Announced earlier today by LDS Church President Thomas S. Monson, the Tucson Arizona Temple will become the Church's sixth temple in Arizona. The Church previously dedicated temples in Mesa (1927), Snowflake (2002), and Gila Valley (2010) and began construction on two new temples in Gilbert (2010) and Phoenix (2011). Currently the Church operates five stakes within Tucson and three additional stakes in southeastern Arizona - all which appear likely to be assigned to the new temple. With today's announcement, Arizona becomes the state with the third most temples after Utah (16) and California (7).
The Church has experienced steady growth in Arizona over the past century and baptizes more new converts in Arizona than most other states. There were only three stakes a century ago whereas today there are now 94. Within the past decade, the Church has created 20 new stakes in Arizona - four of which were YSA stakes organized earlier this year.
A map of stakes and missions in southern Arizona can be found here.
Great summaries of the President Monson's announcements.
ReplyDeleteMinor point, there were 4 stakes in Arizona 100 years ago, not 3:
1. Mesa Stake organized in 1882
2. Saint Joseph Stake in 1883
3 and 4. St Johns and Snowflake organized in 1887 (actually these were reorganizations of the first Arizona stakes--the Little Colorado and the Eastern Arizona organized in 1878 and 1879)
The next stakes in Arizona were organized in 1938 (Mount Graham and Phoenix).
Next came the Southern Arizona Stake in 1941, which covered roughly the area likely to be the Tucson temple district.
st Johns & Snowflake in 1887
ReplyDeleteMt Graham in 1883 (Gila Valley settlements of Safford and Thatcher and San Pedro River settlement of St David)
MEsa was in 194X something.
Sorry, for mislabeling the stake. My concern was accuracy and then I mislabeled the oldest continually functioning stake in Arizona. The stake was founded as the Maricopa Stake on 10 December 1882 with Alexander F. MacDonald as the first stake president. It is currently known as the Mesa Arizona Maricopa Stake.
ReplyDeleteMount Graham Stake was formed in 1938 as a division of the St. Joseph Stake (renamed Thatcher Arizona Stake on 14 January 1974). The first president of the Mount Graham Stake was Spencer W. Kimball. It was renamed the Safford Arizona Stake on 14 January 1974.
ReplyDeleteHowever, that doesn't matter. From 1883 to 1938 there were four stakes in Arizona (five for a few months in 1987 between the organization of the St. Johns Stake and the discontinuation of the Little Colorado and Eastern Arizona Stakes on the same day that Snowflake Stake was created--the president of the Eastern Arizona Stake becoming the first president of the Snowflake Stake and the Little Colorado and Eastern Arizona stakes being distributed between the St. Johns and Snowflake stakes).
Thank you for the corrections
ReplyDelete