Saturday, June 27, 2009

Update on Church Growth

Taiwan Reaches 50,000 Church Members

The Church News reported in a recently published article about the Church's 50th anniversary in Taiwan that Church membership in the country has reached 50,000. Today there are 102 congregations throughout the country, 10 stakes and two districts. Membership grows at a rate of around 4% a year and has increased by 20,000 in the past eight years. If membership growth rates remain constant Taiwan will have a projected 81,000 members in the year 2020.

11 New Stakes Created In June and Counting

It has been over a decade since we have had so many new stakes organized in so short a time frame. So far 11 stakes have been organized in the month of June, six of which were created from member districts. So far 25 new stakes have been organized this year.

The Church in Bosnia and Macedonia

The Church News provided interesting information about the Church in these two countries where the Church still has no official presence. It appears that both countries have groups established for members to meet in, but no branches. Macedonia only has one known family who are native Macedonians and Church members. Bosnia on the other hand had no reported Bosnian Church members and Church meetings consist of foreigners meeting throughout the country. Elder D. Todd Christofferson reminded members in Bosnia that they are laying the foundation for the Church in the future.

Recently Created Branches and Groups In Eastern Europe

A little over a year ago I reported on how the Church was aggressively opening new cities to the preaching of the Gospel in Eastern Europe. Only Mission branches or groups recently created are listed below. Meetinghouse locations and times are only available for both branches and groups on the country websites for Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, and Slovenia.

Branches

Kaposvár, Hungary
Khmel'nyts'kyy, Ukraine
Kremenchung, Ukraine
Pärnu, Estonia
Szczecin, Poland
Zhytomyr, Ukraine

Groups/Dependent Branches

Shkoder, Albania
Pula, Croatia
Békéscsaba, Hungary
Szolnok, Hungary
Tatabánya, Hungary
Jelgava, Latvia
Gorlitz, Poland
Kielce, Poland
Torun, Poland
Zamosc, Poland
Craiova, Romania
Novo Mesto, Slovenia
Banská Bystrica, Slovakia
Pavlohrad, Ukraine

5 comments:

Ricardo Prins said...

hi, i have news about the church in bahia, brazil:

last sunday (21/06) the coroa vermelha branch was organized, in the city of santa cruz cabrália (in the southern region of bahia). soon to be created is the porto seguro district, which will most like comprise the porto seguro branch, the eunapolis branch and the coroa vermelha branch.

Matt said...

Terrific News! I hope we see some more new branches and eventually districts in the northern part of Bahia as well.

Matthew Crandall said...

Estonia is seeing rapid growth, the branches in Parnu and Tartu have moved to better newer locations for church, not chaples, but definate upgrades. Church and temple attendance is up in both cities. attendence in tartu has avereraged well over 50 people for 3 strait months, after 3 more it will qualify for a new chapel.

JonErik said...

I attended Sacrament Meeting in Prague, Czech Republic two weeks ago. The branch meets on the ground floor of the villa that houses the mission office and mission president's residence. We were told to arrive early in order to get seats, which was true. The Sacrament meeting had probably 50 people in attendance, which included 8 tourists from USA and UK, and several had to stand. Sacrament speakers were a family from Utah who recently moved to Prague. The entire service was translated into English and we had headphones to hear the translation.

I spoke with several missionaries afterwards, and they said that the Czech Prague mission has had 65 baptisms this past year - which is nearly triple the annual baptisms from prior years. They were very motivated and are seeing more interest, within a very athiestic country.

Matt said...

That is great to hear about the numbers of members attending Church in Estonia. I hope more attend Church in Narva though, where there are less than 20 at Church on Sundays.

I am glad to hear that the congregation in Prague is doing well and that baptisms have been happening so much more frequently. I am surprised that we only have one branch for the entire city of over 1 million inhabitants. Hopefully we will see more Church interest in the population around Prague.