View source for Romanian Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

{{Infobox Christian denomination
| icon                = 
| icon_width          = 
| icon_alt            = 
| name                = Romanian Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists
| native_name         = Uniunea de Conferințe a Bisericii Adventiste de Ziua a Șaptea din România
| native_name_lang    = ro
| image               = [[File:Adventist Symbol.svg|220px|The Seventh-day Adventist logo]]
| imagewidth          = 250px
| alt                 = 
| caption             = The Seventh-day Adventist logo
| abbreviation        = 
| type                = [[Western Christianity]]
| main_classification = [[Protestant]]
| orientation         = [[Adventism|Adventist]]
| scripture           = [[Bible]]
| theology            = [[Seventh-day Adventist theology|Seventh-day Adventist]]
| polity              = [[Polity of the Seventh-day Adventist Church|Presbyterian/Episcopal]]
| governance          = 
| structure           =
| leader_title        = President
| leader_name         = Aurel Neațu
| fellowships_type    = Subdivision of the
| fellowships         = [[Seventh-day Adventist Church]]
| fellowships_type1   =
| fellowships1        =
| division_type       = Conferences
| division            = 6
| division_type1      =
| division1           =
| associations        = [[Inter-European Division of Seventh-day Adventists]]
| full_communion      = 
| area                = [[Romania]]
| language            = [[Romanian language|Romanian]], [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]]
| headquarters        = Str. Erou  Iancu Nicolae nr. 38-38 A, [[Voluntari]], [[Ilfov County]]
| possessions         =
| founder             = [[Michał Belina Czechowski]]
| founded_date        = 1870
| founded_place       = 
| independence        =
| reunion             =
| recognition         = 1948
| separated_from      = 
| branched_from       = 
| merger              = 
| absorbed            =
| separations         = 
| merged_into         =
| congregations_type  =
| congregations       = 1,269
| members             = 62,215
| ministers_type      = [[Pastor]]s
| ministers           = {{circa}} 340
| missionaries        =
| churches            = 1,185
| hospitals           = 
| nursing_homes       = 
| aid                 = 
| primary_schools     = 
| secondary_schools   = 3
| tax_status          =
| tertiary            = 1
| other_names         = Seventh-day Adventist Church of Romania
| publications        = ''Curierul Adventist''<br/>''Semnele Timpului''
| website             = {{url|adventist.ro}}
| slogan              =
| logo                =
| module              =
| footnotes           = 
}}

The '''Romanian Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists''' ({{langx|ro|Uniunea de Conferințe a Bisericii Adventiste de Ziua a Șaptea din România}}) is [[Romania]]'s seventh-largest religious body, part of the worldwide [[Seventh-day Adventist Church]]. At the 2011 census, 85,902 Romanians declared themselves to be Seventh-Day Adventists.<ref>{{in lang|ro}} [http://www.recensamantromania.ro/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Comunicat-presa_Rezultate-preliminare.pdf Comunicat de presă privind rezultatele provizorii ale Recensământului Populației și Locuințelor – 2011], at the 2011 census official site; accessed October 28, 2012</ref> The church put its own membership at 62,215 in 2020.<ref>[http://adventistdirectory.org/ViewAdmField.aspx?AdmFieldID=RMUC Adventist Organizational Directory]; accessed June 4, 2021</ref> Ethnically, in 2002, they were 83.5% [[Romanians]], 9.7% [[Hungarians in Romania|Hungarians]], 4.9% [[Roma in Romania|Roma]], 1.4% [[Ukrainians of Romania|Ukrainians]] and 0.5% belonged to other groups.<ref>{{in lang|ro}} [http://www.insse.ro/cms/files/RPL2002INS/vol1/tabele/t51a.pdf Populația după etnie și religie, pe medii], at the 2002 Census official site; accessed December 28, 2011</ref> The denomination has 1,185 church buildings and some 340 pastors.<ref name="culte"/> It originates in the 19th century and is divided into six local conferences, standing for and named after some of the country's main [[Historical regions of Romania|historical regions]]: [[Banat]], Northern [[Transylvania]], Southern Transylvania, [[Moldavia]], [[Muntenia]] and [[Oltenia]].

==History==

In 1868-69 [[Michał Belina-Czechowski]], a former [[Roman Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]] priest who had embraced Adventism in the [[United States]], arrived at [[Pitești]] and introduced Seventh-Day Adventist doctrines into Romania. Among the approximately 12 people he converted was Thomas G. Aslan, who later made contact with [[John Nevins Andrews]] and helped him prepare a Romanian-language paper. Visits in the mid-1880s from [[George I. Butler]], president of the [[General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists|General Conference]], and [[Bourdeau brothers|Augustin C. Bourdeau]], an evangelist, followed these initial contacts.<ref name="land252"/><ref name="Pope186">Pope, p. 186</ref> In 1890 [[Ludwig R. Conradi]] entered [[Transylvania]], then part of [[Austria-Hungary]], in search of converts. As a result of Conradi's efforts, by the mid-1890s several individuals in [[Cluj-Napoca|Cluj]] had converted to Adventism. Meanwhile, in 1892 Conradi organized several [[ethnic German]] Adventists who had recently moved from the [[Russian Empire]] to the [[Kingdom of Romania]] into a church. Eventually these Adventists settled in Viile Noi, a neighbourhood of [[Constanța]].<ref name="land252"/>

Johann F. Ginter, an evangelist from Russia, moved to [[Bucharest]] in 1904 and soon converted several individuals, among them Peter Paulini (a medical student) and Ștefan Demetrescu (a [[Romanian Army]] officer), who then attended the [[Friedensau Adventist University|Adventist training school]] in [[Möckern]], [[German Empire|Germany]]. By the time Paulini and Demetrescu returned to Romania, the government had expelled Ginter, but the newly trained Romanian Adventists were ready to take his place. Conferences organized beginning in 1907 and the Romanian Union Conference formed in 1919 with about 2,000 members. Starting in 1908 Romanian Adventists had their publications printed by the [[Hamburg]] press in Germany, but in 1920 they established the Adventist Publishing House in Bucharest. Three years later the Romanian Union Training School opened in Bucharest but moved to [[Târnăveni|Diciosânmartin]] in 1926 and then [[Brașov]] in 1931.<ref name="land252">Land, p.252</ref> The Conference registered as a religious association in 1928,<ref name="Pope186"/> but during the period of [[Greater Romania]], it functioned in semi-legality, sometimes permitted to function and at other times banned.<ref name="culte"/> In 1930 there were 7,700 (or 16,100<ref name="culte">{{in lang|ro}} [http://www.culte.gov.ro/biserica-adventista-de-ziua-a-saptea "Biserica Adventistă de Ziua a Șaptea" ("The Seventh-day Adventist Church")], at the [[Ministry of Culture and Religious Affairs (Romania)|Ministry of Culture and Religious Affairs]], [http://www.culte.ro/ Under-Secretariat for Culture and Religious Affairs]; accessed December 28, 2011</ref>) members, 65 ministers and 290 houses of prayer.<ref name="Pope186"/>

At the start of [[World War II]], there were some 13,000 (or 25,000<ref name="Pope186"/>) Adventists in Romania. In 1941, as [[Nazi Germany|Nazi German]] troops entered Romania, the [[Wehrmacht]] confiscated the training school building and completely closed the institution the next year (''see also [[Romania during World War II]]'').<ref name="land252"/> At the end of that year the [[Ion Antonescu|Antonescu]] regime closed all Adventist churches and imprisoned church leaders, but meetings continued in secret. The school (as well as the churches) opened again in 1944 and beginning in 1950 operated under the name Romanian Theological Seminary. Meanwhile, the publishing house closed in 1942, opening again in 1944 until taken over by the government three years later. In 1946, Adventists found homes for 600 orphans affected by that year's famine in [[Moldavia]].<ref name="land252"/><ref name="Pope186"/> Having gained provisional recognition that year,<ref name="culte"/> the church was one of the fourteen faiths to gain state recognition in the 1948 Law on Cults.<ref>Pope, p. 175</ref>

[[File:Adventisti Romania (2002).png|thumb|left|Adventists in Romania (2002 census)]]
Under [[Nicolae Ceaușescu]], services (some of which were bilingual Romanian and [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]] in Transylvania) continued to be well-attended, with catechetical classes held Friday evenings and Saturdays. There were occasional reports of members having difficulties because of their views, but the official community developed a form of accommodation with the state that was on the whole acceptable to the [[Communist Romania|Communist authorities]]. The church leadership was reluctant to complain about state interference if it meant losing any of its "privileges", which included travel to conferences abroad by 1980. The international Adventist community, which has given careful attention to its churches in Romania, acquiesced in this posture, seeking to resolve problems as quietly and responsibly as possible, a strategy dating back to the 1930s.<ref name="Pope186"/> Individual members, though, went further sometimes: eight Adventists were arrested in summer 1979 for printing and distributing religious literature; the police stated they had printed 10,000 copies each of fourteen different titles, mainly on state presses.<ref>Deletant, Dennis. ''Ceaușescu and the Securitate: Coercion and Dissent in Romania, 1965-1989'', p. 229. M.E. Sharpe, 1995, {{ISBN|1-56324-633-3}}.</ref> In 1985, Dorel Cataramă was sentenced to fourteen years' imprisonment for theft despite his factory's declaration that no property was missing. By late summer 1986, with four of Bucharest's nine Adventist churches demolished, some strain had come between official church and state (''see [[Ceaușima]]'').<ref>Ramet, Sabrina Petra. ''Social Currents in Eastern Europe'', p. 166. Duke University Press, 1995, {{ISBN|0-8223-1548-3}}.</ref> With the [[Romanian Revolution of 1989|collapse of the Communist regime]], a new publishing house opened in 1990 and the Romanian Adventist College of Health in 1991. Despite the wartime and Communist-era difficulties it experienced, Adventism had grown faster in Romania by this time than elsewhere in Europe,<ref name="land252"/> reaching some 70,000 members and over 500 church buildings by the early 1990s.<ref name="Pope186"/>
[[File:Adventist-church-lehliu.jpg|thumb|left|The Adventist church building in [[Lehliu Gară]], [[Călărași County]].]]
[[File:Biserica adventista Giulesti.JPG|thumb|An Adventist church in [[Giulești]], [[Bucharest]]]]

==Education==
The church runs a university-level [[Adventist Theological Institute of Cernica-Ilfov|Adventist Theological Institute]] at [[Cernica]], three high school-level seminaries and a post-secondary health school at [[Brăila]]. Several associations related to the church operate in Romania: the [[Adventist Development and Relief Agency]], the Adventist Ministry to College and University Students, Health & Temperance and the [[Adventist Youth Society]]. Its radio station, ''Vocea Speranței'' ("The Voice of Hope"), broadcasts from Bucharest, [[Brașov]], Constanța and [[Timișoara]]. Its publishing house produces the monthly magazine ''Curierul Adventist'' ("The Adventist Courier") and the religious-cultural bimonthly ''Semnele Timpului'' ("Signs of the Times"). Every three months, it emits some 55,000 copies of Bible study guides for adults, youth and children. It also prints theological works, informational pamphlets and school lessons.<ref name="culte"/>

==Associated denomination==
A small but related group, the Reformed Adventists in Romania, originates in a schism brought about in early 20th-century United States. This church spread to Germany and reached Romania during [[World War I]]. Members, who are convinced they are living in the [[Eschatology|Last Days]], object to oaths, military service, and reportedly marriage, probably because Saint Paul enjoins Christians to abstain from normal marital relations during the end times. They were involved in a confrontation with the Communist state (which declared them illegal in 1948) and the official church, to which they were an obvious embarrassment and whose leaders they felt very strongly were too closely linked with the regime.<ref>Pope, p.192</ref>

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
* Land, Gary. ''Historical Dictionary of Seventh-Day Adventists''. Scarecrow Press, 2005, {{ISBN|0-8108-5345-0}}
*Earl A. Pope, "Protestantism in Romania", in Sabrina P. Ramet (ed.), ''Christianity under Stress. Vol. III: Protestantism and Politics in Eastern Europe and Russia: The Communist and Postcommunist Eras'', [[Duke University Press]], 1992.  {{ISBN|0-8223-1241-7}}

==External links==

*{{in lang|ro}} [http://www.adventist.ro Official site]

{{Christianity in Romania}}
{{Romanian religions}}

[[Category:Protestantism in Romania]]
[[Category:Religious organizations established in the 1860s]]
[[Category:Protestant denominations established in the 19th century]]
[[Category:Adventism by country]]
[[Category:Seventh-day Adventist Church]]