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 Islands
