Click here to access the updated Reaching the Nations country profile for Saint Kitts and Nevis. The Church has maintained a presence on the islands since 1985 although there is only one official branch at present. Membership growth has been essentially stagnant for more than a decade. There were 211 members in the country as of year-end 2017. See below for the Future Prospects section of the article:
Attempted mission outreach expansion in the 2000s only endured for half a decade before coming to a close in 2010 and produced mixed results, as only one official congregation remains, member activity rates remain low, and local priesthood leadership is extremely limited. Efforts to establish a self-sufficient congregation in Nevis continue to be frustrated due to low receptivity, few active members, and priesthood leaders who move away from the island. The consistent assignment of a senior missionary couple may address these issues without compromising the limited self-sufficiency developed in Basseterre. However, local members will need to take responsibility for finding, teaching, and preparing prospective members for baptism and lifelong discipleship for real growth to be achieved.
79 comments:
Excluding Temples - What are the "Missionary" change announcements that people foresee for this coming General Conference? Two rumors I've heard is that Full Time missions will get shortened again and that the Word of Wisdom is going to get modified to allow coffee and tea drinkers (covering everyone in Latin America) to get baptized and go to the temple.
Neither will happen, the last time the times spent serving were modified was 38 years ago due to a US economic downturn, and the second one is DOA on account of doctrine and scripture.
Both unlikely. I can see a few changes made to the missionary program:
Firstly, I believe that lowering the missionary age for Sisters to 18 years is an option. I also believe that Sisters may receive a choice between 18-month and 24-month missions.
The second change I could foresee is an adjustment in regard to senior missionaries. Currently, senior missionaries carry the bulk of the cost for their missions, which has basically restricted service to couples from North America, Australia/New Zealand, and western Europe. With the Church becoming more international, and many thousands of active older couples now located in other parts of the world, I would love to see that senior couples would be able to receive support from the general missionary fund of the Church.
Thirdly, perhaps as a result of the first to changes, it would be good to see smaller, more "agile" missions in which senior couples and even younger missionaries take on more administrative responsibility in the day-to-day work. Having 600 or 700 missions with 150 missionaries max would allow Mission Presidents and their counselors to focus more on expanding outreach and strengthening the Church in less-reached areas, especially in places like Africa or Asia. When I served my mission during the peak of "the wave" in 2013, we had 328 missionaries at one point, and our MP was extremely busy just keeping us all in line - and likely had very little time for things like supporting local leadership development and exploring ways to increase outreach into new cities and towns.
I like the idea of the Church helping fund less financially privileged couples doing missions. However, the priority is to help less advantaged young singles do missions. This is a disparity between the US and wealthier nations and so many others.
Parable of the talents comes to mind.
And often the person with one talent seems to bury it. That is normal, natural human instinct.
The Gospel tries to conquer that.
May it continue.
Someone in my institute class just recently said they know someone who got their mission call and it said their length of service (meaning a broad change, not the individual of course) will be announced in the upcoming conference.
It seems there are always rumors pertaining to missionary calls/new missions/length of service every couple of years, especially right before General Conference. I remember rumored stories of missionaries being personally called by President Hinckley to be among the first in new nations for 3-year service.
Guess we'll find out in a few weeks.
That sort of went around last October. Have also yet to see the picture of the Mars rover Curiosity coming over a hill and finding a temple in the valley. That rover done died a couple weeks ago anyway so whoever posted it may redo it.
When PR China's flag went up at the MTC 21 hours before last October's conference got underway, rumors spread fast. But since there are not enough flagpoles for all the nations to be displayed at one time they rotate them so it really meant nothing.
Eric S, was it a man or a woman who received the call? I wonder if they're going to standardize the length so men and women serve equal durations.
I hear rumors like the mission length or location every few years.
Maybe visa requirements for some Nations may be shorter, but then a person may serve part of the mission in more than one country.
Matt--I don't see contact info on your blog so am commenting instead of emailing you. Wondering if you know of a place online that lists all of the current temple presidents and when their terms finish (to better predict which temples will be getting new temple presidents announced next month)? Thanks!
Almost all temple presidents serve for three years, some are shortened due to health, and some have to change at odd times. These can be found on thechurchnews.org but for Google use ldschurchnews.org, type in site:ldschurchnews.org new temple presidents called
I may have screwed it up, if .org does not work, try it as a .com
Rick Satterfield's website, https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/
is also a good resource for looking up temple presidents. There isn't a complete list, but if you go to the individual pages for each temple, there is a section with a list of all the previous temple presidents and the years they have served, including the current ones.
As a former custodian at the MTC who used to take down flags at the end the day, I can tell you that the flags they put up are purely random, only about a third can go up at once. Whoever was in charge of the buying the flags and labeling them did a bad job. Some of the countries were mislabeled, misspelled, or not labeled by their correct name. Countries like Mali and Senegal have never been added, and I doubt they will be. For some reason, the flag of Sao Tome and Principe was also there, despite there never having been missionary outreach in this nation. The Chinese flag had always been in the mix ever since the new MTC buildings were constructed. Someone also told me about the flag going up the day before October conference and I literally laughed.
Anita, if you want to email me at sarrott@yahoo.com I can send you a list of the info you want.
A rumor I heard is a more literal interpretation of of the word of wisdom? No Hot tea and coffee, but iced tea and cold coffee ok? I don't think that will happen. Mission length changes are more possible. Maybe civil marriages be done shortly before a temple sealing like we do in other countries. (Maybe require it within a week or so). Many more temples. More options for church schools. More updates on the "Come Follow Me" program. Increased focus on scripture and the savior in talks and the new youth program, including more mission and temple prep, seminary changes. I see some of these happening somedaysand others I highly doubt will ever happen.
Okay - I just found a link to the brand new Newsletter: Saints & Scouts. It is for LDS Families who plan to continue with Scouting after 2019. https://mailchi.mp/a637ce5d1aa1/saintsandscouts?fbclid=IwAR3xtXAmOb1gpMgNPdLZviQf0LFVg3n_qHiVK5689D0VYJz34dTuOLrhXE8
The Seminary changes could go down Friday, aas I have heard that Elder Holland will be doing something that morning.
Youth program, that is certain last quarter of this year.
They did something regarding marriages last year I think.
Church schools: BYU-Pathway is already facilitating some of that.
Come, Follow Me is a work in progress, this year's book was based on a 52-week Sunday School course, but from here out it is about 26 weeks. So ther is more to come.
Scriptures/Jesus Christ: Has been building, the scriptures became more used beginning in the 80s according to a BYU religion professor. There was a rumor, based likely on someone seeing a BYU published booklet for a class that showed the Proclamation on the Family in verse format and having footnotes like you see on a page in the scriptures. Might be possible but they have said that everything in the Proclamation is already written in other scriptures anyway. Since 1880 there has been only two times when something has been canonized, 1978 and 1978, and while there will be more later, I don't see anything happening immediately or near term unless President Nelson has one the Lord wants in the printed scriptures.
The more liberal among those in the church bristle at that, haven't got to the bottom of why they would object other than some things that have recently happened which we have heard about..
Grant, it was a "friend's brother" mentioned by a fellow student. Another student mentioned hearing about sisters receiving calls with similar wording. I guess that begs the question: Does anyone know of someone directly that received this sort of call recently? Or is it all a "heard from someone who heard from someone" sort of thing?
With that being said, I do think there are more changes coming to the mission program in the near future. We've already seen some things already like the communications with family, online things to help prepare a time frame, etc.
This one happens each conference, or sporadically at other times of the year. While they usually make sure that everything is correct in a call letter, it is entirely possible that due to some technical issue that comes up, something gets by them and it leads to these rumors.
We have been hearing things for some time though about some general moves in terms of methods, that will come over time, it may not be at a general conference for some things but for something that affects when certain things are done then it might be there.
From William P
@James Anderson
Since 1880 there have been 4 canonized collections added to scripture.
1880- The Pearl of Great Price including the Articles of Faith. Not sure when the other other Joseph Smith bible translation sections were added.
1890-Official Declaration 1 ending Plural Marriage. D&C
1918- Joseph F Smith, The vision of the redemption of the dead. D&C
1978- Official Declaration 2. The lifting of the priesthood ban. D&C
I don't see why the church can't add the Q15 proclamations of The Family and The Living Christ to the Scriptures specifically the Pearl of Great Price. Also adding the Relief Society declaration and the Young Women's values/theme wouldn't hurt either. There is also a male version Purpose of the Aaronic Priesthood, found in the leaders handbook but similar is already in the D&C. I mean yes they have the same doctrines already found in our scriptures but so does The Articles of Faith and that's in the Pear of Great Price. Also it's up to the church membership to sustain the motion in general conference whether we will accept these or not-this is what happened in1880 with the Pearl of Great Price.
We need to do a better job at emphasizing lifelong discipleship in the conversion process. I remember the one person I baptized who was ordained to the melchizedek priesthood before I went home. He was also one of the few who read the parts of the Book of Mormon we assigned before our second meeting. I think missionaries need to emphasize more those preparing for baptism showing a pattern of reading the scriptures.
At present my understanding is that in Polynesia the word of wisdom is extra applied against most Kava taking, and maybe against mate in Argentina, but that is not fully clear. The only Word of Wisdom change I could see is a clearer directive on marijuana and when its use is ok. The other is cannonization of the revekatiobs to Joseph F. Smith and Heber J. Grant that made temple entrance conditioned on word of wisdom abidance.
A new revelation on temple entrance I could see, but not likely.
I could also see President Oakes giving a seminal talk against abuse. While the Church has taken a stand against it more seems to need to be said.
Many youth (including me) go on missions paid largely by their parents. Maybe a "pay your parents mission" initiative could work. Another way to rebuce costs would be for a ward or branch to figure a way to house a senior missionary couple there at no cost to the couple. The only problem is that such branches probably could least afford it. My branch is helped by stake service missionaries but a senior couple living in the branch west of Chalmers would be able to do more outreach. That is one gripe I have with past senior couples too often they have lived in ritzy suburbs when assigned to the inner city. We need to live with the people we serve.
I know the stake service missionary program has been used in Africa and I know at least one senior couple has served in Zimbabwe from Zimbabwe. PEF and SRS have visions of economic srlf reliance and the max contribution of senior couples has been capped. When John H. Groberg was mission president most of his missionaries were young couples who worked as farmers while missionaries. We need more senior couples everywhere. Still I wonder if heslth or finances is the bigger hinderance.
The open calling home is probably a bigger plus for srnior couples than for youth, although I dont think senior couples were under the same regulations before.
Some changes to senior missions may come. However the option of helping pay for others go has already been mentioned at times. The length of service is already quite varriable. I could see something changing but I am not sure what or how.
To me it sounds like a move to resist the guidance and direction of the Prophet.
The 1918 revelation was not canonized until the 1970s. The same is true of a revelation to Joseph Smith. So cannonization does not need to involve recent revelation.
One possible change, a clear policy that every case of sexually abusing a minor should result in excommunication. The van Waggenen case where he was only disfellowshipped for a time seems to beg for this.
Kava in the US was a brand of coffee in the 1960s but it had disappeared by 1980. Don't know what was in the Polynesian drink or the one from Argentina otherwise.
There seem to be a lot of things that people bristle at that come from the prophets. Not everything has to be spelled out in a scripture, but at times going forward, a few things might, and there is always the distinct posibility that something new could come completely out of the blue regarding something that isn't on anyone's radar at the time it is announced as well.
I'll take my shot at creating a few General Conference rumours:
1. Energy Drinks added to Word of Wisdom
2. Reversal of Official Declaration 1 - the return of polygamy
3. Re-organization of missionary work with missionaries working under the direction of Stake 4. Presidents, District Presidents, and where needed Area Presidents. All mission presidents released.
5. Select temples to start opening on Sundays
6. Announcement of extremely large land purchase in Missouri
Edit - I accidentally put a 4 in the middle of one of the rumours. List should only go to 5
All of these have been talked about in conferences and elsewhere by the apostles and prophets. Energy drinks can be considered like coffee, they contain other stimulants as well as often double or more the caffeine found in coffee. President Hinckley in around 1990 literally brought down the house when he said that we don't need everything spelled out. 'Neither does it say anything about diving headfirst into an empty swimming pool or from an overpass onto the freeway'.
See last September's 'Face to Face for Young Adults broadcast from the Nauvoo Temple for a discussion relating to Official Declaration 1, although not mentioned, that relates to that.
There could always be things related to local missionary work, those things take time to get ironed out, they made local missionary work ward-run in 2002.
Hong Kong is already open one or two Sundays a month due to domestic worker needs. But I see it very rarely anywhere else happening.
Large land purchases in the thousands of acres were made as early as the 1970s in and near Adam-ondi-Ahman.
Take it with a healthy dose of salt, but I heard a rumor a few years ago that the biggest deterrent of senior couples serving missions was actually owning pets... food for thought.
I'm just thinking out loud here, but if widespread use is correlated to addiction, then coffee and tea are definitely addictive. To date, none of the revelations concerning the word of wisdom have been negated by revelation (including the story of Daniel in Babylon). As such, I personally don't think such prophetic negation will occur, albeit additions or clarifications may happen.
With how frequently the Brethren refer to the Proclamation and The Living Christ, I personally wouldn't be surprised to see either canonized.
President Hinckley *literally* brought down the house!?! How did I miss that part of Church history? I really thought I would have heard about the roof collapsing during conference!
#YesImPedantic
If you want to see or hear what happened, find 'The Scourge of Illicit Drugs' in General Conference.
Facebook is getting flooded today with multiple reports of newly called missionaries getting a statement with their mission call that their length of call will be announced at General Conference.
Tyler, I have heard the same thing (can't remember exactly where) about senior missionary couples and pets, yet on my mission I know of two senior missionary couples who brought their pets with them. One was a cat and the other a small dog.
Interesting information, MainTour. I guess the info I heard may possibly be correct. Interested to see what it may be in a couple of weeks.
Not seen any mission call rumors on Facebook, none of that type elsewhere either.
"Literally brought the house down." You mean figuratively.
Samson literally brought the house down, right? At least that is how the movie ends.
Why would polygamy come back?
Would we really be looking for that standard?
I haven't seen any of those rumors on Facebook. Do you have links?
Significant church growth developments underway in Cote d'Ivoire. Several new districts to be created in the Yamoussoukro Mission. Many new wards and branches to be organized nationwide. I bet we may have as many as 17 stakes in Abidjan by the end of the year. I believe Abidjan is a good candidate for the African city to first have two temples, with a temple in Youpougon District.
Also, @Eduardo Clinch, I'm pretty sure the polygamy prediction was a joke (as was my critique of the misuse of literally).
We will get some numbers on the Cote d'Ivore area in a few weeks when they rekease the statistics shortly after Conference.
Stake size being different in the international areas it takes more stakes for most countries to adequately staff a temple, so while we might not see a second or third temple in the very near term one will come in a few years then another a few years after that.
There is a Stake Center in Youpougon that has a very large field in the back. I thought that it would have been the the site for the Abidjan Temple, as it is much larger than the land behind the Cocody Stake center. I suspect one day there will be a temple here. On Google maps, it looks like the field has been used to host at least one stake conference, a space much larger than the chapel to seat the stake. I have thought it kind of unfair that Abidjan and Kinshasa have smaller temples despite the large growing membership, and a city like Rome with only five wards gets a medium/large sized temple. So, hopefully high attendance will soon warrant a second temple in Abidjan and Kinshasa.
https://www.google.com/maps/@5.3307572,-4.0597373,3a,75y,61.44h,89.81t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipOKZ_Iu5qi7qrwzlcx_zlKea0-d8CDUlJBodwU!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipOKZ_Iu5qi7qrwzlcx_zlKea0-d8CDUlJBodwU%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya331.48328-ro0-fo100!7i8000!8i4000?hl=en
Mission calls to be shorten? Multiple people posting to the FB Group LDS Followers of Jesus Christ. Big announcement coming. https://www.facebook.com/groups/LDSFOLLOWERS/
Thanks for clarifying the jokes, Grant. I am so used to seeing, hearing, trying to mitigate, and somewhat apologizing (in both senses) for so many tired misconceptions about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, both malicious and ignorant, when I observe smoke I try to avoid the inevitable fires of the damned.
Again, the Caribbean could use better missionary approaches. Methods. Personnel.
Hello again, everyone! I wanted to weigh in here. I have to admit to being intrigued by the idea that some missionaries' letters indicated further details on their calls will be coming in General Conference. If that's true, it would be a revival of what traditionally took place in early Church history, where the Prophet Joseph Smith and President Brigham Young would announce mission calls and the details thereof over the pulpit. It will be interesting indeed if that turns out to be the case.
That said, the thing I have heard most about remains President Nelson's temple expansion plans, as I have mentioned previously. I am personally hoping all of the preliminary groundwork has been done to enable President Nelson detail the extent and timing of his plans, and even if that does not occur, what I have heard has me convinced that at least a dozen new temples could be announced, but certainly more than that are possible. And if a dozen or more temples are announced, I believe many of them will be a comparable size and design to the Yigo Guam, Praia Cabo Verde, and San Juan Puerto Rico Temples, that could easily obtain government approval and be constructed within a matter of 2 years or less.
I would also personally welcome the canonization of The Family: A Proclamation to the World and The Living Christ: The Testimony of the Apostles, whether as new sections of the Doctrine and Covenants, new Official Declarations, or being added to the Pearl of Great Price. I have had a feeling for a while now that might happen. But with that said, I have been wondering about something: Is the canonizations for either really necessary? The Lord has told us a few different times that anything spoken by those whom He has chosen and ordained to represent Him has His seal of approval, and constitutes scripture.
With that in mind, technically speaking, anything said by the Brethren in General Conference, or any official statements released or articles written by any of the 15 men we sustain as prophets, seers and revelators, is scripture and has the approval of the Lord, and should be treated as such. I would love to see the impact that would occur in the Church on a global scale if every member, as individuals, and within their families, took that view of the words of the prophets and apostles. But I say that as a personal observation, and I am sure there are some who would disagree with me, as is their privilege to do.
In terms of other changes, I do not think the service length of missions for young men will change unless and until the Lord, through His prophet, either repeals the individual mandate that “every worthy young man should serve a mission”, or unless President Hinckley’s statement that a young man’s missionary service in essence constitutes a tithe on the first 2 decades or so of his life is corrected, clarified, or retracted. I have heard a few other suggestions about what could be coming down the pike, but I am not sure whether any of them would be feasible.
I know that I have mentioned in previous threads a theory that a change in the composition and number of Quorums for the area seventies of the Church may be in order. Although none of the current Quorums are anywhere near 70 in terms of their numbers, there is extensive travel involved in enabling the current members of each Quorum to meet together, if and when that has been needed. I am not sure how or if that might factor in to any such decision, but I wanted to throw that out again while we are discussing potential changes. Within the last 14 months, President Nelson has demonstrated a willingness to think outside the box, and do things differently if that makes the Church run more efficiently and effectively for its’ worldwide membership. With that in mind, almost anything is possible.
And although I do think it is amazing to hear the buzz surrounding General Conference, I also wonder and worry to a certain degree that the buzz around what could happen may be taking away the focus from each of us individually getting everything we can out of whatever will be occurring in General Conference. We may be looking beyond the mark and setting ourselves up for missing something that could be important to us as individuals and families if that is the case.
Within a week or ten days prior to General Conference, I like to start praying about specific concerns and questions I have, then following that up with listening carefully to everything said in General Conference, and I usually find by that method that I get more out of General Conference. It’s an approach I would certainly recommend for any individual or family who is facing any type of concern or question at this time. And for those who choose to do so, I believe they will find the answers they are seeking, and that they will be prepared to get everything out of General Conference that the Lord intends for them.
That said, there have been an impressive number of Church news stories published and temple developments reported. Among the most significant latest developments is the fact that the Church News has begun sharing articles detailing the assignments of newly-called temple presidents, which is being done a month in advance of what we saw last year, and well ahead of what we saw prior to the beginning of President Nelson’s prophetic administration 14 months ago. So this is yet another example of President Nelson being well ahead of the curve.
I also have a theory (which has not yet been substantiated) that President Nelson could be headed out on another leg of his ongoing Global Ministry Tour within a week following the conclusion of General Conference, and that part of that tour, if it occurs, is likely to involve the dedication of the Kinshasa DR Congo Temple, which is set for the Sunday after General Conference.
You can catch up on any or all of these developments (including my analysis of the recent announcement about President Nelson’s 95th birthday celebration) on my blog. With my ongoing thanks to Matt for continuing to allow me to do so, I again share the address of my blog below, for any who are interested in reading the latest posts I have published there.
http://stokessoundsoff.blogspot.com
In the meantime, I’d also like to thank Matt for this latest report on the growth of the Church in St. Kitts and Nevis. As I have previously mentioned, my older sister’s family returned to the United States within this last year following the conclusion of her husband’s participation in an accelerated medical school program. According to what I have heard from my sister, although the membership of the Church fluctuates on that island depending on a variety of factors, the Church is strong on that island.
We are certainly blessed to be living in a day when so many wonderful things are occurring in terms of the expansion of the Church, aren’t we? I’d like to again thank Matt for all the great work he does to keep us all informed of such developments as they occur.
https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/seminary-program-change-2020
I wonder how we will that will affect those wanting to graduate semminary and are caught in the transition. Also in our school district they they trimesters, but the students only have released time for two of the three trimesters. Some students may miss the first half of the New Testament except at Sunday school.
Well, the seminary announcement certainly was less significant than the hype leading up to it suggested.
Another posting, they are likely aware of screwy school schedules and after the general announcement today there will be other communication to follow.
But here is that additional posting.
https://www.lds.org/si/seminary/home-centered-seminary-supported-scripture-study?lang=eng&fbclid=IwAR3wLuCy7PQtJmAbYBscVRhq2HUeLVDiWQlgupet9nRoYZbMr4rEaPMBznY
Just some additional thoughts from me: In conjunction with this announcement, members of the Church Board of Education noted that they were focused on making the change now, and worrying about the logistics of it all after the fact. But in addition to that, the First Presidency never even considers making such announcements unless they have some idea of the details on how it will work logistically on a global scale. I for one welcome this change.
As I mentioned in an earlier comment, I am anticipating there will be at least one more temple-related announcement prior to General Conference, but that is just a theory on my part. We live in very exciting times when some new development is announced by the Church at least once every couple of weeks, and I can't wait to see what's next.
Seminary graduation has never been conditioned on particular study. The people a year ahead of me in school had the Book of Mormon twice.
They only made three things necessary for graduation in the last few years:
Read the entire book of scripture being studied (Old Testament required only 335 select chapters)
75% attendance
Pass an assessment at the end of each semester (like a final)
The new curriculum is going to be more doctrinally focused than ever, loosely following sequential teaching that has gone on, so a grouping of lessons may skip around a bit on occasion in the same book of scripture. This will help realize the potential of 'doctrinal mastery' that replaced scripture mastery in 2016.
We never ever had assessments.... maybe because I'm from the east coast and we had early morning seminary (not release time seminary as part of school).
This is a great thing! I think the best time to align is Jan 2020. With the change to the youth programs happening at the same time, the Old Testament second half not being as vital in our day as others and aligning to the Book of Mormon study unifies Sunday School, Family study and Seminary wil be extremely impactful.
The assessments are only from 2015 on. There is also a pre-assessment at the beginning of the year that is not counted and also optional for the teacher, that allows everyone to gauge what they know already as the school year begins.
My high school had release time seminary and the only rule was you needed to attend 80% of the time to graduate. My buddies and I figured out that you could have unlimited tardies and still graduate, so I would usually show up with 5 minutes left of class so I could sign the roll. Then, on a Sunday at the end of senior year they had a party for people who graduated from seminary at a chapel in my high school boundaries. I showed up long enough to get some free pizza and soda and left. That's all I remember about seminary.
So, I gather from the posts that they've made changes and now kids have tests and have to read to graduate? Probably makes more sense, although the perception I had growing up is that very few of my friends actually cared about seminary graduation and that it was more a thing to make the parents proud. My only motivation to graduate seminary was so that my parents wouldn't get upset at me. Does BYU require seminary graduation to attend? I remember applying to BYU because my Dad really wanted me to go there, and I was accepted. However, I don't recall whether seminary graduation was a requirement.
Here's the full announcement to Seminary teachers: https://www.lds.org/si/seminary/seminary-curriculum-calendar-change?lang=eng
Hey Unknown: did your attititude towards learning and sharing the scriptures improve after seminary?
I attended four years of early morning seminary. Sometimes I was 5-10 minutes late (I only lived 5 minutes from it), but I believe it helped me spiritually and later helped me transfer into BYU-Provo.
Too bad, I think, that you did not attend more. I hope you get more out of Gospel study now.
coachodeeps, did you mean "the New Testament" above? It's my understanding that, starting this August, seminary students will be on the same "Come Follow Me" schedule as the rest of the Church, and AFAIK, the "Come Follow Me" course of study for this year is the New Testament. Just wanted to clarify. As another comment in general related to this discussion, I had long held the belief that what I got out of seminary largely depended on what I put into my preparation for and participation in it.
I see this change as the Church putting more responsibility on each seminary student for their personal learning, and that is confirmed in the fact that all such students will have to maintain their study of the designated curriculum during the summer moths when school is out to be all caught up and ready to resume their classroom seminary study on schedule when school again resumes.
And all of the changes the Church has announced lately seem to be geared towards two purposes: implementing practices and policies that will unify the Church membership as individuals, families, students, congregations, and worldwide, and placing more personal responsibility on each member, family, and organization for their Church preparation and the practicing of their faith. With that in mind, this is not only a welcome change, but one long overdue. I have heard numerous reactions to the effect of wondering why things have not been done this way all along.
I fully believe that these changes will strengthen us as individuals, families, congregations, etc. if we take full advantage of the opportunity to start doing things in a higher and holier way. It has been well said that "you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink it." There are some who are set in their ways and patterns, and who aren't comfortable with change, and they may not get as much out of these changes as will those fully committed to following the offered guidance.
The choice has always been ours to make, and I hope we make the right one. I say that just as much (if not more so) for myself than for anyone else. It is all too easy, I think, for us to see things other people are doing wrong, while overlooking the faults of our own. That has been a consistent and constant struggle for me of late, and is one of many things I need to fix in my own conduct.
That said, I am grateful to be able to participate in these comment threads here on this blog and on my own, and I thank you all again for increasing my understanding of and appreciation for the topics discussed here. I hope that my contributions, such as they have been, are likewise helpful to many of you who read them. My thanks again to Matt for providing us this blog to enable such discussions to occur, and for all his hard work in his various reports here.
The Church News just announced the TBA mission president for the Russia Yekaterinburg Mission. They are from the Stavropol Group. I've never heard of a mission president being called from a group. The bio states that it is part of the Moscow Russia Stake, which I'm pretty sure is incorrect. I believe it's part of the Russia Rostov Mission.
https://www.thechurchnews.com/callings/2019-03-23/new-mission-leaders-called-to-serve-in-argentina-philppines-russia-and-other-areas-around-the-world-49304
I made the first comment about what conditioned seminary graduation, but I graduated with 100% attendance, and we had strong policies against tardies. The rules have clearly gotten more difficult since I was there. I could have graduated under the current rules, but many of my classmates would have had to put in more effort.
@Cory Ward - a search for Stavropol near Moscow points to an area in the southeastern part of Moscow. It is possible there is a group in that area.
Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as ordered by continent as of 2019 (I think this is right):
1. North America
2. South America
3. Africa
4. Europe
5. Australia/South Pacific
6. Asia
Is that right?
Due to dynamic growth in Africa I am trying to put it into context...
Is it number three already?
Ahh, I wasn't accounting for the Phillipines! That puts Africa in number 4, by most reckoning. Phillipines is normally lumped with Asia. Not the Pacific Isles, or South Pacific, which gets tricky when islands straddle the equator.
Hawai'i is still part of North America even though it can be closer to a lot of the South Pacific geographically and culturally.
These stats aren't quite 2019, but they're just a year or two old.
1. North America (9,254,663 members; 18,167 congregations)
2. South America (4,038,057 members; 5,546 congregations)
3. Asia (1,181,411 members; 2,124 congregations)
4. Africa (578,944 members; 2,010 congregations)
5. Oceania (552,825 members; 1,251 congregations)
6. Europe (512,269 members; 1,408 congregations)
7. Antarctica (12 members, all of whom are penguins)
Before looking up those numbers, I didn't realize how close Africa, Oceania, and Europe were in numbers. It's kind of remarkable, actually. Of course, the growth rates differ, as do the activity rates (as demonstrated by the congregation stats). If I weren't so lazy today, I'd do a comparison to see how the GAs' origin ratios line up with membership location ratios.
Before looking up those numbers, I didn't realize how close Africa, Oceania, and Europe were in numbers. It's kind of remarkable, actually. Of course, the growth rates differ, as do the activity rates (as demonstrated by the congregation stats). If I weren't so lazy today, I'd do a comparison to see how the GAs' origin ratios line up with membership location ratios.
Penguins! Nice touch! Hehehe!
Yep, it's the Mormon *colony* you hadn't heard of (see what I did there?).
Chile, for one, makes serious claims on Antarctica, and mans permanent posts there. If there are 200 chilenos there most of the year, willing to bet there are members there, the penguin rich continent.
Any new units created today?
This is John Pack Lambert. More interesting to me is that Africa has nearly as many units as Asia with half the members. Of course three branches could at times have the same number of active members as one ward so figuring what the comparison means is hard.
I just finished reading one of the most indepth historixal geographical histories of boy scouting to date.
A few thoughts though. I have to admit I have been down on boy scouting of late and cheer the Church's decision to leave it. At the aame time it has more to do with never finding a way to join scouting outside the US and Canada than any decisions in the US.
So the big question to me is feelings about Church members choosing to stay with scouting after the end of Church sponsorship. My main take away is that the decision of the First Presidency to allow a flyer posted in the building as long as it lacks any church insignia or quotes from Church keaders is wise. Without allowing that there might have been some outside attempts ro quote past church leaders support of scouting which I think would have veen worse.
There is another issue often ignored that is going on. While the LDS Church soonsored the most troops, there were more boys enrolled through United Methodis troops. The big question on my mind is how will the united methodist threat to splinter over LGBTQ issues effect their sponsoring of troops.
Another issue rarely considered is that scoutings relationship to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was different in kind than with any other church.
While some evangelical Churches in the south have excluded Latter-day Saints as scoutmasters on theological grounds this is rare. Even then scoutmasters outside the restored church are usually volunteers more connected because of their own children in the movement than any connection with the sponsorer.
The other factor is that while the Catholic Church sponsors many troops, it has bever been their main youth program. At the same time some Catholic parishes have ended scout sponsorship of late without 8t being a major exodus.
Another factor is Catholic and Methodist triops almost certainly have boys of other faiths at higher rates than triops of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, although with so many troops I am not sure many know for sure.
Scoting has been decline since 1972. The number of children in the US has risen during that time but only from maybe 70 to 75 million, far below the nearly 50% rise in the US population. Since the 2013 changes to allow homosexual youth as members the rate of boy scout decline seems to have picked up, but how related this is is hard to say. Traillife is growing but no where near boy scout size.
What the exodus of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will mean for boy scouting is hard to say. It is happening just after admission of girls and so lots of changes are in place. Additionally it is hard to predict how many Latter-day Saints will stay with scouts. We will not have a strong answer soon either. This is because some youth who started may stay but recruiting the rising generation may be harder.
As I may or may not have mentioned before, I have access to a few different resources for the information I have provided both here and on my own blog. Here is a teaser from one of those resources: If you thought 19 temples being announced last year was an exciting development, then taking Elder Cook's reference to a ten-fold increase in the number of temples at its' word may be some indication of things to come, especially perhaps in the very near future. I have also indirectly confirmed that it is almost definite President Nelson will be outlining the extent and timing of his plans. Just another reason I suggest we all pay attention in General Conference. I think I should leave things at that for now.
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