Sabbath worship is a fundamental practice of the Seventh Day Adventist Church. However, an impasse continues in Samoa about which day of the week is the Sabbath. Some are worshipping on Saturday and the majority worshipping on Sunday.
On 6 February the local Seventh Day Adventist church administration instructed the law office of Schuster-Betham-Annandale to write to the Leauva’a-uta SDA members who are worshipping on Saturday telling them to refrain from using the church facility there.
This situation arose because the Samoan Government decided to align its time zone with key trading partners in the Asia-Pacific region by shifting west of the international date line.
When the clock struck midnight Thursday 29 December 2011, the country skipped over Friday and moved 24 hours ahead — straight into Saturday, Dec. 31.
SDA Pastor Uili Solofa says, “You have to know that all the other Christian religions in Samoa have publicly testified that they have moved to keep the seventh–day Sabbath of the Bible.”
Catholic Chancellor Ioane Ono does not appear to share that view.
“For Catholics or any Christian for that matter, Sunday is a day of rest, a day of giving thanks and praise to the Lord. It is also a day of joy and celebration because for the Catholic Church, Sunday is the day of resurrection of Jesus.” (Samoa Observer, March 12, 2013)
Such statement by SDA leaders in Samoa and the Pacific that Sunday is the ‘seventh-day’ in Samoa today contradicts why Christian churches worship on Sunday being the first day of the week to commemorate the day of Jesus’ resurrection.
Last month, leaders of the SDA church in the South Pacific Division (SPD) met again in Australia with pastors from Samoa and Samoan pastors representing Samoan churches in New Zealand and Australia.
The Bible conference discussed the impasse in Samoa, which is detrimental to a fundamental doctrine of the SDA church.
The matter has been referred to the Biblical Research Committee of the South Pacific Division for further research.
Source
- NBCNews.com
- Talamua
- Image: Samoa Observer