| Adamstown Church | |
|---|---|
 | |
  Adamstown Church | |
| 25°03′59″S130°06′01″W / 25.06626°S 130.10033°W | |
| Location | Adamstown |
| Country |  Pitcairn Islands |
| Denomination | Seventh-day Adventist |
The Adamstown Church, [1] or alternatively Adamstown Adventist Church, [2] is a religious building affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church, located in the town of Adamstown [3] in the Pitcairn Islands, a dependent territory of the United Kingdom in Oceania, at an isolated end of the Pacific Ocean.
There has been an Adventist presence in the Pitcairn Islands since 1890 and at a time, almost every inhabitant was an Adventist. [4] The church was constructed around the same time as the Adventists landing after news got back to California in the United States, that the Pitcairn Islanders were receptive to Adventism. [5] The building is located on the main street called "The Square". [6] The church is unique in the entire island of Pitcairn [7] (the only inhabited island of the archipelago) and is the product of a mission sent by American Seventh-Day Adventists who converted almost all of the small number of inhabitants of the island from the Church of England to that Protestant denomination. [4]
In front of the church is a bell that was traditionally rung with the shout of "sail ho!" whenever a ship was sighted from the island. [8] A later Pitcairn Islands law was passed by 1940 that ruled that anyone who falsely called "sail ho!" from the church without a ship being in sight would be fined 5 shillings. [9]
In 2001, due to a decrease in church attendance in the Pitcairn Islands, the Adventist Church in New Zealand's executive committee voted to downgrade Adamstown Church from an officially recognised Adventist church into a company but granted adherents the right to affiliate to other Adventist churches if they wished. [10]
Pitcairn - Church of Adamstown.
