Update on Church growth

New Congregations Created in Taiwan

A ward and a couple branches were created in Taiwan recently. The Nantou Ward and the Mingchien Branch were created in the vicinity of the city of Nantou. Growth in the region south of Taichung has been rapid, evidenced by a district maturing into a stake in the region (Chung Hsing) in 2004 and a new stake in Taichung organized last year. The Taitung 2nd Branch was created in the Hua Lien District, bringing the number of branches in the district to six. There are only two districts in Taiwan and 10 stakes. The other district, the Ping Tung District, has five branches outside of the southern city of Kaohsiung . The temple in Taipei serves only the members in Taiwan. The Kaohsiung Stake has gotten quite large and I imagine it will split within the next couple years. The yellow squares represent wards, the green squares represent branches.




New Branch in Lviv, Ukraine

Located in western Ukraine, the city of Lviv has around 1,000,000 people who live in the metropolitan area. Up to this point, only one branch existed in the city and recently it was divided. Again, this along with the new branch created in St. Petersburg suggests that the Church in working to gain new converts instead of gathering the active members (see earlier post about Church members per unit). The name of the new branch's name, the Sykhivs'ka Branch, comes from a southern suburb of the city.


Branch Created in St. Petersburg, Russia


Several years ago, the two districts in St. Petersburg were combined in preparation of a stake. The stake has not been organized as of yet, nor are there any stakes in Russia. I found it interesting that a new branch was organized in this city instead of allowing the existing branches to get larger to make wards in the future.