Seventh Day Adventist Reform Movement
The Seventh Day Adventist Reform Movement is a Protestant Christian denomination in the Sabbatarian Adventist movement that formed from a schism in the European Seventh-day Adventist Church during World War I over the position its European church leaders took on Sabbath observance and on committing Adventists to the bearing of arms in military service for Imperial Germany in World War I.
| Seventh Day Adventist Reform Movement | |
|---|---|
Seventh Day Adventist Reform Movement Church in Ruda Śląska, Poland | |
| Classification | Protestant |
| Orientation | Adventist, Arminian, Christian pacifist |
| Polity | Modified presbyterian polity |
| Region | Worldwide (132 countries) |
| Founder | Groups of Seventh-day Adventist in different countries |
| Origin | 1925 Gotha, Germany |
| Separated from | Seventh-day Adventist Church |
| Members | 42,285 |
| Other name(s) | Reformed Adventist Church (informal) |
The movement was formerly organised on an international level in 1925 at Gotha, Germany and adopted the name "Seventh Day Adventist Reform Movement". It was first registered as a General Conference association in 1929 in Burgwedel, near Hanover, Germany. Following the General Conference association's dissolution by the Gestapo in 1936 it was re-registered in Sacramento, California, United States in 1949. Its present world headquarters are in Roanoke, Virginia, USA.
The Seventh Day Adventist Reform Movement is governed by a General Conference, a worldwide association of constituent territorial Units consisting of Union Conferences, State/Field Conferences, Mission Fields and Missions not attached to any other unit. Through its local church congregations and groups of adherents, affiliated publishing houses, schools, health clinics and hospitals, the Seventh Day Adventist Reform Movement is active in over 132 countries of the world.
The movement's beliefs largely reflect its distinctive Seventh-day Adventist Church heritage and foundational pillars, with some small divergences. See on "Beliefs" below.