Dominican Republic
The Church organized a new stake in Santo Domingo on June 9th. The Santo Domingo Dominican Republic Duarte Stake was created from a division of the Santo Domingo Dominican Republic San Geronimo Stake. The new stake includes the following six wards: the Las Esperanza, La Yuca, Los Angeles, Los Girasoles, Pantoja 1st, and Pantoja 2nd Wards. The new stake is the Church's 14th stake in the greater Santo Domingo metropolitan area.
There are now 21 stakes and nine districts in the Dominican Republic.
Florida
The Church organized a new stake in central Florida on June 30th. The Ocala Florida Stake was organized from a division of the Gainesville Florida Stake and the Lessburg Florida Stake. The new stake includes the following five wards and two branches: the Belleview, Lecanto, Ocala 1st, Ocala 2nd, and Williston Wards, and the Cross City and Ocala 3rd (Spanish) Branches.
There are now 33 stakes in Florida.
Nigeria
The Church organized a new stake in the Federal Capital Territory (Abuja) on June 23rd. The Abuja Nigeria Wuse Stake was organized from a division of the Abuja Nigeria South Stake (renamed Abuja Nigeria Lugbe Stake). The new stake includes the following seven wards and three branches: the Asokoro, Jikwoyi, Karu, Masaka, Mpape, Nyanya, and Wuse Wards, and the GRA, New Nyanya, and Orozo Branches. Additionally, the Abuja Nigeria North Stake was realigned with the Abuja Nigeria Lugbe Stake and renamed the Abuja Nigeria Kubwa Stake. The Church has achieved rapid growth in Abuja during the past decade. The original Abuja Nigeria Stake was created in 2012 followed by a second stake in 2016. Stakes in Abuja and the Jos Nigeria District, along with most of northern Nigeria, were recently reassigned from the Nigeria Enugu Mission to the Nigeria Lagos Mission.
There are now 58 stakes and 18 districts in Nigeria.
Perú
The Church organized a new stake in Lima, Perú on June 30th. The Lima Perú Naranjal Stake was organized from a division of the Lima Perú Los Olivos Stake and Lima Perú El Olivar Stake. The new stake includes the following six wards: the Canta Callao, Huandoy, Los Próceres, Márquez, Naranjal, and Oquendo Wards. The Church has organized several new wards in this area of the Lima metropolitan area within the past 1-2 years. The new stake is also nearby the site for the new Lima Perú Los Olivos Temple. There are now 48 stakes in the Lima metropolitan area.
There are now 109 stakes and 18 districts in Peru.
Philippines
The Church organized at least three new stakes in the Philippines.
The Orion Philippines Stake was organized on June 23rd from the Orion Philippines District (organized in 1988). All five branches in the former district were advanced into wards, including the Cabcaben, Limay, Mariveles Bataan, Orion, and Pilar Branches. Local members report that the district worked for at least two years updating membership records and as a result of removing deceased members or the records for members who had moved away, the district has recently qualified to become a stake. More specifically, there must be certain ratios of active, full-tithe paying Melchizedek Priesthood holders to total membership in each unit (one per less than 25 members). Additionally, two additional congregations will likely be organized soon as a result of recent increases in church attendance and leadership maturation.
The Iriga Philippines Stake was organized on June 23rd from the Iriga Philippines District (organized in 1992). The new stake includes the following five wards, two branches, and two member groups: the Bato, Buhi, Iriga 1st, Iriga 2nd, and Iriga 3rd Wards, the Baao and Cotnogan Branches, and the Ibayugan and Nabua Groups. Also, member reports indicate one additional stake was organized in the Philippines in June albeit it is unclear where this new stake was organized.
With the Orion Philippines Stake and Iriga Philippines Stake, there are now 113 stakes and 64 districts in the Philippines
31 comments:
New York Rochester Mission renamed New York Syracuse Mission.
Mission renaming history has generally been more interesting than the renaming history of stakes. From about 1974 until after 2000 basically every stake and mission had the city and state or country it was in as part of its name.
That is still true of the vast majority of stakes, although the two most recent in Massachusetts don't follow that rule and there are a few exceptions.
With missions stating with the Baltic Mission, followed by the Alpine German Speaking Mission, and a few others in Europe that model has not been closely followed.
The rise and fall of missions is also a much more complex thing. Historically many missions have operated with very few missionaries. Missions existed both to supervise missionaries but also to operate the Church where there were no stakes.
The later fuction has become less fully needed with more functional area presidencies, and with modern communication the justification for creating new missions to supervise far flung groups of members as opposed to having them under the supervision of a mission president in a place far away has shifted.
New York Syracuse now becomes one of a fairly short list of missions in the US that have been renamed since 1974. The California Oakland/San Francisco Mission used to be two seperate missions.
The Michigan Detroit mission began as the Michigan Dearborn Mission. The Chicago, New York and Salt Lake City missions all used to have directions in their name. The Utah Layton Mission used to be the Utah Salt Lake City Mission. The Idaho Boise mission began as the Idaho Pocatello Mission, although that mission now exists. The Idaho Idaho Falls Mission began as the Idaho Twin Falls mission. much of what was in the Twin Falls Mission is now in the Pocatello Mission.
The North Dakota Bismark Mission used to be the South Dakota Rapid City Mission. Its ultimate orgins are in the Northern Indian Mission, although it has been decades since it was entirely devoted to outreach on the reservation.
The Arkansas Fayetteville Mission used to be the Oklahoma Tulsa Mission. The Virginia Richmond Mission began as the Virginia Roanoke Mission. That name change was brought about by the creation of the West Virginia Cheasapeak Mission. I believe the Louisiana Baton Rouge Mission began as the Louisiana Shreveport Mission, but I may be confused on that.
The San Bernardino Mission was for a time known as the Redlands Mission. The Irvine Mission has been renamed the Newport Beach mission.
Here is the growth in Church units for the first half of 2019, from information on the CDOL:
Total Stakes, 3407 + 24; total districts 542, + 7; Total Wards and Branches, 30,625, + 197;
Total Wards 23,600 + 192, Total Branches 7025 +5; new temples + 3
Locations of highest growth: Africa + 99 W&B; + 59 W + 40 B + 7 st + 11 dist + 1 temple;
Nigeria + 49; + 24 W + 25 B + 4 st + 3 dist; Ghana + 8 W&B + 2 st + 1 dist;
Cote d'Iv. + 8 W&B; Kenya + 5 W&B + 2 dist; Liberia + 5 W&B + 1 st
US + 76 W&B; + 86 W - 10 B + 8 st - 1 dist;
UT + 47 W&B; + 50 W - 3 B + 6 st
TX + 14 W&B; AZ + 10 W&B; ID + 10 W&B; CO + 5, NV + 5, CA - 15 - 1 st, IL - 5
Brazil + 19; + 30 W - 11 B; Peru + 13 W&B + 3 st; Chile - 21 W + 0 B - 3 st;
Venezuela - 5; Philippines + 4 W&B + 4 st - 2 dist, Kiribati + 5 B + 1 dist
(Peru and Philippines have several additional new stakes but not yet shown on the CDOL)
Those are encouraging numbers to start the year. Some thoughts:
One stat that I particularly like to look at is the growth of stakes/districts when compared to wards/branches. After reaching a peak of 8.08 total units per stake/district in 2013, it has decreased every year with the 2018 total numbers coming in at 7.77. That can be good and bad, good in that it means wards are getting stronger and they are hitting the priesthood thresholds needed to split stakes, but bad because while it is great that individual wards are getting stronger, the most ideal situation is for all wards to be strong and then the splits happen due to an increased number of congregations. Congregation growth slowed to a halt this past year but stakes/districts kept splitting. I'm not aware of any guidance for membership standards by the church for splitting congregations that have come out in the past two years that would have caused the congregation stall. All while having a surplus of districts upgraded/dissolved versus being created. An increase in districts would correlate with a lower ratio as districts often hold less than the average 8 units.
2017 had net of +72 stakes/districts, but only 202 new congregations, for a ratio of less than 3 new congregations per new stake created. 2018 was the worst, probably ever, in the church, with +37 stakes/districts, but only 30 new congregations, meaning there were more stakes created than wards/branches, when the ideal number should be around 8 new wards per new stake.
This year is looking MUCH better, congregational growth has picked back up to facilitate the healthy ward/stake ratio. Even with a mess of new districts being created versus upgraded and dissolved (+7), meaning a lower unit to stake/district ratio, we are still at 6.3 new units per new stake/district for the year, which will be the best in 4 years.
There hasn't been a surplus in total districts in ten years, which is both good and bad. Good because there are usually more districts upgraded to stakes than dissolved, showing stronger membership, but can be bad in that a slow in new districts means that there are less new areas being opened to missionary work. This is the first time in 10 years that there have been more districts created than upgraded/dissolved.
I also like looking at the total stake to district ratio, because one of my "doctrine of Adam" beliefs is that there will be no districts at the time of the second coming. There isn't any scripture that says that in the last days Zion shall "turn to her districts." Back in 1996 77% were stakes and 23% we districts among the total stakes/districts. At year end 2018 we had the percentage 84% stakes and 16% districts. Over that time there have been 1,087 stakes created and decrease of 124 districts. There are still 547 districts, but they have decreased by 7.5 each year the past 10 years, which if that rate continued you could put the 2nd coming at 70 years out. With over half of those in just the Philippines and Africa, I expect that the rate will be be more accelerated than 8 a year going forward. It will just depend on how quick Central and South America get their act together, as 40% of districts are still located there.
However a big part of why the disparity exists is places like California that have seen lots of wards and branches discontinued but few stakes scrapped. Also new stakes usually start with 7 or fewer units. So the 1 to 8 ratio seems unlikely.
Also there have been general policies seeking more active members per ward. It is not clear that we need the same for stakes.
While in some ways youth thrive in stakes with more youth multi stake youth activities are doable, so I am not sure a stake with more active members is needed.
Acá en Chile donde la Iglesia lleva décadas estancada, sin crecer en miembros activos, retención y bautismos, barrios y estacas que se desintegran, es una pena por los quebró han contribuido de corazón y que son humillados o ninguneados en la Iglesia.
Omar Valenzuela
Chile-Santiago
Following is a translation of Omar Valenzuela'a post from Spanish to English.
"Here in Chile, where the Church has been stagnant for decades, without growing in active members, retention and baptisms, neighborhoods and stakes that disintegrate, it is a pity for the bankrupt have contributed heartily and are humiliated or ignored in the Church."
Can someone please explain this? Perhaps "the bankrupt" refers to meek, quiet members? I know "barrios" means "wards," even though the automatic translation was "neighborhoods." Thanks very much.
Adam, thanks for your analysis of 2019 Church growth. I disagree, however, with your theory of districts dropping to zero. As the Church continues to go into more rural areas where small branches are the norm, more districts will be needed because these areas will not yet support stakes. But what you point out about districts dropping to zero is borne out in the US history of districts, with so many being discontinued or merging with stakes in the last several years. Only one remains in Utah (the Wendover, UT district), and just 5 in the entire country.
@Ray
I wonder if Omar meant "los quebrados," like "the broken" or "the broken hearted."
Or possibly, "the broke," as in "bankrupt/poor/broke as far as money is concerned."
Actually I think there was a point where no districts existed in Utah. California has not had one since 1957. Most districts created in the US since 1990 were actually inner city urban districts. Not one of those remains, although very few directly matured into stakes. All remaining districts are non-metropolitan, but hardly rural really.
However only in Europe and north American does the end of all districts seem soon. Even at that Canada just added a district.
What seems clear is that the expectation of church organization before a d iui strict is more now than at times in the past. The same is true of branches. Lots of groups today would have been branches 25 years ago.
So with the actual number of groups unclear it remain unclear what the real unit counts are.
Thanks, Johnathan. That's probably it--I knew someone would have the answer.
I believe that in early Church history districts were called "conferences." Also, stakes were sometimes very small, with as few as just one or two wards and/or branches. Most of them were not far from Nauvoo, but several others were in neighboring states, such as a couple in AZ, one in San Bernardino, CA, one in Carson Valley of western NV, and one in St. Louis as a stopover location for immigrants enroute to Utah. All of those original stakes were discontinued.
@Ray
No problema.
@Johnathan
Muchas grathias.
I said that all of the early stakes outside UT were discontinued, but in reviewing stake histories from a Church Almanac of 30 years ago I see that the 2 early Arizona stakes, the Little Colorado Stake, created 1878, and the Eastern Arizona Stake, created in 1879, were both renamed in 1887 as the Snowflake and St. Johns Stakes, respectively. The St. Joseph and San Luis Stakes were created in 1883 in Arizona and Colorado, and continue to this day as the Thatcher, AZ Stake and the Manassa CO Stake.
Ray, when were the stakes in the Mexican colonies organized? I suspect they would count as early, or at least one of them. Also, you mentioned conferences in a previous post- while researching my mid-19th century convert ancestors in Denmark I came across this term and was able to find some of their membership records (in Danish), including emigration information, by figuring out in which of the several conferences the Church had in that country they lived in.
Twinnumerouno, missionaries were first sent to Mexico in 1875, but success was extremely slow. Then in 1885 almost 400 colonists from Utah escaping religious persecution arrived at the Casa Grandes River in the state of Chihuahua and purchased property.
Soon many others from Utah and Arizona arrived and established 6 colonies in Chihuahua (Juarez, Dublan, Diaz, Pacheco, Garcia, and Chuichupa) and 2 more in Sonora (Oaxaca and Morelos).
The Juarez Stake was organized in 1895. Many colonies were closed and large numbers of colonists returned to the US in 1912 after the Mexican Revolution made circumstances too difficult for them. But numerous descendants of the original colonists remain, and a second stake, Colonia Dublan Stake, was organized in 1990, as well as the Colonia Juarez Temple, dedicated in 1999.
Both stakes are Spanish speaking, but one ward in each stake is English speaking. The Juarez stake had 1191 members in 1961 and 1590 members in 1967. The entire nation of Mexico had 5,300 members in 1946 but grew to 25,000 by 1961. In 2018 the membership of Mexico was 1,455,774 in 1846 wards and branches, 220 stakes, 47 districts, and a substantial number of member groups.
That's awesome to know, Ray!
I had a couple of roommates from the colonies back in college.
Thanks for the history, Ray! I knew about the temple. I also know that some prominent leaders also came out of the Colonies, among them Marion G. Romney and Camilla Eyring Kimball (I just read a published story titled "The Refugee" about Camilla Eyring's experiences leaving Mexico during the 1912 revolution).
There's a pretty cool article I read on my mission about the early Mexican Saints (particularly touching was the Monroy's story):
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1997/07/los-primeros-mexicos-pioneer-saints
This may have been the actual article (the other does have some of the same stories, though):
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2004/07/one-million-in-mexico
I also recall reading a story about a brief period of schism between two sects of the Church in Mexico. It was ultimately resolved by George Albert Smith or Heber J. Grant or one of the early Prophets, I believe. If anyone knows what I'm talking about or has more specific info, let me know.
Yes, there were major problems in Mexico. It was a difficult period for the Church in Mexico, and there are several accounts that detail those times. Here's information from the 2013 Deseret News Church Almanac regarding those problems.
"When Mission President Rey P. Pratt returned to central Mexico in November 1917, he found many members who had remained faithful throughout the period of the revolution. Work again progressed, but the nationalism generated by the revolution resulted in the expulsion in 1926 of all foreign clergy--including Latter-day Saint missionaries--by Mexican authorities. Local Mexican Church leaders maintained stability and expanded the work, calling six local missionaries in 1930. However, in 1936, a group called the Third Convention, influenced by the wave of nationalism that continued to sweep through Mexico even after the revolution, broke away from the Church for a period. They were reunited with the Church through the able leadership of Mexican Mission President Arwell Pierce. In 1946 President George Albert Smith visited members of the Church, who numbered more than 5,300."
More information on this chapter in the history of the Church in Mexico can be found in "Ordeal in Mexico" by Karl E. Young, published in 1968.
Aha! "The Third Convention" - that's what it was called. You're always coming through in a pinch, Ray. :)
And George Albert Smith was involved somehow. See? I knew I wasn't crazy.
@Rayo
I use the translator, that is why the problem with words.
I repeat that for all those who have worked, it is sad to see that neighborhoods, stakes in Chile disappear, there is no complete reactivation.
@ Johnathan, yes, through George Albert Smith's kindness and patience with the Third Convention, almost all of them were reconciled and restored to full fellowship, and the growth of the Church has been tremendous since then. Mexico has the most members outside the US, but Brazil is very close, with 95% of Mexico's total.
@Omar, thank you for your reporting on the condition of the Church in Chile today. It is sad to see a decline in activity anywhere, and especially in Chile where growth was so rapid for many years. Although you have seen a reduction in stakes as well as wards and branches, there will be growth in the future, and the state of the Church will improve over time. As an example of this, in Peru there were several years of very stagnant growth and a reduction of Church units, although not as much as in Chile. At any rate, there's much growth taking place right now, with 5 new stakes and 13 new wards and branches organized in just the first half of 2019. Thanks again, Omar, and just be patient. Remember the parable of the seeds sown in shallow, rocky soil that jumped up but had nothing to sustain them, whereas other seeds planted in fertile, deeper soil grew more slowly but with greater strength and sustainability.
Ray
Thanks for answering
If it is sad to see that so many brothers are inactivated for many reasons, my aim is not to criticize without foundation, but if they were more united and helped especially at the beginning to be baptized or when some less active member returns, be more kind and to support him, to be true brothers, it is good to advise them, but with love.
The construction of chapels is a very big effort of money and having to sell them because the baptized are inactivated by thousands, it is worrisome.
It is wonderful to see that a temple was built in Concepción in southern Chile, since many brothers traveled at least 8 hours to the temple and the brothers from the far north of the country will now have their temple.
I wish I arrived the day when in more places in Chile and the world, there are more stakes strengthened so that they can have their temples closer.
Omar, thank you for your report of the many members from North Chile who traveled to the Santiago Temple to do temple work there. It was so nice to read this account, and I am so glad that they will soon have a temple there in Antofagasta. For those of us in North America, it is so strange to think of a country that is 2000 miles long but only a few dozen miles wide, and extending from the scorching, arid north desert to the icy wilderness of Tierra del Fuego in the far south, not so far from the South Pole. I'm hopeful more Chileans will be like you--faithful and happy to be of service in the Lord's work.
Ray
thanks for such an excellent description of my country Chile.
It is encouraging to see that despite the obstacles there are still those who follow their faith and seek to fulfill.
I have to correct one thing I said about Chile--it is actually 2560 miles long, not 2000. Hard to imagine.
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