INTRODUCTION
The Church announced via letter on November 30th, 2023, to church leaders worldwide that the minimum standards for the creation of new wards and new stakes and the realignment of wards and stake boundaries will be updated, effective January 1st, 2024. Unlike previous guidelines, the new requirements will be standard for the entire Church and not have a differentiation between the Church in the United States and Canada and the Church outside of the United States and Canada. Criteria for creating and realigning wards and stakes will also include a new "participation measure" which is to aid in the assessment of the strength of wards and stakes when new units or boundary realignments are submitted for approval to Church Headquarters. The participation measure is designed to help identify "members who participate in a meaningful way and to help evaluate the strength of a boundary proposal." Participating members are considered members on Church records who:
- Pay a full or partial tithe
- Hold a current temple recommend
- Have a calling in the Church
- A new member who attends sacrament meeting in the first year after confirmation
- Enrollment in seminary for youth
The new minimum numerical requirements to create a new stake will be as follows:
- MEMBERSHIP: 2,000 (previously was 3,000 for US/Canada and 1,900 for other countries)
- ACTIVE, FULL-TITHE-PAYING MELCHIZEDEK PRIESTHOOD HOLDERS (AFTPMPH) CAPABLE OF SERVING IN LEADERSHIP POSITIONS: 150 (previously was 180 for the US/Canada and 120 for other countries)
- PARTICIPATING ADULTS: 500
- PARTICIPATING YOUTH: 100 (recommended but not required)
- NUMBER OF WARDS: 5 (unchanged requirement)
The new minimum numerical requirements to create a new ward will be as follows:
- MEMBERSHIP: 250 (previously was 300 for US/Canada and 150 for other countries)
- AFTPMPH CAPABLE OF SERVING IN LEADERSHIP POSITIONS: 20 (previously was 20 for the US/Canada and 15 for other countries)
- PARTICIPATING ADULTS: 100
- PARTICIPATING YOUTH: 20 (recommended but not required)
ANALYSIS
This announcement marks the most significant update to the minimum standards for the creation of new stakes and wards in decades. Previous updates have periodically occurred, and these updates have usually required higher standards for wards, stakes, and branches to operate. These updates have focused on the creation of high-quality new wards and stakes that are more resistant to future problems with sustainability with leadership. Efforts to make these standards more stringent have appeared to have been effective, as it is now rare for a stake to be discontinued within 10 years after its organization (and this has usually occurred due to members moving away). The November 30th letter does not mention whether there will be any changes to the current requirement of a certain ratio being achieved of AFTPMPH to general membership (which has been one for every 20 members). Furthermore, these changes do not appear to change the minimum requirements to organize branches in stakes (currently 20 total members and four AFTPMPH) which has been the same for the entire Church. As for standards for branches to operate in missions or districts, there is no minimum standard, although it is advised that there are at least one AFTPMPH and four total priesthood holders (of any office). There is no minimum number of branches required to create a district, although districts usually have at least three branches. No information was provided in regard to whether these changes may affect the requirements for the organization of language-specific wards and stakes.
The following information is based upon my own observations and opinions of more than 20 years of research and study regarding the growth of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Why Make the Requirements Universal and Why Now?
The Church outside of the United States in most countries has
significantly strengthened within the past 20 years. This has been attested by the increase in the number of stakes and thousands of reports from returned missionaries and local members and church leaders. It is now common for many wards in Latin America to be the same size (in terms of active members) as wards in the United States, whereas this use to be uncommon. In most countries
with the most Latter-day Saints, conditions have improved to where it is
more feasible for higher standards to be implemented for new stakes and
wards than it was previously. The Church has made increasing efforts to bridge the gap between the Church in the United States and Canada and the rest of the world. Some other examples include severing ties with the Boy Scouts of America and introducing a standardized program for youth and children for the entire Church, the announcement of scores of new temples in recent years outside of the United States and Canada in locations that previously would have been unlikely to have temples announced, and the implementation of worldwide post-secondary education programs to name some of the prominent examples I can think of). The decision to make the criteria the same for new stakes and wards to be organized regardless of geography will help continue to break down different standards and expectations for Church administration in the United States and Canada versus elsewhere. Also, there are many areas in both the United States and Canada where the previous minimum requirements to create new stakes and wards were too high to be met or were barely met with some creative boundary realignments and "gerrymandering" (such as in the maritime provinces of Canada, the Traverse City Michigan District, areas in New England with few members and slow growth). Finally, these changes will also result in a greater focus on ensuring congregations have a sizable number of active youth to permit greater fellowshipping with adolescents and children - a sensitive age group that requires special attention and care from local leaders.
How Will These Changes Affect Future Growth?
- These changes will undoubtedly result in fewer stakes and wards being organized outside of the United States and Canada, as it will take longer for total and active membership to grow to the point of being able to meet the minimal requirements.
- It is likely that stake, mission, and area leaders will organize more branches instead of wards due to less stringent criteria to organize branches instead of wards.
- Fewer branches will be reorganized into wards outside of the United States and Canada, but more branches in the United States and Canada may not be able to be organized as wards.
- Prospects for most branches in Europe that have been approaching previous standards to become wards are now unlikely to become wards due to small memberships and slow growth that have placed the new standards outside of reach to achieve within the foreseeable future.
- Significant boundary realignments to create many new wards and stakes in the United States and Canada appears unlikely except for areas that experience significant membership growth usually due to new move-ins (new-build communities in the Intermountain West in particular). Oftentimes, wards created in new neighborhoods have higher activity rates than in more established/older neighborhoods, so the reduction in the minimum number of members needed to create a ward may result in creating congregations that are not too large because the total number of members on the records is insufficient to create more wards. Moreover, the Church may discontinue fewer wards in areas where membership has dwindled due to move-outs and gentrification of membership.
70 comments:
My branch I think could have been a ward under the old outside the US standards. I think we have 230 members, and I think 17 or 18 active full tithe paying melchizedek priesthood holders who can serve in leadership callings. I am not sure about the tithe part though. We have 1 just baptized brother who will hopefully make it to Melchizedek Priesthood in about a year. We also have 2 perspective elders who left high school last year, and 2 brothers who attend, one who is not a Melchizedek Priesthood holder due to word of wisdom issues, another who I am not sure all the issues. We have another 3 brothers who are Melchizedek Priesthood holders but attend very rarely.
We are only at 8 participating youth, and 1 of those is seminary age and not in seminary, so our official number might end up at 7.
I doubt we are at 100 participating adults. We rarely brake 90 in sacrament meeting, but we have a lot of people who come semi-regularly.
I do think these are good standards overall.
There are two other major changes under President Nelson that made The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints more internationally uniform. Thse changes are not exactly US/non-US though.
To be fair,only one has fully happened. This was the creation of the new magazine system. Before there was one Church magazine in all languages except English, with English having an adult, a youth and a children's magazine.
Now all languages have 3 magazines.
The other changes is in the hymnbook. Here at present each language has a unique hymnbook.many hymns overlap but not all. The English has the most. The Enfglish also has about 4 US patriotc hymns, the British national hymn, and maybe 3 explicitly praising Utah hymns. The new hymnbook will be uniform in all languages. It is still 3 years away in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese and up to 7 for the other 46 initial 50 languages. Assuming they can stay on schedule.
The crazy thing is the hymnbook changes were announced 2 years before the magazine changes.
There are lots of reasons why the hymnbook changes are the second longest publicly known plan, the only one known longer,maybe, is getting Saints Vol. 4.
To start with thry wanted a wide base of submissions for the new hymnal, and wanted to broadly gauge what hymns people wanted. I think I read they got 11,000 hymn submissions.
The submissions closed in July 2019, but the process forward takes a lit of thought. Translating hymns is not easy.
Other things beyond closing hymns also take time. That would include working out use rights for any hymns you want to include that are under copyright.
There are other points of hold up.
Just as a matter of interest, who was the last apostle called that did not grow up in the Church (a convert)?
I took the following information from a cursory overview of the Wikipedia article on Quorum of the 12 chronology, so take this with a pretty big grain of salt.
It looks like the last apostle to have converted after turning 18 was Charles W. Penrose, who served from 1904 until 1925 (from 1911 until 1925 he was in the first presidency). Charles A. Callis, John A. Widtsoe, and Anthony W. Ivins were also born outside of the church but their families converted while they were still children (Callis and Widtsoe seem to have been younger than 10, and Ivins was an infant).
I think it great we should focus more on the people and less on numbers my husband no longer attends because he belives they care more about numbers then the people
This move raises the question of meetinghouses going forward. If it only takes 250 minimum members, assuming all th eother conditions are met, won't we see an increase in chapel building to accomodate the expanding number of wards on 2 hr schedules?
The list of criteria should include the word OR.
Matt, I think the biggest question (which I haven't seen answered anywhere) is whether these requirements will be imposed retroactively on EXISTING units.
My ward in a midwest college town didn't meet the previous requirements for a ward, nor does it meet the current requirements. It doesn't have 20 AFTPMPH. It doesn't have 1 for every 20 members. It doesn't have 100 participating adults. It doesn't have 20 participating youth.
Yet, my stake leaders are currently talking about these new requirements as though they are simply reporting hurdles for maintaining (or expanding) existing units. Talks of counting ministering assignments as callings in my ward, for example. This, in an effort to FURTHER split existing units by maximizing the number of AFTPMPH. In other words, using these minimum requirements to evaluate existing wards seems to be completely off the radar of my local leaders. Is the church going to evaluate existing units?
I remember before the Fredericksburg Virginia Stake split they had 15 wards and had even called 15 high counselors to help cover everything because they had robustly active members but were still shy of the 6,000 number. It didn't makes sense for the stakes to the north and south to give a ward because of existing stake strength and geography. Those last couple years of hitting the threshold rough when by all other measures they were ready to split.
I don't think that happens to often, but there may be some stakes that tomorrow could split with the new announcements. There are always local church leaders that look for any and every reason to split and grow even if it isn't technically in the best interest for long term health. I could see some of those going through. I could also see the combining of branches into wards to hit the arbitrary numbers needed as that 2,000 number and 150 is way more manageable than the 3,000 and 180.
My father is in leadership in Northeast Arkansas, they are already trying to finagle if they can create a new stake in north-central Arkansas or have Jonesboro have their own stake so they don't have to dive down to Little Rock all the time.
The Prosper Texas Temple has been renamed the McKinney Texas Temple, and preliminary information about the temple, including its' location and size, has been released:
https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/mckinney-texas-temple-site-announced
My thanks once again to you all.
There are large wards in Provo that have few active youth. My ward has about 400 members, and less than 20 active youth, but that is not because of not enough actives, we are in an area where there are a lot of student rentals. Few homes are really large enough for larger families, most were built on the 1940sw with a few older ones still in and apartments can only handle couples with 1-2 kids at most, few exceptions.
The lack of available places for new meetinghouses will also factor in. Talkd with a stake president and one bishop one day and that is where I heard this, maybe three non-YSA stakes in 20 years but that was due to some areas filling in, some recently-constructed apartments by the Frontrunner station (old A&Y lumberyard lots and the sale of an industrial building led to that), The other was west of the freeway, the west and south areas are growing but some areas still do not have the space for meetinghouses.
A statement I believe by Elder Christopherson included in the Church News article says that current units will not be held to the new standards, but that new units will be, the way he says it suggests that if you change boundaries all resulting units will be evaluated against the new standards.
The youth numbers are just a guideline, not a rule. There are lots of places where they will be hard to reach without either making vetmry large units by membership or drawing very irregular unit boundaries.
I do know at times in some places there has been a creation of essentially magnet wards for families with youth.
My branch has maybe 8 active youth. My parents ward has 26 youth in seminary. They are in the same stake but not adjacent. The ward between us has over 600 people on its records but maybe 85 at most in sacrament meeting.
My branch is also at 85 or so in sacrament meeting.
Great News this weekend out of California. It has been brought to my attention that the Temecula California Stake has split yesterday to become the Temecula California North and South Stakes.
Temecula California North Stake (2248506) – December 3, 2023
Chaparral Ward (266027)
French Valley Ward (474568)
La Paz Ward (Spanish) (555665)
Lake Skinner Ward (2038382)
Meadowview Ward (199214)
Rancho California Ward (179523)
Temecula YSA Ward (448338)
Temecula California South Stake (420328)
Butterfield Stage Ward (384410)
Morgan Hill Ward (1896172)
Pauba Ward (496626)
Redhawk Ward (264601)
Temecula Creek Ward (241687)
Temecula Ward (233382)
Vail Ranch Ward (2075393)
"Moreover, the Church may discontinue fewer wards in areas where membership has dwindled due to move-outs and gentrification of membership." I was hoping for the opposite. One ward in my stake has under 50 in regular attendance. I would guess 4 of the 6 wards have under 100 participating adults. I wish leadership was more willing to admit demographics have changed over the last 30 years and consolidate to make the wards a better environment for the remaining youth. No one wants to be the only priest in a ward or one of three active YW. Obviously this reality for much of the worldwide church but in N. America I'm all for consolidating small units that are geographically close.
It may be harder for Sunday meetings, but could they combine youth with nearby wards for midweek activities? If there are other wards nearby.
I agree that youth is really (seemingly) randomly distributed throughout the Church, especially in geographically smaller units. Yet, I believe the inclusion was made to allow new wards another way to reach the minimum criteria.
Since graduating from the YSA wards through marriage, I've served quite a lot with the youth in the three wards we've lived in (we're currently youth Sunday school teachers and had the exact same calling in our last ward, too). Our otherwise dwindling Midwestern ward, in the same stake as James', actually was very close to 20 participating youth. We have taken as many as 16 at a time on temple trips to Indianapolis, around two and a half hours away, and by that time a couple who were also very active had also just graduated and left on missions. Every single YM/YW-aged youth of an at least semi-active family in that ward had a temple recommend and everyone 14 or older was on track to graduate from seminary. I know of one young sister who now is no longer active from that cohort, but I could easily see her come back. By my count, seven former youth of that cohort are currently serving missions, although not all of their records are still in this ward since quite a few families have moved. I would say this is an example of a ward with randomly strong youth participation. If you have 60 to 80 people come to sacrament meeting and 20% of those are youth, that's a pretty high ratio.
Our current ward before it split, on the other hand, had around 250 members regularly attend sacrament meetings, but we only have about 15 active youth and only two missionaries serving (one of whom was actually never in our ward before her mission). Youth also constitute the only demographic group that has a sizable rate of inactivity. I'd say about half of our youth on record are active, as opposed to about 90% of adults. As a teacher, I also feel quite a bit worse about our youth here having developed daily habits of Gospel living and temple attendance, even though the majority live in the same town the temple is located in and they could just easily walk there. So both in terms of numbers and more subjective factors, this ward definitely has relatively underperforming youth. However, at the same time our primary is massive, and if we do well there, it could look very different for our youth in five years. My final observation on this topic would be that this shows just how extreme fluctuations can be with youth in the same ward as well. Sure, there are also fluctuations with other age groups due to people moving mostly, but the shorter the time period that one can be counted as "something" (e.g., missionary, youth, etc.), the more fluctuation there will be on the total number in that group. That is likely why this is a recommendation rather than a fix criterion, even though the youth is policywise the most important group in the Church and has been for a while now.
If you are talking about apostles who are converts to the church then Dieter Uchtdorf may be included. His family joined the church when he was a young boy, so I suppose he grew up in the church, but his family were new members. His grandmother met an older single Latter-Day Saint woman in a soup line who invited the family to church.
I like the idea of combining youth with nearby wards for activities. I live in a ward with only 5 active young men and about 12 active young women. We have other wards in our geographically compact stake with similarly small numbers of youth, and I think the experience for our lone active priest would be better if there were more activities with priests from other wards.
In fact, I don't think this idea of combining forces has to be restricted to the youth -- I am a counselor in the Elders' Quorum presidency and recently suggested to our quorum president that it might improve some of the quorum activities (we try to do 1 per quarter) if we sometimes combined with the quorum from the other ward in our building -- more people at an activity would both make it more enjoyable and open new possibilities in terms of things we can do. I'm not sure he will actually be willing to do so (it would mean having to collaborate with the other quorum's president, and while our quorum president has his strengths collaboration is not one of them), but I hope something comes of the idea.
--Felix
So, other than the numbers Matt notes in this post, what are the differences between a ward and a branch within a stake? Here are the two I can think of off the top of my head, unless something has changed in the past few years:
*Branch Presidency does not need to be high priests.
*Branch Presidency Counsellors are not authorized to conduct temple recommend interviews, except maybe rarely as approved by the Stake President on a case-by-base basis.
Any differences related to disciplinary councils, welfare, or anything else?
The new Temecula California North Stake has been updated today on the Meetinghouse Locator mapsite.
https://maps.churchofjesuschrist.org/stakes/2248506
I haven't logged in in a little while, but there are a few things I want to respond to:
I don't see the new standards necessarily leading to more meetinghouses. One thing to consider with the two-hour block is that it's easier to put more wards in a building, they just need the office space. (My stake center has one ward clerks' office, which has had to be shared by as many as four units. There was going to be another one, but the FHC moved in it before there was a need.)
Prosper to McKinney (I haven't seen the new location yet) may make more sense considering where the roads are going to be (with US 380 being upgraded to full freeway), and how best to access them.
I think this is going to lock Italy (where I served my mission) at ten stakes for a while. Most of them have five or six wards each, and the wards I served in wouldn't quite be wards under the new standards.
If you lower the standards needed for a ward, it'll cause more ward creation. If it'll cause more ward creation, it'll cause more chapel creation (at least in the US.) You can now essentially create 5 wards from 4 if membership totals were the only obstacle. In areas with high activity that could get done.
Granted chapel building has essentially been on pause for the past five years in most of the world when they transitioned from 3 hour to 2 hour church. What use to be a max of three units per building was able to get upped to 5, as many of the chapels are here in NW Arkansas. Who knows how many hundreds of millions in savings that has provided.
The church has seen great growth in activity rates for youth as they have turned to give them more responsibility. Having smaller minimum thresholds for wards will also lead to a greater proportion of adults holding callings of greater responsibility, which I think will also help increase activity.
I'm hopeful that the new standards will allow our branch to become a ward sooner than it otherwise would have--we've been hovering around 280 members for some time as it seems every time a family moves in another moves out. I think the 100 participating members is the primary benchmark we need to hit...and I think move-in growth will accelerate once our unit becomes a ward. I'm sure that many move-ins from out west to the DSM metro area avoid our unit in favor of wards even though our unit encompasses a thriving and growing suburb so as to avoid being in a branch.
Wards in the US & Canada:
I don't think it's so clear that there will be lots of more wards created in the U.S. and Canada due to this change. In general, I think leaders can tell when a ward is too large and they would actually believe a split/realignment is a good idea in addition to meeting the minimum standards before making a proposal. Given the data they have handy that was used to arrive at the new policy, I'd be shocked and disappointed if the change in minimums were not accompanied by more robust evaluation of proposals, including additional data points, more useful data, etc. Probably also improved guidance for those proposing and endorsing changes. If building space is not available, I'd bet the powers that be would provide appropriate feedback. There may even be policies about how much flexibility to give certain regions (i.e. the strictness when evaluating proposals may be appropriately non-uniform, especially at first). For the U.S. I think the change will primarily will result in 1) not having ridiculously large wards in certain cases simply because there are only 525 people on the rolls instead of the 600 required for a split, and 2) When a ward has 500 and can split, it's not soo ridiculously large that it is split immediately, resulting in weird ward boundary shapes so there are exactly 250 in each unit. For example, if the ward gets to 530 before splitting, coming up with a reasonable ward map that results in at least 250 in each ward is much more doable. In short, I think these changes will be largely be applied in sensible and prudent ways, informed by the holy ghost. In times past, I'm guessing some wards that barely hit 600 would be desperate for a split and be willing to deal with subpar boundary maps and demographics.
Stakes in the US & Canada:
I think the change will result in fewer stakes with a burdensome number of wards. I don't think we'll see a bunch of really small stakes created. However, I do think we'll see a lot fewer stakes with more than 8 Wards. This is probably a good thing for everyone involved. Better for areas with high concentrations of membership, better for rural areas, better for leaders and stake members.
I may be a bit hopeful, cause after all, mere humans are involved, but I think these changes could be a really good thing.
Worldwide:
One thing is for sure... over time comparisons of number of wards and stakes in US & Canada vs the rest of the world will be more apples to apples. This will help in all types of church administration and related data analysis, including placement of temples, etc.
LDS IN THE MIDWEST I LIVE IN Des Moines be glad you still have a branch
I am not sure those are changes. While serving my mission, I served in two branches, including one were my companion and I served as 1st and 2nd Counselors in the branch presidency. Both of these statements (high priest and recommends) were true in both branches. This was over 20 years ago.
It would be really nice if we could use these minimum requirements to extrapolate a "minimum active membership" statistic for the church worldwide (or even by area).
Globally, this won't work, based on what people are telling me about these minimum requirements not being applied to existing units. Seems there will be lots of wards and branches out there that won't meet these minimums but will continue to exist as wards and branches because of their creation date.
On the other hand, over time, and in local areas as stakes and new wards are created, we can be assured that the minimum thresholds are being met. That means that local minimum estimates of active membership can be estimated quite accurately. And those estimates can be used to extrapolate other nearby areas that have not had recent changes in units.
I'm guessing that despite the church's refusal to provide active membership statistics, the public will be able to closer approximate an accurate estimate of active membership given these changes in unit protocol.
I wish Groups were added to the meetinghouse locator. I know in Japan, while several branches and wards were recently dissolved a few years ago, many new groups were created instead. In fact a new meetinghouse was dedicated for a new group in Japan.
I wonder in other slower growth areas, creating more groups can be an interim solution to maintain or expand the church presence in their area.
If anyone is interested and knows how to read the most beautiful language on Earth (Brazilian Portuguese), at the link below you can check the neighborhood impact study and all the legal documentation required by municipal bodies for the implementation of our temple in Ribeirão Preto. In this document it is not yet possible to verify the architectural details of the building, but we can already observe the general design and layout of the rooms, the total size and the implementation details of the square around the temple.
https://www.ribeiraopreto.sp.gov.br/portal/planejamento/ccu
Looks as if the Midvale East Stake was dissolved this week (?)
OC,
Yes it would be helpful to have groups as part of the meetinghouse locator. However, it would be a lot to keep up. Many of these are temporary, some meet less than weekly (ie monthly or bi-monthly). Most of these do not meet at church owned/rented meeting houses. Many of these groups meet in private locations such as residences. Don't quote me, but I believe the local leadership create/dissolve these groups without having to get permission from Salt Lake.
Just like branches, some are YSA/SA, some are language, there's military groups, and some for other members distant from a meetinghouse.
Adam,
Yes Jonesboro wants it's own stake, but there's not much to pull from other than branches. I'm in the stake and use to live in that ward 20 years ago. Jonesboro is currently the largest ward in the stake, but surrounded only by branches. So a few of these branches will also need to become wards (one is close). Other than raw membership numbers, there appears to be no easing on requirements to become a ward. Consequently, I don't see it becoming a Jonesboro Stake anytime soon. However, I think it's good to have a vision for a Jonesboro Stake.
Since the creation of the stake, conference is already televised to the Jonesboro Chapel, and many of the stake meetings are handled through zoom. Stake activities still requires travel, but they tend to either be located in Searcy or rotate or split among Jacksonville (south units)/Searcy (central units)/Jonesboro (north units) with stake priesthood and auxiliary presidencies having a member from each of the three areas in each presidency.
One possibility of a split is return Jonesboro and adjacent branches to the Memphis North Stake (which is a closer stake center than Jacksonville). The rest of the Searcy stake has enough to be a stake on its own. The Memphis Stakes Split to create the Arlington, TN Stake. However, I don't see this in the near-term as all four of these stakes will have 5 or 6 wards each since the standard for becoming a ward practically remains the same. If one of these stakes were to change course and lose active members... So while it's capable of being realigned, it doesn't mean it needs to.
NLR and Memphis North each had 16 units prior to creation of Searcy Arkansas Stake. They both needed to split but couldn't on their own due to each having 8 or so wards with the remainder being branches. The Jacksonville building is used as the stake center as the Searcy building lacks capacity.
Some groups are on the meetinghouse locator. This might be the case when the church rents the a location. Examples of that in Germany are Passau & Frankfurt(Oder) (The Frankfurt close next to the border to Poland.)
When you click on them on the meetinghouse locactor only the address information is shown. The same is true for recently closed wards or branches. That makes it a bit difficult to know it if is a gorup or not.
https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/elder-patrick-kearon-called-quorum-of-the-twelve-apostles
https://www.eastidahonews.com/2023/12/church-of-jesus-christ-announces-new-member-of-the-quorum-of-the-twelve/
My last ward about 9 years ago has the Idaho Falls dead American sign Language group attached to it. That explains why I can find the ASL group on meeting house locator. How do they advertise groups for people to know about them?
The Idaho Falls 32nd ward is a traditional family ward with an ASL group. With ASL interpreters in sacrament meeting and their own separate 2nd hour classes. But I don't see the ASL as an option on meetinghouse locator.
I think Elder Kearon's choice is quite conservative. I truly believed that our new leader would come from Europe or Africa. Given his time serving in the Presidency of the Seventy, I can see him as a likely advisor to President Bednar in the coming decades. Time will tell if I'm right...
Interesting the questions on convert apostles earlier in the thread and seeing Elder Kearon announced today. He was baptized at the age of 26.
Daniel, Elder Kearon was born in Europe and has lived in Europe, the Middle East, and the United States, so he definitely qualifies as someone who can "add flavor" to the mix. They put him to work right away. He'll speak today at BYU-Hawaii's commencement and is expected to meet the press in the next month or two. He is the new youngest current apostle.
I didn't realize that Elder Kearon is English and not American. So in the end, a European was called
Considering Elder Kearon's life experience in the Middle East, I will enter into a delicate subject just as an exercise of imagination: the prophecies say that two missionary saints will be murdered in the Holy Land as one of the last signs of the Lord's return to the Earth. Could he be one of the valiant men who will seal his testimony with blood on the eve of Christ's coming? Regardless of who it will be, I believe this episode is coming quickly.
David,
I don't see it either, I believe it was just "what-if" talk. I was just using it as an example of how leadership across the country may be thinking in regards to realignment. My dad is BP over the Paragould branch and was telling me what they could do if Jonesboro split into two wards, if they were to carve off regions to other branches, maybe northern AR could get their own stake if they pulled in Quitman and Choctaw, etc. I pulled up the map and said it probably wasn't happening.
Monsieur Moretti: I think there are prophecies of two Apostles of the Lord that will lie in the streets of Jerusalem, for three days, and then resurrect at the Lord's coming. Candlesticks, or other symbolic references to them since the Old Testament times.
I don't know if connections to the Middle East are a pre-requisite to fulfill these prophecies.
I had the impression the other day that I would like to walk from Bethlehem to Jerusalem with Muslim and Jewish brothers in solidarity for humanity. Could be a dangerous exercise, but better heads need to prevail over there. They need a Gandhi or a Doctor King, but Christ Himself might be the person to bring things to a better result in this ancient, sacred, place.
But, two apostles will make their way there, as I understand it.
Kind of like predicting when Jesus will return. I think there is a bit more missionary work to be done, but you never know.
One sad question to any Muslim, pro-Palestinian or otherwise: where in the Quran does it say to sexually attack anyone, let alone People of the Book?
It cannot.
And of course, the slaughtering of all innocents is a terrible thing, for us Christians, Jewish, and others alike.
Sorry, heavy themes here.
The Gospel means "Good News", so we have much of it today and throughout the world despite the awful tragedies ongoing.
Great words, Eduardo. May we be part of those who proclaim the gospel of peace, as disciples of Christ and members of His true church, until the day we can walk as brothers through the streets of Jerusalem
As reported last night here by Ohhappydane33, I confirm that the Midvale Utah East Stake (505005) is no longer found on the Meetinghouse locator map.
https://maps.churchofjesuschrist.org/stakes/505005
"Ohhappydane33 said...
Looks as if the Midvale East Stake was dissolved this week (?)
December 7, 2023 at 9:12 PM"
Combining youth across wards for weekday activities is a tricky decision. Some people can feel alienated if it is not done in a wise way.
Elder Kearon is the new apostle. I am not surprised.
Elder Kearon is English of Irish descent. His father was in the British military and later worked in the defence industry. He lived in Arabia some of his youth (I am not sure it was always in Saudi Arabia) and in Saudi Arabia for done of his adult years.
He was baptized at age 26 in 1987. He is 3 years younger than Elder Soares. To put this in context he was baptized 3 years after President Oaks and President Nelson became apostles.
Elder Kearon was born in Carlisle, England in the north. He lived some time in London in the southeast. He also was stake president in Bristol in southwest England.
I wonder who e will call to the Presidency of the seventy. I also wonder if they will announce that call now or wait until conference. I suspect they will announce the call now but I could be wrong.
I think that they will fill the vacancy in the Presidency of the Seventy at some point next week. Elder Carl B. Cook is now the Senior President of the Seventy. Based on recent trends, I suspect the new member of the Presidency of the Seventy will be a GA Seventy called at some point between 2006 and 2019, and I wouldn't be shocked if whoever is called is historically unique. I have wondered about someone like Elder Michael John U. Teh (who would be the first native Filipino member of that Presidency) or Peter M. Johnson (who would be the first African-American and the first black man). Bearing in mind that this will be the first of 3 likely changes in the Presidency of the Seventy between now and August of next year, there are certainly options to inject more of an international flair into the Presidency. It's also possible that they could appoint someone immediately from an area presidency outside the United States and have a couple of months before the assignment becomes effective, in the mold of what happened with Elder Gong when he was called to the Presidency of the Seventy following the call of Elder Rasband to the Twelve. But I don't see the prophet waiting to act on this either way.
it great to have a new meber of the 12 but bishop causse would been a better choice he from europe and he has the kind of testiomy that moves before he devoted as is his wife and he able to bring less active and non members to church
The Best choice already made !!!
Elder Kearon is from Europe too. And he grew up in Europe and the Middle East. He has a very diverse background. With all due respect, may I kindly suggest that anyone who doubts that Elder Kearon's call is inspired should pray to have that confirmed. Those who do so with real intent will get that confirmation.
Elder Kearon's talk on abuse in April 2022 general conference was a seminal talk on the matter. It is the best talk ever given on the subject.
I have to admit that I will have a better understanding of how much time he spent in Arabia verses in Britain verses in the US in the future.
It's been a while since we've had a country that had its first stake created. It seems like Cameroon may be getting close, according to what is written in this article from August that I missed: https://news-africa.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/president-and-sister-kannar-begin-service-as-leaders-of-the-cameroon-yaound-eacute--mission
Hard to tell if there are current plans to organize a stake in Cameroon or if this is more prospective.
I dont know if it is of any interest to anybody else, but yesterday the Ljubljana, Slovenia District, the Zagreb, Croatia District, and the Beograd, Serbia Districts, along with the 2 branches in Bosnia were consolidated into a singular Adriatic North District. The resulting district (as long as my memory is still accurate) should be comprised of 15 branches and 3 groups.
What about the Pristina and Gjakova Branches? Or are they assigned to the Albania Tirana Mission?
I counted 14 Branches in the Croatia, Slovenia and Serbia Districts plus the 2 branches in Bosnia-Herzegovina. But i may have miscounted. From the Meetinghouse Locator map.
https://maps.churchofjesuschrist.org/stakes/608327
https://maps.churchofjesuschrist.org/stakes/614580
https://maps.churchofjesuschrist.org/stakes/614599
https://maps.churchofjesuschrist.org/wards/1469576
https://maps.churchofjesuschrist.org/wards/1988735
These are the Pristina and Gjakova Branches in Kosovo :
https://maps.churchofjesuschrist.org/wards/1469177
https://maps.churchofjesuschrist.org/wards/2023105
That seems correct. It appears the Celje, Slovenia branch has been downgraded since the last time I was there.
My cousin and his wife are serving in the Adriatic North mission and helped to plan the youth conference last summer. I believe they are currently in Croatia.
In light of the announcement of Elder Kearon's call as an apostle, I've been remembering the conference talks given by both him and then-Elder Holland (in April 2022) when they jokingly introduced themselves by each other's name. Interesting that President Holland will now be his acting quorum president.
@twinnumerouno
I was thinking about Elder Kearon's and Elder Holland's funny exchange, too.
In President Ballard's eulogy, Elder Holland spoke about how close the two of them were.
I wonder if the Lord called Elder Kearon to provide Elder Holland with a friend to fill the void?
I have hopes of both Cameroon and Rwanda soon getting a 1st stake. Tanzania is also a contender. Ethiopia and Malaysia I hope for as well. Vietnam, China and Pakistan I have hope for. Malawi may be close as well.
Good calls on those countries getting stakes, Brother Lambert. It is amazing that nations with over 100 million people still do not have a single stake of the Church of Jesus Christ. Bangladesh foremost, or Pakistan. China has a hard way to count, but that is to be expected (sadly). Pakistan is doing well, for being so heavily Muslim.
I have heard that Turkey is doing well, relatively.
What other large populous nations? Ethiopia, Philippines.
How big is the 100 million club? 15 or 16 by now?
Eduardo,
If you use the data provided by the UN, the number is 15 with one nation closing in on the mark.
The following countries are listed as meeting the mark:
India
China
USA
Indonesia
Pakistan
Nigeria
Brazil
Bangladesh
Russia
Mexico
Ethiopia
Japan
Philippines
Egypt
DR Congo
The one country closing in is the following:
Vietnam
While in some places, population has a level of estimation built in, the next countries are assigned populations of around 90 million so I feel safe in the belief they are not at 100 million even with estimation bias.
Craig H
While the church has presence in all of these countries, the bigger indicator of where the church is growing isn't the general population, but level of religious freedom and being "economically humbled". Church growth also follows areas high fertility rates (that still have freedom of religion). Sub-Saharan Africa (portions with freedom of religion) and the Philippines are among those seeing the most church growth.
The worldwide rise in authoritarianism is going to hamper church growth in countries where freedom of religion is being taken away. This is certainly happening in Russia with China tightening down on the sliver of religious freedom that they had granted in the past couple of decades.
Interesting to find out that Elder Kearon was baptized just 3 years before I was.
What about mixed language wards? For example I was I a ward in Idaho Falls that had a sign language group that had interpretors for sacrament meeting and on the 5th Sunday. But met separately for Sunday school and priesthood or relief society. I also heard that on the BYU campus there was an Asian
YSA ward tat that had English sacrament meeting and separated for languages for the other classes.
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