Dominican Republic
A new stake was organized in the northern Dominican Republic. The Navarette Dominican Republic Stake was organized from the Navarette Dominican Republic District and includes the following five wards and branch: The Esperanza, Mao 1st, Mao 2nd, Navarette 1st, and Navarette 2nd Wards and Sabaneta Branch. The new stake once comprised two separate districts based in Navarette (3 branches) and Mao (4 branches) until these were consolidated into a single district sometime in the mid-2000s. There are now 19 stakes and nine districts in the Dominican Republic. Several additional districts appear close to becoming stakes, including districts based Azua, Barahona, and San Pedro de Marcoris.
Ukraine
A district was discontinued in Ukraine. The Dnepropetrovsk Ukraine District was discontinued and branches in the former district are now directly administered by the Ukraine Dnepropetrovsk Mission. At one time the district consisted of four branches in the city of Dnepropetrovsk and two in Zaporizhzhia. Within the last couple years the two branches in Zaporizhzhia were consolidated into a single branch and one of the four branches in Dnepropetrovsk was closed. Full-time missionaries serving in the mission report that the discontinuation of the district was prompted to allow local leadership serving in district responsibilities to focus their efforts strengthening individual branches. Few convert baptisms and mediocre member activity rates have contributed to ongoing inactivity and leadership challenges in central Ukraine. Notwithstanding these challenges in central and eastern Ukraine, the LDS Church in Ukraine appears to have the highest member activity rates in Ukraine (32%) among Eastern European nations with at least 500 nominal Latter-day Saints. The Ukraine Dnepropetrovsk and Russia Vladivostok Missions are the only LDS missions worldwide which have no stakes or districts due to few members, low activity rates, and very limited numbers of local members capable of serving in leadership positions.
5 comments:
Sorry this is off subject but I wanted to ask you Matt, how accurate is this paper on church growth? http://www.lds4u.com/growth2/Index.htm (Note: the hosting website is anti-Mormon but the paper itself seems unbiased and legitimate, although I can find no mentions of Roger Loomis anywhere else.)
I agree that this paper is unbiased and an objective analysis of past LDS Membership growth trends. However, the paper is somewhat dated as it was presented in 2002 and LDS membership growth has been very linear over the past decade. I believe it provides a thoughtful and informative commentary regarding the narrow topic of membership growth in the LDS Church.
Matt,
I served in Dneprepotrovsk a few years back. Just curious. Who are your sources for all this information?
Sammy-
Full-time missionaries serving in Dnepropetrovsk are my source for the information relating to the discontinuation of the Dnepropetrovsk Ukraine District. Historical information regarding congregations in the area was retrieved from cumorah.com/atlas and my records for congregations in the area. The Dnepropetrovsk Ukraine District was originally organized in 1999 by the way.
The information is appreciated. It's nice to be able to easily keep up with what's going on in Ukraine. Where do you find the time to collect and post all this information? Do you work for the Church?
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