Arizona
The Church organized a new stake in the Phoenix area on October 16th. The Phoenix Arizona Desert Hills Stake was organized from a division of the Phoenix Arizona Deer Valley Stake. The new stake includes the following six wards: the Anthem, Daisy Mountain, Gavilan Peak, North Valley, Parkside, and Pinnacle Vista Wards. The new stake is the tenth new stake organized in Arizona in 2016.
There are now 110 stakes in Arizona.
Florida
The Church organized a new stake in the Tampa Bay area on October 16th. The Odessa Florida Stake was organized from a division of the Tampa Florida and St Petersburg Florida Stakes. The new stake includes the follow five wards: the Brooksville, Hudson, Land O Lakes, Odessa, and Tampa 4th Wards.
There are now 31 stakes in Florida.
Idaho
The Church organized a new stake in the Boise metropolitan area on October 16th. The Meridian Idaho Victory Stake was organized from a division of the Meridian Idaho South Stake. The new stake includes the following seven wards: the Green Valley, Locust Grove, Mason Creek, Meridian 5th, Meridian Greens, Overland, and Victory Wards.
There are now 128 stakes in Idaho.
Brazil
The Church organized a new district in Parana Stake on October 16th. The Campo Mourão Brazil District was organized from a division of the Maringá Brazil Stake. The new district includes the following three branches: the Aeroporto, Campo Mourão, and Cianorte Branches. There are now 20 stakes and two districts in Parana State.
There are now 263 stakes and 39 districts in Brazil.
Since the Amity Ward was transferred from the Meridian Amity Stake to the Meridian South Stake, I wounder if the Meridian Amity Stake would be renamed with a Boise designation, since it appears that Cloverdale is the city line between Boise and Meridian. Roughly 95% or more of the stake boundary is in the Boise side of Cloverdale, as well as all 3 chapels in the stake having a Boise address.
ReplyDeleteAlso, it would seem practical to transfer the Victory and South Stakes to the Meridian Mission, since it makes more geographical sense.
ReplyDeleteGood point, Ryan.
ReplyDeleteIt's now official, the Cambridge Massachusetts Stake will be split next weekend of November 5 and 6th 2016. It would be the 5th stake in the state of Massachusetts, and the first new one following the creation of the Cambridge stake in 1997. The official name of the new stake was announced today Sunday October 23, 2016. It will be called the North Shore Stake. Cambridge Stake Presidency will be reorganized along with the creation of the new stake. The current Cambridge Stake Presidency has been serving for roughly 9 years.
ReplyDeleteIt was confirmed by a letter made by the stake presidency read by a stake high councilor in sacrament meeting today.
The new North Shore Stake will consist of the following 7 units:
Lynnfield Ward (English, currently of Cambridge, MA Stake) Likely the potential temporary Stake center
Lynn Spanish Branch (my unit, currently of the Cambridge, MA Stake)
Revere 1st Ward (Spanish, Currently of the Cambridge, MA Stake)
Revere 2nd Ward (English, Currently of the Cambridge, MA Stake)
Billerica Ward (English, Currently of the Nashua, NH Stake)
Lawrence Ward (Spanish, Currently of the Exeter, NH Stake)
Methuen Ward (English, Currently of the Exeter, NH Stake)
The reorganized Cambridge, Massachusetts Stake will now consist of:
Longfellow Park 1st YSA Ward
Longfellow Park 2nd YSA Ward
Cambridge University Ward
Charles River Single Adult Ward
Cambridge 1st Ward (English)
Cambridge 2nd Ward (English)
Cambridge 3rd Branch (Spanish)
Cambridge 4th Branch (Portuguese)
Kendall Square Branch (Mandarin)
Belmont 1st Ward
Belmont 2nd Ward
Arlington Ward
There is also a new ward being created A split from the Cambridge 1 and 2 wards. Likely a Medford Ward (Possible name?) or Cambridge 5th?
The Arlington Ward is being split into 4 different areas, Some will be sent to the Revere 2nd ward which will be part of the new stake, others will be sent to Cambridge (new ward)
There is also a rumor about a piece of property that the church owns in Woburn, MA which has sat empty for over 5 years. It is big enough for a stake center. The Lynnfield ward is big enough to be split as well, but nothing yet. My guess it might happen once the new stake center is built.
Very happy about this news! It seems like I heard a BYU-Idaho interview with the Cambridge stake president several years ago, and he indicated efforts toward splitting the stake even back then. It's nice to see it happening now. Sixteen units is A LOT for one stake presidency to oversee.
ReplyDeleteIt is good news that the Cambridge stake is splitting and in the process repatriating some Massachusetts wards aligned with New Hampshire stakes back to a Massachusetts stake. This reflects not only growth in the Cambridge stake but growth in the Exeter and Nashua New Hampshire stakes as well.
ReplyDeleteAnd as I have heard from our current stake president--then 2nd counselor in the Fredericksburg VA Stake presidency--that the 15 to 16 units in the stake were too many to effectively manage. It took forever to do all of the ward/branch conferences. And 3 high counselors had to do double duty every 3rd Sunday. (the 16th unit came weeks before the split, so we didn't get to experience 16 units for very long).
The Arlington Ward being divided 4 ways probably reflects a need for both the new Cambridge Stake and the new North Shore Stake to meet criteria. The Arlington Ward seems to have been used to get the division to work out ok.
Just thinking about the comments that there will be an additional Cambridge Ward (although that might simply replace the Arlington Ward) and the Lynnfield ward could be split.
ReplyDeleteIt may be that they decided to divide the stake first and later divide wards. The criteria for stakes and wards may drive this, namely the minimum 15 active full-tithe-paying Melchizedek Priesthood holders per ward and 24 for the stake in addition to those for the wards. These extra 24 have to reside in the wards (or branches) of the stake. 5 wards are required for each stake (although 4 wards and some branches appear to work as well). There might be enough AFTPMPHs to divide the stake with the current wards, but perhaps not enough to make new wards at the same time. However, once the stakes are in place, to create new wards would not look at the entire stake, but only at the wards involved in the realignment. The new stake presidency would then have to look at wards in their stake and decide whether to realign them.
It is a question I have had for while. When a stake is created, there must be at least 24 AFTPMPHs than needed for the current stake and wards. In all likelihood a ward could be created, but then the criteria would not be there for a stake--that is if the stake had only the extra 24 and 15 went into making a new ward, then there would be only 9 extra AFTPMPHs and not enough for a stake. I could see a loop of creating wards and never getting to the new stake. I imagine there are cases of "do we create a stake or do we create a ward?" decisions that have to be made at times. Of course, that depends on whether the limiting factor is AFTPMPHs or total membership. Get enough wards in the stake and I image the decision becomes easy--wait to create the ward until the stake is created.
Is 84 in 1998 the record for the largest number of new stakes created in one year? Does anyone know if this is the record for new stakes in a year? Or is this just a recent high number in the last few years? If it is a record, this year could possibly pass 84!
ReplyDeleteWhen my stake was at over 12 units they called alternate members of the high council so that there could be members of the high council assigned to every unit.
ReplyDeleteRondonopolis just got its 5th branch. This is a growing city that had just over 200,000 people back in 2012. It is the 3rd largest city in the state of Mato Grosso. The district there has existed since 1988. Most of Ronodonopolis's growth is from people moving from the south and south east of Brazil. It is agricultural related growth. According to Wikipedia many of the people in Rononopolis used to work in the cattle industry but now work in the soybean industry.
ReplyDeleteIt is a 766 mile drive from Rondonopolis to the Campinas Temple. It is even further to Rio. It is still 574 miles to Brasilia, so Rondonopolis might be reassigned, but it getting a stake would probably not go towards building a temple in Brasilia.
Hopefully soon a stake can be formed in Rondonopolis. Also hopefully Campo Grande can be seperated off as a new mission from the Brazil Cuiba Mission. Mato Grosso do Sul has about two and a half million people and more area than Colorado. Most of the much larger by area Mato Grosso is also in that mission.
We had alternate members of the high council in the Utah stake I grew up in and we had less than 12 units in the stake. I haven't seen alternative members of the high council in a very long time. And we didn't have them in the Fredericksburg Virginia stake with 14 then 15 then 16 units. I thought the Church had moved away from having alternate high councilors.
ReplyDeleteMike, thanks for your comments, interesting to see the commentary. Based on what I spoke with a high councilor that came to make the announcement in my branch, he said that the Arlington Ward would remain a ward and that the new ward would be a newly created unit. He said that one of the Belmont wards is rather large, so that some from that might go to Arlington, then a few from Arlington to Revere2 which is the new stake now. The 16th unit in the Cambridge Stake was created in Feb. 2016 (Kendall Square Mandarin ) So its only been 16 units for less than a year. We have been operating as 15 units for about 4 or 5 years already when the Charles River single adult ward was created around 2010/2011.
ReplyDeleteThe Arlington ward was split a few years back, where half of the members went to the Lynnfield ward.
I am also surprised that they didn't include the Lowell, MA and Georgetown, MA Wards in the new North Shore Stakes. Seems like Exeter and Nashua Stakes each have 9 units.
Thanks NewsAnchor. Interesting.
ReplyDeleteThe Nashua Stake has 9 wards and the Exeter Stake has 8.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThere is a new stake being formed within the next month, in northern Fort Worth area. It is a split between Alliance, Colleyville, and Hurst Texas Stakes. In addition at least two new wards will be made in the Colleyville Stake. The new stake, I think, will be named Fort Worth North, or Keller, Texas.
ReplyDeleteNovosibirsk Russia District has 10 districts so i think it would upgrade to a stake pretty soon.
ReplyDeleteIf the Church has done away with having alternate members of the high council, I am surprised there are any stakes over 12 units. It also may explain why the Church has gone to higher branch requirements in stakes. Back in the mid-1990s there were branches formed in my stake with 1 melchizedek priesthood holder.
ReplyDeleteHere's a question. What temple has the most stakes from different stakes that are assigned to it?
ReplyDeleteI mean states. For example: the new Philly Temple has stakes from three states: PA, MD, and DE.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure it's Boston. It serves all those small New England states:
ReplyDelete(1) Massachusetts
(2) Connecticut
(3) New Hampshire
(4) Maine
(5) New York
(6) Rhode Island
(7) Vermont
After the Hartford temple is dedicated, it will lose Connecticut and New York, but that still leaves five states.
Mike, Your right about those numbers for Exeter and Nashua Stakes. I am sure they called it the North Shore Stake because they see future growth in it, Technically Billerica is too far out west to be North Shore, but I am sure they will add Georgetown and Lowell to the North Shore Stake when the church grows some more in the area. I assume they are just planning for the future when it comes to that name for the Stake.
ReplyDeleteEduardo, Rick, I am sure that Boston will lose NY and CT for sure, Rhode Island can go either way. Providence Stake can go either way, since its about the same amount of time to Boston and to Hartford. I almost think that RI will go to Hartford, and Boston will just have ME,VT,NH, MA.
As far as High Council goes, in my stake (Cambridge, MA), We had a few double up, or even triple. In example, my high councilor was assigned Lynn, Cambridge 3 Both Spanish and Cambridge 4 which is Portuguese, since he speaks Spanish. Another was assigned the two Longfellow Park YSA wards, so it seems like only a few had 1 ward assigned.
I wonder if there was a point where there was a deliberate decision by the leaders of the Church that there should not be more than 12 members on a high council.
ReplyDeleteBased on the road system, I believe RI will stay with Boston. Much for convenient for the RI saints. VT will likely go to Hartford.
ReplyDeleteI expect there will be 8 stakes serving the Hartford Temple - 3 from CT, 3 from NY, 1 from MA, and 1 from VT. The Vermont Stake can go either way though.
Doesn't one of the Church Handbooks talk about the number of high councilmen in a stake?
ReplyDeleteDC temple now covers 4 states.
Any prospects of a temple for Charleston, WV?
Here is a tougher question:what temples cover the most area? In the U.S. it would be Alaska. The ones in Africa and Asia must cover areas the size of Canada.
I think Toanoke or Buena Vista Virginia are much more likely to see a temple than Charleston, West Virginia. Actually I also think seeing a temple in Pittsburgh is also more likely. I worked out a way for Buena Vista, Pittsburgh and Richmond to all see temples while leaving a good number of stakes in the DC temple district.
ReplyDeleteThe Durban South Africa Temple has in theory over 4.5 million square miles of area in its temple district, compared to 3.8 million for Canada's area. Although there is little if any Church presence in Northern Democratic Republic of the Congo for example.
Today a school district was moved from the West Chester Ward in the Valley Forge Pennsylvania Stake to the Newark 3rd Ward in the Wilmington Delaware Stake. Within the Wilmington stake, Newark 3rd then gave significant territory to New Castle Ward, and New Castle (renamed Newark 2nd) gave some territory to Wilmington 2nd Ward. Also, Bay View Ward gave about a dozen families to Newark 1st Ward.
ReplyDeleteCurious - why is the Riverton Wyoming Stake assigned to Ogden, when there are several temples that are closer?
ReplyDeleteOgden - 4h 36min
Rexburg - 4h 35 min
Fort Collins - 4h 34 min
Logan - 4h 29 min
Vernal - 4h 16 min
Star Valley - 4h 9 min
Billings - 3h 59 min
Maybe the freeway? Or, could the units be shaded on that side of the stake towards Ogden? Plus it's a big temple, more sessions.
ReplyDeleteRyan, good question. Of course Temple District are not always based on the time to get to the Temple. I have been in places where we were in one Temple's district but it was closer or easier to get to in another. I know several temple workers who live in Pennsylvania and the DC Temple is closer for them than Philadelphia, but are now in the Philadelphia district.
ReplyDeleteThe first four are essentially the same distance. Ogden might have an advantage in that a significant part of the journey is by interstate and not driving through mountains.
Vernal is a very small temple and not appreciably closer. Star Valley is still under construction and may still be assigned the Riverton Wyoming Stake.
Billings would seem to have an advantage. However, the stake is bigger than Riverton. Two of the wards meet in Lander and the google maps distance from the meeting house to the temple (using their respective addresses) are:
2 Landers wards to
Ogden - 4h 11 min
Rexburg - 4h 31 min
Fort Collins - 4h 35 min
Logan - 4h 4 min
Vernal - 3h 51 min
Star Valley - 3h 45 min
Billings - 4h 27 min
The average time for the 5 wards and 4 branches to each temple (treating branches equal to wards, but I get a similar pattern weighting branches as .5 or .3333 wards.
Average time for all wards and branches to
Ogden - 4h 34 min
Rexburg - 4h 24 min
Fort Collins - 4h 45 min
Logan - 4h 31 min
Vernal - 4h 19 min
Star Valley - 3h 57 min
Billings - 4h 11 min
When Star Valley is dedicated we might see the Riverton Wyoming Stake assigned to its district but who knows.
I meant "not driving through mountains on smaller roads."
ReplyDeleteI think Ed is bringing up the most plausible explanation for why the Riverton Stake is in the Ogden district. Southern Wyoming is not a particularly pleasant place to travel through, and even I-80 east of Evanston is routinely closed down during the winter, often for weeks at a time. Still, I-80 works better from November through May than a lot of the smaller U.S. and State highways that would lead to the other temples on the list. I probably could have seen it go to Star Valley or Billings, but it is a toss-up at best.
ReplyDeleteThe Star Valley Wyoming Temple was dedicated today, and it only shows 3 Wyoming Stakes - Afton, Kemmerer, and Thayne.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI saved in the Riverton stack on my mission, and for them it is easyer to go to Ogden in the winter time then it is to Billings or even star Valley there is no good way to star Valley in the winter and going to Billings can be very dangerous I remember a couple of times on the mission nearly having a couple of accidents on the road to Billings from the Riverton and worland stacks one in the wind river cannon in a hail storm in July and one out side of Lovell in a snow storm in November.
ReplyDeleteI saved in the Riverton stack on my mission, and for them it is easyer to go to Ogden in the winter time then it is to Billings or even star Valley there is no good way to star Valley in the winter and going to Billings can be very dangerous I remember a couple of times on the mission nearly having a couple of accidents on the road to Billings from the Riverton and worland stacks one in the wind river cannon in a hail storm in July and one out side of Lovell in a snow storm in November.
ReplyDeleteRhode Island will remain in the Boston temple district after the Providence RI Stake split with New London, CT. Hartford's temple will have most all of CT, parts of far Western RI, western MA, Eastern NY (the Capitol area near Albany) and southern VT. Boston will retain ME, NH, MA, RI and parts of VT.
ReplyDeleteBoth stakes in Los Cabos, Mexico are assigned to the Mexico City Temple, even though Tijuana or Hermosillo are closer, mileage wise. The reason? Airfare is cheaper to Mexico City than to Tijuana or Hermosillo. And the trans-peninsular highway, that runs from the Los Cabos area to Tijuana is pretty dangerous.
ReplyDeleteHopefully some day Culiacán will have its own temple. It will be cheaper for members in Los Cabos to get there (by plane or by ferry).
ReplyDeleteLa Paz should have its own temple some day. That would be about right for Baja California Sur.
ReplyDeleteThank you Ryan. Things are happening faster than I have been keeping up with.
ReplyDeleteI think Eduardo pegged it--although at the same time I was coming with the same things as part of what I posted. I didn't see Eduardo until I posted my comment which obviously took a while to collect and process the data to support it.
Bryce has pretty much confirmed--safer to Ogden by I-80/84 particularly in winter and Ogden is a large temple and not the smaller ones listed. And a good part of the stake does lean closer to Ogden.
La Paz should have its own temple some day. That would be about right for Baja California Sur.
ReplyDeleteThe Cambridge, Massachusetts Stake was split today! No new ward was created as previously reported by me. They decided to do that some time in the future. The Cambridge Stake and North Shore Stake (NEW STAKE, Official name confirmed) Now consist of the following
ReplyDeleteThe new North Shore Stake will consist of the following 7 units:
Lynnfield Ward (English, Formally of Cambridge, MA Stake) Likely the potential temporary Stake center
Lynn Spanish Branch (my unit, Formally of the Cambridge, MA Stake)
Revere 1st Ward (Spanish, Formally of the Cambridge, MA Stake)
Revere 2nd Ward (English, Formally of the Cambridge, MA Stake)
Billerica Ward (English, Formally of the Nashua, NH Stake)
Lawrence Ward (Spanish, Formally of the Exeter, NH Stake)
Methuen Ward (English, Formally of the Exeter, NH Stake)
The reorganized Cambridge, Massachusetts Stake will now consist of:
Longfellow Park 1st YSA Ward
Longfellow Park 2nd YSA Ward
Cambridge University Ward
Charles River Single Adult Ward
Cambridge 1st Ward (English)
Cambridge 2nd Ward (English)
Cambridge 3rd Branch (Spanish)
Cambridge 4th Branch (Portuguese)
Kendall Square Branch (Mandarin)
Belmont 1st Ward
Belmont 2nd Ward
Arlington Ward
Elder Anthony Perkins of the 1st Quorum of the Seventy Presided, Elder Grant C. Bennett Area Authority Seventy announced the split.
Good news on the creation of the North Shore Massachusetts Stake.
ReplyDelete