Hi there, I love reading your postings. I don't know if you noticed or not, but recently the temples being designed since the beginning President Nelson being prophet do not include angel Moroni's. Do you know why that is? I can't figure why angel Moroni's are being phased out of recent temple renderings. It has become more and more noticeable.
There are no official statements by any church leader, but I think it is safe to say it is connected with the effort of President Nelson to have a more Christ centered church image.
Unknown, I'm not Matt, the author of this blog, but the Church News published an article back in late July about that very topic. If you read that article, it should answer your question. You can find it at the following web address:
I think it might depend on the area or building permits. Or permits at the time. They might be installed later. I heard that even though the Provo Utah Temple was dedicated in 1972, it didn't receive its Angel Moroni until around 2011. Even some temples that don't have an Angel Moroni build the steeple with enough strength to support one in the future
Personally, this is a change that I like. I think it is in keeping with President Nelson's commitment to recognize the church as The Church of Jesus Christ. It isn't the church of Moroni, nor is it a church of icons and graven images. For decades members of the church have desired that other Christians (and non-Christians as well) recognize The Church of Jesus Christ as a Christian church Yet many Christians are adamant that the Church is NOT Christian. Iconography on our most prominent places of worship suggesting reverence or even adoration of an angel unknown outside of Mormonism, does not help that perception.
I never quite understood the need, after Salt Lake and Los Angeles to put Moroni on every temple, even retrofitting those that didn't have one initially. I remember when it was decided to add Moroni to the Idaho Falls temple in 1983, my sister-in-law (then 20 years old and living in the temple district) was ecstatic. "Finally our temple gets a Moroni just like all the others! It won't be the unwanted step-sister anymore." Her comment revealed her lack of awareness that of the 18 temples constructed between 1836 and 1975 only three (SL, LA, and DC) had Moroni at that time. Starting with Washington DC in 1974, the eleven temples built through the end of 1983 (when Idaho Falls got its Moroni) all had the statue.
As good a questions as "Why, beginning with Russel M. Nelson's leadership was Moroni left off temples?" would be ""Why, beginning with Spencer W. Kimball's leadership was Moroni placed on all new temples and retrofitted onto 5 existing ones?"
Excellent growth in Central African nations of Angola, Republic of the Congo, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Good to see six stakes created in 2 weeks of November, and 9 new locations recently reached by the Church.
An angel Moroni would at least be useful to indicate that some of these upcoming temples are, in fact, temples, and not just attractive but generic little church buildings, which is what they look like. Leaving him off the ones that actually look like temples isn't as big a deal.
For what it is worth Angola is in the Africa South Area, not the Africa Central Area.
Angola with 31 million people has about 1 member in every 100,000 people. The Church has no presence in most of the country.
Angola has more people than Texas.
Still Angola is dwarfed by DR Congo at 101 million people, Nigeria at roughly 200 million, and Uttar Pradesh state at roughly 200 million people. Yet if the church has 2 units in Utrar Pradesh I would be shocked. The Church has grown more than 600% in India since 1998 but it is still minuscule in that nation.
Ethiopia with over 90 million people in another place I hope to see growth soon. I was hoping things would take off with a mission there. To understand Ethiopia we have to realize that more people speak Oromo than Amheric. It is among the Oromo and not the Amheric speakers that Protestantism has taken root. Right now the Church only has materials in Amheric of the languages of Ethiopia. It may wait for more languages for much progress to be made. Yet with the Church wanting to have b er lievingnative speakers do translations you at some times run into chicken and egg issues.
How old is the Mutare district? This is Zimbabwe, which has the second longest continuous history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in all of Africa. The Church has functioned in Zimbabwe since the 1920s. Even if we count to the oldest unofficial congregations in Nigeria they did not began until the late 1940s. Ghana saw The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints get government recognition in 1968 although the organizations given recognition then were not brought into the fold until late 1978 and early 1979.
Thus only South Africa has a longer standing presence of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the African continent than does Zimbabwe. Zambia saw the church began a presence in about 1930 but with the end of colonialism there in the 1960s all the white members, who were all the members, left.
The situation in Zimbanwe was a almost as precarious in 1980 when white colonial rule ended. In roughly 1984 when Elder Dube first attended church, invited by the white family he worked as a servant for, he as a black was basically the only black at Church. The white district president ed nt at the time tried to create outreach, and today most members are black.
Since in Zimbabwe the whites were mainly farm owner operators while in Zambia they were mainly mine owners or mining er engineers, the exodus was slower in Zimbabwe. Mining engineers often leave even when there are not political issues at stake, farmers tend to stay unless there are very strong pressures against them. This over simplifies things a little, and especially around 2000 there was lots of political pressure against white farmers in Zimbabwe.
So when I read old district in Zimbabwe what I want to know are we talking 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, or does it post date the creation of Zimbabwe's first stake with Edward Dube as president?
Today Elder Dube is a general authority seventy, 1dt counselor in the Africa South Area Presid er NYC and this month he will preside at the groundbreaking for the Harare Zimbabwe Temple. Elder Dube was a missionary in the Harare Zimbabwe mission when it was formed, before he served in the South Africa Johanesburg Mission. He was for many years the director of the Church Educational System in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi. He was then mission president of the Harare Zimbabwe Mission when it covered those 3 countries. What was his mission is now 3 and hopefully next year Malawi will get its own mission.
Bryan I think you need a wider historical perspective. When I was born there were 18 temples and at most 5 had statues of the angel Moroni. I am only sure 4 did, St. George (unless I am wrobg), Salt Lake City and Washington DC. With Atlanta it was an outside columnist who got the church to add the statute I have been told, bit that would not be dedicated until 1983. I was born the day temple 18 was dedicated.
I was wrong about St. George. So that means I am down to 3 out of 18 when I was born in 1980. The three with it, Salt Lake, DC and LA were the biggest and to some in and outside the church "the temple's always means the Salt Lake Temple. I have known people outside the Church who really thought the Salt Lake Temple was the only one.
Also in the mid-20th century the DC ward chapel was topped by a statue of the Angel Moroni. So it is possible to put a statue of Moroni on a chapel.
The Frieburg temple was not communist funded. One reason the communists allowed it was the building of it was a huge influx of resources into East Germany.
So when I was born only 3 or 18 temples had the angel Moroni. 15 did not. In the 1940s only 50% of buildings topped by the angel Moroni were temples.
If you look more closely the change really happens when President Hinckley joins the first presidency. Pre-Hinckleyan Kimallean temples like Tokyo and Sao Paulo were built without Moroni.
I think the Atlanta Journal Cobstitution saying "this does not look like a temple" is a big part of the way things unfold.
President Monson allows some non-Moroni Temples.
A question is is it the first presidency or 1st presidency and quorum of CD the 12 who make these decisions?
A new stake, the Ekete Stake was just organized. I believe this is in a suburb of Warri, the largest city in Delta State. Warri is one of the key hubs of the oil industry in Nigeria.
Delta state is just south of Ebo State where Benin City is. It is west of Rigers State. To the east of Rivers State is Abia state where Nigeria's current temple is and Akwa Ibom State, where there are 12 stakes and where the famous picture of Elder Ted Cannon baptizing over 100 as the local brethren baptized a week before and now constituting the branch presidency stand on the sides as witnesses.
Many of the pre-1978 unofficial congregations were in Akwa,Ibom state, although I believe Anthony Obinna was somewhat further inland. Nigeria lacks an Elder Kissi who has written and published a comprehensive history of the church there from a local perspective, so I can not say much for sure. To be fair basically every other country lacks a work of the type of "Walking in the Sand" that Ghana has, Agricol Lozano Herrara's history of the Church in Mexico is about as close as we get, but that was published in Spanish. Keep in mind Agricol Lozano Herrera came from San Marcos, the place of the martyrs, which is also the birthplace of the Church school system in Mexico. I think Agricol Lozano attended the church school in San Marcos. His father was the first branch president in San Marcos whose release was caused by neither murder nor excommunication for breaking the law of chastity.
I do not think any writer has yet adequately placed the pre-1978 congregations in the religious ecology of African indigenous and Pentecostal Christianity in which they sprang up.
For all I have read I can not tell you the Native language of Anthony Obinna. Nor can I state the Native language of David W. Eka, who was a key figure in an early translation of the Book of Mormon I think into Igbo, who was the first state president in Nigeria, and who was an area seventy. Elder Eka is the current president of the Aba Nigeria Temple. Je is either the 4th or 5th Nigerian president of the temple. On the other hand the Accra Ghana Temple has never had a Ghanaian president.
Reported today 12/05/2020 on Classic Maps and www.fullerconsideration.com/units.php, the "Sapele Nigeria District - 2144565", originally organized 06/16/2019, has been consolidated with the neighboring "Warri Nigeria Stake", in the Nigeria Benin City Mission.
As good a questions as "Why, beginning with Russel M. Nelson's leadership was Moroni left off temples?" would be ""Why, beginning with Spencer W. Kimball's leadership was Moroni placed on all new temples and retrofitted onto 5 existing ones?"
Pretty simple answer: when the Atlanta Temple's original design was reviewed by the local newspaper, it received a negative review saying it was not grand, greatly lacking compared to other temples, and missing an angel statue. In response, the church starting putting the statues on all new temples (this time period also coincides with building much smaller temples). These smaller temples did not immediately call out that they were special buildings, hence the addition of the angel statue.
I do agree that going back and adding statues to older temples created a bad culture of making people think a temple without a Moroni was somehow less of a temple than those with them. When in reality the only reason the statues became commonplace was to make the smaller temples look a little more important (simply an architectural detail and nothing more). While I support the current trend of omitting the statues, I do wish the church would communicate this a little clearer (the Church News article referenced is not super clear) to help stop people wondering about it.
I bet those Nigerian General Authorities speak native Igbo, but there are many dialects of that major language. I have worked with 5-6 Igbo linguists. Another was Yoruba, who are maybe half Muslim.
I am assuming you are referring to my article. The editor of the website slipped that line about the Freiburg Temple being funded by communists into the text last minute before publication. I wish I could have linked to the source. In a BYU studies publication it says this:
"Although the Church paid the bills, men working on the Freiberg temple were officially employed by the state. Surprisingly, government officials pulled men from a badly needed housing project to work on the temple." https://rsc.byu.edu/regional-studies-latter-day-saint-church-history-europe/freiberg-germany-temple
So it guess it would have been more correct to say "communist subsidized."
Anyone else notice November came and went and the Mendoza temple did not have a groundbreaking?
JPL, there is one congregation in Uttar Pradesh. It is in Noida, which is essentially a suburb of Delhi (similar to the relation between Arlington, VA and DC). Though the word suburb undersells the size of the place. When I was serving in the New Delhi mission 10 years ago the mission office would frequently receive requests for information and missionaries from people in Lucknow (the capital of Uttar Pradesh) however at that time the brethren were adamant that the New Delhi mission could not send missionaries anywhere outside of the Delhi metro area as part of the centers of strength policy.
Cory, I did notice that as well. Given that the Salta groundbreaking was twice rescheduled due to COVID-19 conditions in Argentina, the delay on Mendoza is not surprising, given the state of the pandemic in that part of Argentina. Resources recently released by the Church appear to indicate that the hope of breaking ground in Mendoza and Harare this year remains strong. As of today, the Church has at least 1.5 weeks to take care of those groundbreakings without detracting focus from the Christmas and New Year's celebrations, so there's still time.
Cory, I tried to submit this comment earlier, but it must not have been approved for some reason. November did come and go without a groundbreaking for the Mendoza Argentina Temple. But that temple had also been conspicuously absent in a couple of articles relating to 2020 temple groundbreakings. That being said, there has also been no word about the Mendoza groundbreaking NOT occurring this year, so I'd count on it at some point this month. I anticipate that the groundbreakings for both that temple and the Harare Zimbabwe Temple will take place at some point between now and December 18, which will be one week before Christmas, so as not to interfere with the global celebrations of Christmas and New Year's Day. Given that the Bengaluru India and Okinawa Japan Temple groundbreakings took place within days of each other, I anticipate that may be the case with the final two groundbreakings in 2020. Hope this information helps.
Interesting about not sending missionaries to Lucknow. I know at one point the Church also insisted on doing all services in India in English and basically would not baptize non-English speakers.
The Church has not even scratched the surface in India.
@Jonatahn Reese Whiting, I’m not sure if my first reply went through or not, apologies if this is repetitive. Several years ago the mission boundaries for New Delhi and Bangalore were adjusted so that Maharashtra (the state Mumbai is in) was moved to the New Delhi Mission, which sent missionaries there. There is now a small branch operating in Mumbai. I have heard from former companions in India that there may also be a home group in Guntur, whether with missionaries assigned or not I don’t know. There is a branch in Goa that sometimes has missionaries, sometimes not. Guntur and Goa are both in the Bangalore Mission. Additionally, when there are sufficient members there have occasionally been home groups, but not missionaries, in the following cities: Eluru and maybe Salem (both in the Bangalore mission), Pune, Dehradun, and Gorakhpur (all in the New Delhi Mission). There has also been a branch in Kolkata for a quite a few years, but no missionaries yet - though since the New Delhi mission was allowed to open Mumbai, I am hopeful Kolkata will also receive missionaries soon.
35 comments:
Hi there, I love reading your postings. I don't know if you noticed or not, but recently the temples being designed since the beginning President Nelson being prophet do not include angel Moroni's. Do you know why that is? I can't figure why angel Moroni's are being phased out of recent temple renderings. It has become more and more noticeable.
I actually wrote an article recently that explored the very question about the Angel Moroni being phased out. You can read it here:
http://www.thisweekinmormons.com/2020/10/from-design-feature-to-global-symbol-rise-fall-angel-moroni-temple/
There are no official statements by any church leader, but I think it is safe to say it is connected with the effort of President Nelson to have a more Christ centered church image.
Unknown, I'm not Matt, the author of this blog, but the Church News published an article back in late July about that very topic. If you read that article, it should answer your question. You can find it at the following web address:
https://www.thechurchnews.com/temples/2020-07-30/why-temples-have-angel-moroni-on-top-history-iconic-statues-189902
Hope this information is helpful to you.
Additionally, Unknown, this article from the Salt Lake Tribune dives into that very question as well from both a religious and seculat perspective:
https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2020/10/02/statue-limitations-under/
Again, hope both of these articles are helpful.
I think it might depend on the area or building permits. Or permits at the time. They might be installed later. I heard that even though the Provo Utah Temple was dedicated in 1972, it didn't receive its Angel Moroni until around 2011. Even some temples that don't have an Angel Moroni build the steeple with enough strength to support one in the future
Personally, this is a change that I like. I think it is in keeping with President Nelson's commitment to recognize the church as The Church of Jesus Christ. It isn't the church of Moroni, nor is it a church of icons and graven images. For decades members of the church have desired that other Christians (and non-Christians as well) recognize The Church of Jesus Christ as a Christian church Yet many Christians are adamant that the Church is NOT Christian. Iconography on our most prominent places of worship suggesting reverence or even adoration of an angel unknown outside of Mormonism, does not help that perception.
I never quite understood the need, after Salt Lake and Los Angeles to put Moroni on every temple, even retrofitting those that didn't have one initially. I remember when it was decided to add Moroni to the Idaho Falls temple in 1983, my sister-in-law (then 20 years old and living in the temple district) was ecstatic. "Finally our temple gets a Moroni just like all the others! It won't be the unwanted step-sister anymore." Her comment revealed her lack of awareness that of the 18 temples constructed between 1836 and 1975 only three (SL, LA, and DC) had Moroni at that time. Starting with Washington DC in 1974, the eleven temples built through the end of 1983 (when Idaho Falls got its Moroni) all had the statue.
As good a questions as "Why, beginning with Russel M. Nelson's leadership was Moroni left off temples?" would be ""Why, beginning with Spencer W. Kimball's leadership was Moroni placed on all new temples and retrofitted onto 5 existing ones?"
Excellent growth in Central African nations of Angola, Republic of the Congo, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Good to see six stakes created in 2 weeks of November, and 9 new locations recently reached by the Church.
An angel Moroni would at least be useful to indicate that some of these upcoming temples are, in fact, temples, and not just attractive but generic little church buildings, which is what they look like. Leaving him off the ones that actually look like temples isn't as big a deal.
@Christopher Nicholson
True, such as in the case of the Winnipeg Temple. Without the angel, it would look just like a regular chapel.
The Cardston Temple has the Liahona on top. So does Liahona High School in Tonga. I wouldn't mind seeing that symbol on a few more temples.
Reported today, 12/04, on Classic Maps and fullerconsiderarion.com/units.php, the new "Ekete Nigeria Stake - 2163942".
https://classic.churchofjesuschrist.org/maps/#ll=5.419846,6.025097&z=10&m=google.hybrid&layers=stakecenter&q=Ekete%20Nigeria%20Stake&find=stake:2163942
Until the 1970s the vast majority of temples did not have a statue of the angel Moroni. The statue is in no way needed to be a temple.
There are good reasons to not have a statue of the Angel Moroni on some temples. In fact with Hong Kong I think it is being removed in the renovation.
No one who has seen the Paris France Temple thinks it is anything but the best. Bishop Causse was closely involved with its building.
Personally I prefer the focus on high art glass and other details seen in the most recent temples over the statute of Moroni.
For what it is worth Angola is in the Africa South Area, not the Africa Central Area.
Angola with 31 million people has about 1 member in every 100,000 people. The Church has no presence in most of the country.
Angola has more people than Texas.
Still Angola is dwarfed by DR Congo at 101 million people, Nigeria at roughly 200 million, and Uttar Pradesh state at roughly 200 million people. Yet if the church has 2 units in Utrar Pradesh I would be shocked. The Church has grown more than 600% in India since 1998 but it is still minuscule in that nation.
Ethiopia with over 90 million people in another place I hope to see growth soon. I was hoping things would take off with a mission there. To understand Ethiopia we have to realize that more people speak Oromo than Amheric. It is among the Oromo and not the Amheric speakers that Protestantism has taken root. Right now the Church only has materials in Amheric of the languages of Ethiopia. It may wait for more languages for much progress to be made. Yet with the Church wanting to have b er lievingnative speakers do translations you at some times run into chicken and egg issues.
How old is the Mutare district? This is Zimbabwe, which has the second longest continuous history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in all of Africa. The Church has functioned in Zimbabwe since the 1920s. Even if we count to the oldest unofficial congregations in Nigeria they did not began until the late 1940s. Ghana saw The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints get government recognition in 1968 although the organizations given recognition then were not brought into the fold until late 1978 and early 1979.
Thus only South Africa has a longer standing presence of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the African continent than does Zimbabwe. Zambia saw the church began a presence in about 1930 but with the end of colonialism there in the 1960s all the white members, who were all the members, left.
The situation in Zimbanwe was a almost as precarious in 1980 when white colonial rule ended. In roughly 1984 when Elder Dube first attended church, invited by the white family he worked as a servant for, he as a black was basically the only black at Church. The white district president ed nt at the time tried to create outreach, and today most members are black.
Since in Zimbabwe the whites were mainly farm owner operators while in Zambia they were mainly mine owners or mining er engineers, the exodus was slower in Zimbabwe. Mining engineers often leave even when there are not political issues at stake, farmers tend to stay unless there are very strong pressures against them. This over simplifies things a little, and especially around 2000 there was lots of political pressure against white farmers in Zimbabwe.
So when I read old district in Zimbabwe what I want to know are we talking 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, or does it post date the creation of Zimbabwe's first stake with Edward Dube as president?
Today Elder Dube is a general authority seventy, 1dt counselor in the Africa South Area Presid er NYC and this month he will preside at the groundbreaking for the Harare Zimbabwe Temple. Elder Dube was a missionary in the Harare Zimbabwe mission when it was formed, before he served in the South Africa Johanesburg Mission. He was for many years the director of the Church Educational System in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi. He was then mission president of the Harare Zimbabwe Mission when it covered those 3 countries. What was his mission is now 3 and hopefully next year Malawi will get its own mission.
Bryan I think you need a wider historical perspective. When I was born there were 18 temples and at most 5 had statues of the angel Moroni. I am only sure 4 did, St. George (unless I am wrobg), Salt Lake City and Washington DC. With Atlanta it was an outside columnist who got the church to add the statute I have been told, bit that would not be dedicated until 1983. I was born the day temple 18 was dedicated.
I was wrong about St. George. So that means I am down to 3 out of 18 when I was born in 1980. The three with it, Salt Lake, DC and LA were the biggest and to some in and outside the church "the temple's always means the Salt Lake Temple. I have known people outside the Church who really thought the Salt Lake Temple was the only one.
Also in the mid-20th century the DC ward chapel was topped by a statue of the Angel Moroni. So it is possible to put a statue of Moroni on a chapel.
The Frieburg temple was not communist funded. One reason the communists allowed it was the building of it was a huge influx of resources into East Germany.
So when I was born only 3 or 18 temples had the angel Moroni. 15 did not. In the 1940s only 50% of buildings topped by the angel Moroni were temples.
If you look more closely the change really happens when President Hinckley joins the first presidency. Pre-Hinckleyan Kimallean temples like Tokyo and Sao Paulo were built without Moroni.
I think the Atlanta Journal Cobstitution saying "this does not look like a temple" is a big part of the way things unfold.
President Monson allows some non-Moroni Temples.
A question is is it the first presidency or 1st presidency and quorum of CD the 12 who make these decisions?
A new stake, the Ekete Stake was just organized. I believe this is in a suburb of Warri, the largest city in Delta State. Warri is one of the key hubs of the oil industry in Nigeria.
Delta state is just south of Ebo State where Benin City is. It is west of Rigers State. To the east of Rivers State is Abia state where Nigeria's current temple is and Akwa Ibom State, where there are 12 stakes and where the famous picture of Elder Ted Cannon baptizing over 100 as the local brethren baptized a week before and now constituting the branch presidency stand on the sides as witnesses.
Many of the pre-1978 unofficial congregations were in Akwa,Ibom state, although I believe Anthony Obinna was somewhat further inland. Nigeria lacks an Elder Kissi who has written and published a comprehensive history of the church there from a local perspective, so I can not say much for sure. To be fair basically every other country lacks a work of the type of "Walking in the Sand" that Ghana has, Agricol Lozano Herrara's history of the Church in Mexico is about as close as we get, but that was published in Spanish. Keep in mind Agricol Lozano Herrera came from San Marcos, the place of the martyrs, which is also the birthplace of the Church school system in Mexico. I think Agricol Lozano attended the church school in San Marcos. His father was the first branch president in San Marcos whose release was caused by neither murder nor excommunication for breaking the law of chastity.
I do not think any writer has yet adequately placed the pre-1978 congregations in the religious ecology of African indigenous and Pentecostal Christianity in which they sprang up.
For all I have read I can not tell you the Native language of Anthony Obinna. Nor can I state the Native language of David W. Eka, who was a key figure in an early translation of the Book of Mormon I think into Igbo, who was the first state president in Nigeria, and who was an area seventy. Elder Eka is the current president of the Aba Nigeria Temple. Je is either the 4th or 5th Nigerian president of the temple. On the other hand the Accra Ghana Temple has never had a Ghanaian president.
Okinawa and Bangalore Groundbreakings right out of the December gates!
Reported today 12/05/2020 on Classic Maps and www.fullerconsideration.com/units.php, the "Sapele Nigeria District - 2144565", originally organized 06/16/2019, has been consolidated with the neighboring "Warri Nigeria Stake", in the Nigeria Benin City Mission.
As good a questions as "Why, beginning with Russel M. Nelson's leadership was Moroni left off temples?" would be ""Why, beginning with Spencer W. Kimball's leadership was Moroni placed on all new temples and retrofitted onto 5 existing ones?"
Pretty simple answer: when the Atlanta Temple's original design was reviewed by the local newspaper, it received a negative review saying it was not grand, greatly lacking compared to other temples, and missing an angel statue. In response, the church starting putting the statues on all new temples (this time period also coincides with building much smaller temples). These smaller temples did not immediately call out that they were special buildings, hence the addition of the angel statue.
I do agree that going back and adding statues to older temples created a bad culture of making people think a temple without a Moroni was somehow less of a temple than those with them. When in reality the only reason the statues became commonplace was to make the smaller temples look a little more important (simply an architectural detail and nothing more). While I support the current trend of omitting the statues, I do wish the church would communicate this a little clearer (the Church News article referenced is not super clear) to help stop people wondering about it.
I bet those Nigerian General Authorities speak native Igbo, but there are many dialects of that major language. I have worked with 5-6 Igbo linguists. Another was Yoruba, who are maybe half Muslim.
John Pack Lambert,
I am assuming you are referring to my article. The editor of the website slipped that line about the Freiburg Temple being funded by communists into the text last minute before publication. I wish I could have linked to the source. In a BYU studies publication it says this:
"Although the Church paid the bills, men working on the Freiberg temple were officially employed by the state. Surprisingly, government officials pulled men from a badly needed housing project to work on the temple."
https://rsc.byu.edu/regional-studies-latter-day-saint-church-history-europe/freiberg-germany-temple
So it guess it would have been more correct to say "communist subsidized."
Anyone else notice November came and went and the Mendoza temple did not have a groundbreaking?
JPL, there is one congregation in Uttar Pradesh. It is in Noida, which is essentially a suburb of Delhi (similar to the relation between Arlington, VA and DC). Though the word suburb undersells the size of the place. When I was serving in the New Delhi mission 10 years ago the mission office would frequently receive requests for information and missionaries from people in Lucknow (the capital of Uttar Pradesh) however at that time the brethren were adamant that the New Delhi mission could not send missionaries anywhere outside of the Delhi metro area as part of the centers of strength policy.
Cory, I did notice that as well. Given that the Salta groundbreaking was twice rescheduled due to COVID-19 conditions in Argentina, the delay on Mendoza is not surprising, given the state of the pandemic in that part of Argentina. Resources recently released by the Church appear to indicate that the hope of breaking ground in Mendoza and Harare this year remains strong. As of today, the Church has at least 1.5 weeks to take care of those groundbreakings without detracting focus from the Christmas and New Year's celebrations, so there's still time.
Cory, I tried to submit this comment earlier, but it must not have been approved for some reason. November did come and go without a groundbreaking for the Mendoza Argentina Temple. But that temple had also been conspicuously absent in a couple of articles relating to 2020 temple groundbreakings. That being said, there has also been no word about the Mendoza groundbreaking NOT occurring this year, so I'd count on it at some point this month. I anticipate that the groundbreakings for both that temple and the Harare Zimbabwe Temple will take place at some point between now and December 18, which will be one week before Christmas, so as not to interfere with the global celebrations of Christmas and New Year's Day. Given that the Bengaluru India and Okinawa Japan Temple groundbreakings took place within days of each other, I anticipate that may be the case with the final two groundbreakings in 2020. Hope this information helps.
That is because the Church was sending real money into East Germany to build the temple, money desperately needed in that country's economy.
Interesting about not sending missionaries to Lucknow. I know at one point the Church also insisted on doing all services in India in English and basically would not baptize non-English speakers.
The Church has not even scratched the surface in India.
Be interesting to see if they can squeeze in the Mendoza groundbreaking before the end of the year.
There is only 1 Nigerian general authority.
@Unknown
Do you know if they've expanded any more since then into other areas of India?
@Jonatahn Reese Whiting, I’m not sure if my first reply went through or not, apologies if this is repetitive. Several years ago the mission boundaries for New Delhi and Bangalore were adjusted so that Maharashtra (the state Mumbai is in) was moved to the New Delhi Mission, which sent missionaries there. There is now a small branch operating in Mumbai. I have heard from former companions in India that there may also be a home group in Guntur, whether with missionaries assigned or not I don’t know. There is a branch in Goa that sometimes has missionaries, sometimes not. Guntur and Goa are both in the Bangalore Mission. Additionally, when there are sufficient members there have occasionally been home groups, but not missionaries, in the following cities: Eluru and maybe Salem (both in the Bangalore mission), Pune, Dehradun, and Gorakhpur (all in the New Delhi Mission). There has also been a branch in Kolkata for a quite a few years, but no missionaries yet - though since the New Delhi mission was allowed to open Mumbai, I am hopeful Kolkata will also receive missionaries soon.
Hey! They did it!
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