THE RISE AND FALL OF THE SABBATH IN NEW ZEALAND 1860-2000

Abstract

This article focuses on church voices striving in the public arena to
preserve a weekly ‘holy day’. However, by 2000 Sunday was simply part
of a weekend ‘holiday’. The first part of the article highlights the ongoing
strength of church voices on the sabbath issue in the earlier part of the
twentieth century even as the sabbath concept was slowly eroding. The
second part of the article notes an accelerating secularisation of Sunday
in the later part of the twentieth century and the gradual disappearance
of sabbatarian voices in public debate.