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New Caledonia Mission office, V.d.C., Noumea, New Caledonia.

Photo courtesy of Chichi Ndlovu.

New Caledonia Mission

By Barry Oliver

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Barry Oliver, Ph.D., retired in 2015 as president of the South Pacific Division of Seventh-day Adventists, Sydney, Australia. An Australian by birth Oliver has served the Church as a pastor, evangelist, college teacher, and administrator. In retirement, he is a conjoint associate professor at Avondale College of Higher Education. He has authored over 106 significant publications and 192 magazine articles. He is married to Julie with three adult sons and three grandchildren.

First Published: January 29, 2020

The New Caledonia Mission is a part of, and responsible to, the New Zealand Pacific Union Conference in the South Pacific Division of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

Current Territory and Statistics

The territory of the New Caledonia Mission is the “Isle of Pines, Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia, and Wallis and Futuna Islands.”1 The administrative office of the mission is located at 17 Rue Du R. P. Gaudet, V.d.C., Noumea, New Caledonia.

The New Caledonia Mission operates under the operating policies of the General Conference and the South Pacific Division (SPD). Those policies state that the officers of the New Caledonia Mission are elected by the New Zealand Pacific Union Conference:2 “The mission president elected by the union is a member of the union committee, and is the union representative in the conduct of the work in the mission. The president shall, with the local mission committee, supervise and carry forward the work in the local mission.”3

In the 2018 Annual Statistical Report of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, the New Caledonia Mission was listed as having six churches and five companies. Church membership at the end of 2017 was 1,027, the first time the recorded membership had risen above 1,000.4 The mission had only seven active employees. Its tithe receipts for 2017 totaled US$524,950. Its tithe and offerings per capita were US$569.36.5

Organizational History

The Seventh-day Adventist Church in New Caledonia was organized as a mission in 1954.6 At the time there were just 11 members.7 The first president of the mission was Paul Nouan.8 The first executive committee comprised Paul Nouan, Marcel Bornert, Gordon Branster, Richard Chitty, E. W. Howse, and Emmanual Williams. When organized, the mission was a part of the Central Pacific Union Mission. It remained as a part of that union until the reorganization of the union missions of the Australasian Division in 1972, when it became part of the Western Pacific Union Mission. In the major reorganization of the unions in the South Pacific Division in 2000, the New Caledonia Mission became a part of the New Zealand Pacific Union Conference along with all French Territories in the South Pacific.9

Presidents of the New Caledonia Mission

Paul Nouan (1954–1958); Leon Hillaire (1959–1964); Georges Hermans (1965–1972); Maurice Fayard (1973); Yvon Missud (1974–1983); Johan A. Van Bignoot (1984–1991); Vacant (1992); Jose Cortizo (1993); Stenio Gungadoo (1994–1995); Eddy Johnson (1996–2000); Patrice Allet (2001–2014); Felix Wadrobert (2015–)

Sources

“ADM 10.05, Principles of Denominational Organization.” In South Pacific Division Working Policy. Wahroonga, NSW: South Pacific Division, 2018.

Nouan, Paul. “Advancing Steps in New Caledonia.” Australasian Record and Advent World Survey, September 2, 1957.

Office of Archives, Statistics, and Research. 2018 Annual Statistical Report: 154th Report of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists for 2017. Silver Spring, Md.: Seventh-day Adventist Church. http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Statistics/ASR/ASR2018.pdf.

Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook. Silver Spring, MD: General Conference Corporation of Seventh-day Adventists, 2001.

Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook. Nampa, Idaho: Pacific Press, 2017.

Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook. Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1955.

Notes

  1. “New Caledonia Mission,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Nampa, Idaho: Pacific Press, 2017), 353.

  2. “ADM 10.05, Principles of Denominational Organization,” in South Pacific Division Working Policy (Wahroonga, NSW: South Pacific Division, 2018).

  3. Ibid.

  4. Office of Archives, Statistics, and Research, 2018 Annual Statistical Report: 154th Report of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists for 2017 (Silver Spring, Md.: Seventh-day Adventist Church, 2018), http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Statistics/ASR/ASR2018.pdf.

  5. Ibid.

  6. “New Caledonia Mission,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1955), 69.

  7. Ibid.

  8. Paul Nouan, “Advancing Steps in New Caledonia,” Australasian Record and Advent World Survey, September 2, 1957, 1–2; “New Caledonia Mission,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (1955).

  9. “New Caledonia Mission,” Seventh-day Adventist Church Yearbook (Silver Spring, MD.: General Conference Corporation of Seventh-day Adventists, 2001), 288.

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Oliver, Barry. "New Caledonia Mission." Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. January 29, 2020. Accessed November 13, 2024. https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=E811.

Oliver, Barry. "New Caledonia Mission." Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. January 29, 2020. Date of access November 13, 2024, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=E811.

Oliver, Barry (2020, January 29). New Caledonia Mission. Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. Retrieved November 13, 2024, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=E811.