For the first time in Church history in the West African country of Benin, a branch has been organized in the interior of the country. The new branch was organized in the city of Bohicon, the seventh most populous city in the country with approximately 100,000 inhabitants. Since the organization of the first branch in Benin in 2005 (the Cotonou Branch), all other cities with congregations have been on the Atlantic coast, including Calavi (organized in 2014), Port Novo (2014), and Hilacondji (2017). Missionaries first began visiting Bohicon to investigate opportunities to organize a member group and teach isolated members and prospective members in 2017. The organization of the new branch is a major development for the Church in Benin as the Church has maintained an extremely limited national presence limited to a few cities along the Atlantic Coast.
See below for a map of Latter-day Saint congregations in Benin:
17 comments:
Back when my parents were in West Africa in the 1960s it was called Dahome. That is how my mom always referred to it. It took me until maybe the 1980s (after years of not knowing) that this Dahome was in fact, Benin.
Dahomey was one of the ancient kingdoms of West Africa, and it became a French protectorate. However Porto Novo I believe was always a seperate kingdom until the French incursion in the 1890s, and I believe the interior was also seperate.
To make things more confusing the was a hisorical kingdom of Benin. It howeverwas centered on Benin City, in what is today Nigeria. Benin City with 8 stakes is one of the cities with the most stakes without a temple.
It would be interesting to see updated lists on places without temples at least announced after October.
Parakou with over 200,000 people is the most populated place in the north of Benin, which is wider from east to west than the south of the country is. Parakou is majority Muslim, but is also the headquarters of a Catholic archdiocese. This diocese began as an apostolic prefacture in 1948, split from one in Niger. As I understand it, apostolic prefactures are somewhat to diocses as districts are to stakes, escept that dioceses are by actual membership size closer to areas than stakes. There are also multiple Protestant bodies present in Parakou, including the Protestant Methodist Church. That Church began in 1843 and has 420 congregations organized in 15 synods. There is lots of potential for growth in Benin. Parakou like many cities in the interior of Benin was the center of a kingdom of Bariba people in the 18th and 19th centiries. There appear to have been four main Bariba kingdoms, although Kwande was based in what is now Nigeria.
Other places in the north of Benin with potential include Djougou with 181,000 people. Other estimates place Djougou at 209,000 people, and that was 10 years ago, so its population could be much more than that now.
Other places
Bohicon where the interior branch in Benin was formed is part of the same urban area as Abomey, which was the historic capital of the Kingdom of Dahomey until at least the end of the 19th-century.
I just learned that a Spanish branch was established in Pontiac, Michigan. Pontiac was a place where Joseph Smith visited, and his brother Hyrum Smith was along with John Murdock one of the first missionaries there. They converted many members of his mother's family. Edward Stevenson who later became a member of the First Council of the 70 joined the Church in Pontiac in the 19th-century.
At one point Pontiac had a ward, but it was later reduced to a branch by the formation of the Clarkston and Rocherster Wards. In about 2004 the old Pontiac Branch was elimanated, and the area of the branch was divided between the Rochester, Clarkston and Lake Orion Wards.
This marks the first new unit formed in the part of the Detroit Mission in Michigan since about 2009, and even in 2009 it was not a straight up new unit formation, but the realignment of units.
Since then we have seen the elimanation of 4 wards and 3 branches in the mission boundaries. The factors behind these elimations were complex, although in part fueled by the loss of population the greater Detroit area faced, especially parts of Detroit. Michigan is the only state that lost population from 1990-2000. Michigan outside Detroit gained population in that time frame, although many inner sububs of Detroit, and the old industrial cities such as Pontiac, Flint, Saginaw and Bay City along I-75 all also lost population.
When Senator Mitt Romney was a child his family attended church in a congregation in Pontiac. Well, maybe more youth. It was a short time, between when they moved out of the city of Detroit and when the new chapel in Bloomfield Hills was completed. That chapel was didicated by David O. McKay and is on the same plot of land as the Detroit Temple.
The Pontiac Branch is Michigan's 2nd Spanish-speaking branch. The other is in the Grand Rapids Area. However the Detroit River Branch is bilingual.
It may or may not be relevant that the president of the Grand Blanc Stake, which includes most of Pontiac, is Hispanic. His wife is Anglo, and he is fully fluent in English.
I know from having been a substitute teacher in Pontiac that it has a significant Hispanic population, although an even larger African-American population. However that is my impression from having subbed on the east side of Pontiac, the west side of the city is even more Hispanic. Pontiac is an old industrial city that later morphed into a part of the greater Detroit metro area. At one point the Detroit Lions played at a stadium in Pontiac. After they moved back to Detroit proper that stadium was sold for about a 10th what it cost to build, even though it was built in the early 1970s so before the huge impact of inflation, and that stadium has since been demolished.
Freetown has gotten a new branch, which is not too big a development considering how many units are in that city. Mombasa has also gotten a second branch. I am still hoping to see Kenya get stakes outside of Nairobi soon. Another new Spanish branch was formed in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania in the Philadephia suburbs. Some things I have been told recently indicate there may be other new Spanish branches in the works in the Detroit mission besides Pontiac. Waynesburg, Pennsylvania near Pittsburgh also got a new branch.
In the Montgomery County case, the Spanish branch seems to have been created by splitting the existing Spanish ward in Philadelphia into two branches.
Today in Classic LDS Maps, the Wangaratta Australia District (oldest in church 129 years), that was reported here last saturday, has officially been reported and renamed the new "Riverina Australia Stake", the District offices were reported last week moved from Wangaratta, Victoria...to the new Stake Center in a more central location in Finley, NSW.
The new stake currently has all 8 previous branches and added 1 Ward, Bendigo Ward from the Melbourne Australia Craigieburn Stake.
https://classic.churchofjesuschrist.org/maps/#ll=-36.357439,146.315663&z=13&m=google.road&layers=stakecenter&find=stake:603309
Wonderful development, Chris! Thanks for passing that along.
Sweet! Via twitter:
@NelsonRussellM: We were pleased to meet yesterday with Cuba's Ambassador to the U.S., Josi R. Cabaqas. He affirmed to us that the Church is welcome in Cuba....
JPL,
I assume that you've seen this page about the history of the Church in Michigan, but some of it was new to me.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Church_of_Jesus_Christ_of_Latter-day_Saints_in_Michigan
Your comments about Pontiac reminded me that one of my ancestral families moved from New York to Michigan and joined the church there. I hadn't connected them with the prophet's mission and I wondered if there could have been a connection. But they were baptized in 1843, several years after the Smith brothers' missions in the area. I didn't realize how successful the church had gotten there in the Nauvoo period.
My ancestors are listed as having lived in a town called Oakland although some events say Pleasant Valley. Wikipedia lists 4 places by the latter name; it must be the one in Livingston county- a former settlement with a post office SE of Brighton- as none of the others are anywhere near Oakland county.
The family left around 1845 and went to Nauvoo and then west to Utah, the son I am descended from became a prominent citizen in Fairview, Sanpete county.
coachodeeps, the Newsroom and Church News have both provided coverage on that visit today:
https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders-and-ministry/2019-10-24/first-presidency-welcomes-cubas-us-ambassador-to-temple-square-165138
https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/first-presidency-cuba-ambassador-2019
Nice to hear that President Nelson posted on Twitter about that visit. One thing that never ceases to amaze me is how much more active the apostles have been on social media since President Nelson became Church President in January of last year. I think that in a lot of ways, his ordination was the turning point on everything in the Church. It is awe-inspiring at times to look at where the Church is now, 21 months after President Nelson's ordination, versus where things stood at the time of President Monson's passing. It is also interesting to consider where the Church might be after the next 21 months of his prophetic administration. I especially appreciate the fact that when world leaders visit Salt Lake, they want to pay courtesy calls to Church headquarters, and that the prophets have a habit of doing likewise when in their neck of the woods. Wonderful to see so many great things occurring as the global ministry of the apostles continues.
Here's an article from the Australian Newsroom yesterday concerning the creation of the new Riverina Stake:
https://www.mormonnewsroom.org.au/article/riverina-stake-formed-at-historic-meeting
Ooh, a historic meeting! How historic!
https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders-and-ministry/2019-10-24/hawaii-byu-zion-elder-holland-temples-164954
Pretty cool. The Laie Hawaii Temple will celebrate its 100 year anniversary on November 27th.
Yes, and my parents will begin the service there in February!
Thanks awesome, coachodeeps!
Benin is included in the list of 50 new countries where BYU Pathway Worldwide is available.https://pathwaynewsroom.org/new-locations-sept-2019/
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