In ten years Butz had baptized two Tongans and twelve Europeans. The first European was baptized on 10 September 1899, on the day that the first Adventist Church in Tonga was organized. He was Charles Edwards, an Englishman and a reformed drinker. He was a medical assistant who also managed the finances and records of the church of Nuku'alofa for many years. Edwards married Maria Young soon after his baptism. Maria helped when Queen Lavinia gave birth to Sālote Tupou III (13 March 1900 – 16 December 1965). Sālote later became queen of Tonga. Some members of the royal family attended the SDA school but the church suffered from emigration and lapses. In the next seven years just one person was baptized at Nuku'alofa, Joni Latu, in 1910. He later became an SDA minister. Timote Mafi was the first Tongan Adventist convert. She was baptized on 22 December 1900, along with her European husband.

In September 1897, Doctor Merritt Kellogg and his wife Eleanor Nolan came to assist with medical care. He built a timber home at Magaia that was long used as the home of the mission superintendent. In June 1899 the Pitcairn returned, bringing a small prefabricated building that was used at first as a mission home and as a chapel. After 18 months it was dismantled and rebuilt as the Nuku'alofa church. . The English missionary Shirley Waldemar Baker, founder of the Free Wesleyan Church of Tonga in 1885, fell out with the authorities due to his intrigues to obtain German "protection" for Tonga. A visiting SDA minister officiated at his burial in 1903 after the Free Church, Wesleyans, Catholics and Anglicans all refused to give him a funeral.

Until 1905, many of the pupils at the Adventist schools had at least one European parent, and the lessons were given in English. In November 1904, Ella Boyd reopened the Adventist primary school at Nukuʻalofa. She was an American who had trained at the Avondale College in Australia, and had taught in church schools in Australia. By 1905, the school reached its full capacity of 28 pupils. The school charged pupils 20¢ per week. The curriculum emphasized health, and warned about narcotics and stimulants. For a while the Nukuʻalofa school thrived, reaching about sixty pupils in 1907. Another school was established at Faleloa in 1908, with thirty students. An Adventist leader who visited Faleloa in 1908 wrote that the school was a "credit to our school work not only in Tonga, but throughout the Australasian field." The monthly Tongan-language Talafekau Mo'oni (Faithful Messenger) was introduced in 1909. It was mostly written by Frances Waugh, the translator at Avondale Press, and Tongan students at the Avondale School. By 1911, however, there were only 18 students in the schools at Nuku'alofa, and both schools were closed that year.

Relaunch and growth 1912–45

In 1912, George G. Stewart and his wife Grace reestablished the mission. Stewart, who arrived early in 1912, reported that Adventist work was "practically at a standstill." He and the Ethelbert Thorpe family changed the emphasis of the mission from education to evangelism. The church was now better organized for work in the Pacific, with bases in New Zealand and Australia. Stewart rebuilt the Falaloa school, which had been badly damaged by a hurricane, and started revival meetings in an effort to improve standards of worship. The missionaries used the Tongan language, and their school at Nukuʻalofa under Maggie Ferguson attracted Tongan pupils eager to obtain education. By June 1915 the SDA Church in Tonga had fourteen Tongan members. In 1917 the mission home at Faleloa was expanded to provide accommodation for female pupils at the Faleloa school, which by then had a total of about forty pupils. By 1918 the school had sixty pupils.

The 1918 flu pandemic caused a major set-back, and the missionary Pearl Tolhurst died. The SDA concluded that its future success would depend on development of its schools. Robert and Frances Smith came from Hawaii in 1920, and supervised the mission until 1927. The mission was formally organized as the Tonga Mission in 1921. The next year, the South Pacific Division of Seventh-day Adventists was founded. The school at Nuku'alofa was reopened with about forty pupils, and a government teacher from Australia joined the mission. Bible classes were given in Tongan by Joni Latu. The mission bought a small boat named Talafekau (Messenger) for the Faleloa missionaries. The Talafekau Mo'oni magazine was relaunched in January 1922, printed bi-monthly in Fiji, and a 50-song hymnal in Tongan was also printed. The first camp meeting was held in June 1922 at Nuku'alofa, attended by members of the Faleloa and Neiafu churches.

Growth in the Tongan mission after the 1920s was largely due to converts among pupils at the SDA schools, especially those of Maggie Ferguson. In 1930, 75% of Tongan Adventists had been converted by the schools. A training center for mission workers was established at Vaini in January 1926. The training school, later called Beulah College, formed the basis for rapid growth from the 1950s to the 1970s. About half the students of Beulah College were non-SDA, but many of these were baptized. In 1937 the school was formally recognized by the government, based on the success of its pupils in public exams. In the mid-1930s, the government passed a law that all college students must attend church on the Sabbath. A group of students at Tonga College decided to worship at the nearby SDA church at Mangaia, and many of them joined the Adventists.

During World War II (1939–45) the Seventh-day Adventists kept a low profile in Tonga and grew slowly. As conscientious objectors, they could not fight during the war, which they interpreted as heralding the Last Days when Christ would return. They had good relations with Queen Sālote but were viewed as outsiders. From 1940 there are few reports on SDA medical work in Tonga.

Post World War II

Until 1946, the total membership of the SDA on Niue and Tonga was never more than 100. However, after the war, the SDA grew rapidly on Tonga, along with most other Pacific Island groups. By the 1960s, the threshold for baptism had slipped, with baptism approved for those who had only renounced use of alcohol and tobacco a few hours earlier. After the 1970s, growth in SDA membership in Tonga slowed sharply due to emigration and competition from other churches. As of 2012, SDA members made up just 2% of the population, among other groups including Free Wesleyan (37%), Church of the Latter-Day Saints (17%), Roman Catholic (16%), Free Church of Tonga (11%), Church of Tonga (8%) and Anglican (1%).

Education

Helen Morton notes in her 1996 book on Tonga that education in highly valued in Tonga but teaching is a relatively low-status occupation. The Seventh-Day Adventist (and Mormon) schools are funded from abroad—unlike other schools in Tonga—have new buildings, sports facilities, modern textbooks and equipment, and arrange extracurricular activities for their pupils. There are four Seventh-day Adventist schools in Tonga: Beulah Primary School, the Hilliard and Mizpah integrated primary and middle schools, and the secondary Beulah Adventist College. Students of Beulah College sat for the University Entrance exam for the first time in 1986.

Students from Tonga may go on to Longburn Adventist College in New Zealand. Small numbers go to Sydney Adventist Hospital for training as nurses. John Kamea of Tonga studied at the Avondale College at Cooranbong, New South Wales before World War II, and later Enoke Hema of Tonga studied at Avondale. The Pacific Adventist University in Boroko, Papua New Guinea also accepts students from all Pacific islands, including Tonga, mainly SDA adherents.

Health

In 2000 the SDA was operating a mobile clinic that promoted family planning.

References

1. Goat meat is deemed clean by Adventists, who are known in Tonga as kaikosi, or goat-eaters.
2. Sarah Young left Tonga in 1899 with the Hilliards. She attended the first course for medical missionaries given at the Avondale Retreat in Cooranbong, New South Wales, and soon after began work in Samoa. Her sister was Rosalind Amelia Young, the author.

1. Lal & Fortune 2000, p. 199.
2. Stanley 1999, p. 205.
3. Steley 1989, p. 59.
4. Steley 1989, p. 207.
5. Steley 1989, p. 205.
6. Steley 1989, p. 209.
7. Finau, Leuti & Langi 1992, p. 88.
8. Steley 1989, p. 75.
9. ^ Piula College, Tonga on the 'NET.
10. ^ Garrett 1992, p. 150.
11. ^ Hook 2007, p. 2.
12. ^ Hook 2007, p. 3.
13. Steley 1989, p. 82.
14. ^ Steley 1989, p. 76.
15. ^ Steley 1989, p. 77.
16. Ferch 1986.
17. ^ Hook 2007, p. 7.
18. Maxwell 1966.
19. Garrett 1992, p. 143.
20. Hook 2007, p. 6.
21. Hook 2007, p. 8.
22. Hook 2007, p. 9.
23. ^ Steley 1989, p. 78.
24. ^ Hook 2007, p. 11.
25. Hook 2007, p. 10.
26. Steley 1989, p. 78–79.
27. ^ Steley 1989, p. 79.
28. Hook 2007, p. 15.
29. Hook 2007, p. 16.
30. Hook 2007, p. 17.
31. Melton 2014, p. 1610.
32. ^ Hook 2007, p. 18.
33. ^ Steley 1989, p. 125.
34. Steley 1989, p. 160–161.
35. Garrett 1997, p. 92.
36. Steley 1989, p. 133.
37. Hook 2007, p. 19–20.
38. Steley 1989, p. 153.
39. Steley 1989, p. 161.
40. Soboslai 2011, p. 1294.
41. Morton 1996, p. 39.
42. Crocombe & Meleisea 1988, p. 230.
43. Crocombe & Meleisea 1988, p. 391.
44. Morton 1996, p. 52.

Sources

• Crocombe, Ron; Meleisea, Malama (1988). Pacific Universities: Achievements, Problems, Prospects. University of the South Pacific - Institute of Pacific Studies. ISBN 978-982-02-0039-5. Retrieved 2015-01-22. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Ferch, Arthur J., ed. (1986). Symposium on Adventist History in the South Pacific: 1885-1918. Warburton, Australia: Sign Pub. Co. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Finau, Makisi; Leuti, Teeruro; Langi, Jione (1992). Island Churches: Challenge and Change. University of the South Pacific - Institute of Pacific Studies. ISBN 978-982-02-0077-7. Retrieved 2015-01-21. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Garrett, John (1992). Footsteps in the Sea: Christianity in Oceania to World War II. editorips@usp.ac.fj. ISBN 978-982-02-0068-5. Retrieved 2015-01-22. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Garrett, John (1997). Where Nets Were Cast: Christianity in Oceania Since World War II. University of the South Pacific - Institute of Pacific Studies. ISBN 978-982-02-0121-7. Retrieved 2015-01-21. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Hook, Milton (2007). TALAFEKAU MO’ONI – EARLY ADVENTISM IN TONGA AND NIUE (PDF). South Pacific Division Department of Education. Retrieved 2015-01-21. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Lal, Brij V.; Fortune, Kate (2000). The Pacific Islands: An Encyclopedia. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-2265-1. Retrieved 2015-01-21. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Maxwell, Arthur S. (1966). Under the Southern Cross. Nashville, TN: Southern Publishing Association. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• "Piula College", Tonga on the 'NET, retrieved 2015-01-21
• Melton, J. Gordon (2014-01-15). Faiths Across Time: 5,000 Years of Religious History. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-61069-026-3. Retrieved 2015-01-22. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Morton, Helen Lee (1996-01-01). Becoming Tongan: An Ethnography of Childhood. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-1795-4. Retrieved 2015-01-21. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Soboslai, John (2011-10-18). "Tonga". Encyclopedia of Global Religion. SAGE Publications. ISBN 978-1-4522-6656-5. Retrieved 2015-01-22. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Stanley, David (1999). Tonga-Samoa. David Stanley. ISBN 978-1-56691-174-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Steley, Dennis (1989), Unfinished: The Seventh-day Adventist Mission in the South Pacific, Excluding Papus New Guinea, 1886 - 1986, University of Auckland, retrieved 2015-01-22 {{citation}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

• Christian denominations in Tonga
• Church buildings in Tonga
• Seventh-day Adventist churches
• 1895 establishments in Tonga