Efforts to establish an Adventist congregation in the small European country have been ongoing for 40 years.
The first official Seventh-day Adventist Church in Andorra was inaugurated on May 9, 2015.
For more than 40 years, several efforts were made to establish the first Seventh-day Adventist Church in Principat d’Andorra, a very small country in the middle of the Pyrenean mountains, gapped between Spain and France. The prayer and work of a few dedicated families living in Andorra and Spain have produced the establishment of Associació Cristiana Adventista d’Andorra.
The government of Andorra has existed with a peculiar arrangement since 1269 A.D., as decreed in the Pareatge Agreements. The country has two heads of state or co-princes; one prince is the president of France, and the other is the bishop of Urgell (Catalonia, Spain). Although both princes reign and develop external relations for the nation, neither of the princes actually govern.
The Andorran Constitution warrants non-discrimination for religious reasons, and freedom of cult and religion, but there is a specific mention that grants protection and preeminence to the traditional church of the nation. These laws explain why the nation's first Adventist Church has had to be registered as an "association."
The “Associació Cristiana Adventista d’Andorra” (A.C.A.D.A.), was officially registered and recognized by local authorities who helped the association meet the requirements of the Andorran legislation.
After the recognition of A.C.A.D.A. was granted, members were allowed to open a facility that could be used for worship.
Pr. Jesús Calvo, president of the Spanish Union of Churches officiated the inauguration. Andorra is part of the Spanish Union of Churches (UAE) in the Inter-European Division. The church's pastors, Pr. Daniel Posse, and his spouse Sandra Patrone, were also present. The couple also pastors nearby churches in Lleida and Aitona, Spain.
Nearly 25 Sabbath keepers are worshiping every week in the new church.
