Adventist Adventism is a branch of Protestant Christianity that believes in the imminent Second Coming (or the "Second Advent") of Jesus Christ. It originated in the 1830s in the United States during the Second Great Awakening when Baptist preacher Wil ...

congregations in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

(

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

: ) are a

protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

free church in

History

Adventism in Norway came from the

Pietist Pietism (), also known as Pietistic Lutheranism, is a movement within Lutheranism that combines its emphasis on biblical doctrine with an emphasis on individual piety and living a holy Christianity, Christian life, including a social concern for ...

revival (

Haugean movement The Haugean movement or Haugeanism ( no, haugianere) was a Pietistic state church reform movement intended to bring new life and vitality into the Church of Norway which had been often characterized by formalism and lethargy. The movement emphas ...

) started by Norwegian Lutheran preacher

Hans Nielsen Hauge Hans Nielsen Hauge (3 April 1771 – 29 March 1824) was a 19th-century Norwegian Lutheran lay minister, spiritual leader, business entrepreneur, social reformer and author. He led a noted Pietism revival known as the Haugean movement. Hauge is als ...

. Evidence suggests that four families in southern Norway became the nucleus of Norwegian Adventism after discovering the

seventh-day Sabbath The seventh-day Sabbath, observed from Friday evening to Saturday evening, is an important part of the beliefs and practices of seventh-day churches. These churches emphasize biblical references such as the ancient Hebrew practice of beginning a ...

, though it is not believed to have been the result of contact from keepers of the Sabbath. Instead, it is believed that it was derived from their reading of the Bible. The

Danish American Danish Americans ( da, Dansk-amerikanere) are Americans who have ancestral roots originated fully or partially from Denmark. There are approximately 1,300,000 Americans of Danish origin or descent. History The first Dane known to have arri ...

John Gottlieb Matteson came to Norway in 1878 and began working as a missionary for the

Seventh-day Adventist The Seventh-day Adventist Church is an Adventist Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week in the Christian (Gregorian) and the Hebrew calendar, as the Sabbath, and ...

s. Gottlieb composed the first Dano-Norwegian Adventist hymnal. He became the editor of in 1872, which was eventually distributed to Scandinavian countries. It experienced good reception, leading to Matteson to go to Denmark and Kristiania (now

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population ...

) to preach. He later participated in the construction of the first

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * C ...

organized in Oslo. Matteson continued to work on publication work, including on (Signs of the Times) and (Health Magazine). These were one of only few periodicals at the time and allowed members of the congregation to earn money through distribution. The church runs a number of private schools in Norway.

Congregation

Early on in 1879, his congregation in Norway consisted of 34 people who were mostly working-class women. There were 652 Adventists in Norway in 1901, and 1,826 in 1921. In 2013, there were approximately 4,600 Adventists in Norway. As of June 30, 2018, the Adventist church had a total membership count of 4,535 people.Adventist Directory
Retrieved December 3, 2018 The Church is split into three districts: * Northern Norway * Western Norway * Eastern Norway Between these districts, as of 2013, there are 62 congregations and 43 churches. On September 20, 2015, the Norwegian Union Conference Executive Committee of the Adventist Church voted to cease the

ordination Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform v ...

of both male and female pastors due to a disagreement on Biblical readings on ordination. The Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Norway pays pastoral employees the same wages and under the same terms regardless of gender.

Institutions

Adventists in Norway own and operate the following institutions: * Skogli Health and Rehabilitation Centre (Lillehammer) * Tyrifjorden Upper Secondary School (Buskerud County) * A Bible institute (Røyse) * A publishing house (Røyse) * Møsserød care home (Sandefjord) * A senior citizen community centre (Bergen) * 11 primary schools *

Adventist Development and Relief Agency The Adventist Development and Relief Agency International (ADRA or ADRA International) is a humanitarian agency operated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church for the purpose of providing individual and community development and disaster relief. ...

(ADRA) Norway

References

{{Religion in Norway Protestantism in Norway

Seventh-day Adventist Church in Europe

History

Congregation

Institutions

See also

References