Sunday, October 31, 2021

New Stakes Created in Utah (2), Ghana, Nigeria, North Carolina, Sierra Leone; District Reinstated in Brazil; Stake Discontinued in Utah

Utah

The Church recently organized two new stakes and discontinued one stake. 

The Lehi Utah Canyon Hills Stake was organized on September 5th from a division of the Lehi Utah Traverse Mountain Stake and the Lehi Utah Pheasant Pointe Stake. The new stake includes the following eight wards: the Canyon Hills 1st, Canyon Hills 2nd, Canyon Hills 3rd, Traverse Mountain 1st, Traverse Mountain 2nd, Traverse Mountain 3rd, Traverse Mountain 11th, and Traverse Mountain 12th Wards. There are 18 stakes in Lehi.

The Saratoga Springs Utah Lake Mountain Stake was organized on October 10th from a division of the Saratoga Springs Utah South Stake. The new stake includes the following eight wards: the Harbor Bay, Hawks Landing 1st, Hawks Landing 2nd, Lake Mountain 1st, Lake Mountain 3rd, Lake Mountain 4th, Pelican Bay, and Spinnaker Bay Wards. There are now nine stakes in Saratoga Springs.

The Roy Utah Central Stake was recently discontinued. The stake was originally organized in 1984 and had five wards immediately prior to its discontinuation. These five wards have since been reassigned to neighboring stakes in Roy. The original six stakes in Roy have had few wards assigned to each stake for at least the past two decades. 

There are now 620 stakes and 2 districts in Utah.

Ghana

The Kumasi Ghana Konongo Stake was organized on September 26th from the Kumasi Ghana Konongo District. The new stake includes the following seven wards and four branches: the Ahenbronum, Ahyiaem, Domeabra, Freetown, Lowcost, Nkawkaw 2nd, and the Patriensa Nyaboo Wards, and the Akoasi, Juaso, Mpraeso, and the Nkawkaw 2nd Branches. All of the congregations in the new stake are located in the Konongo and Nkawkaw area.

There are now 28 stakes and 9 districts in Ghana.

Nigeria

The Port Harcourt Nigeria Central Stake was organized on September 12th from a division of the Port Harcourt Nigeria Stake and the Port Harcourt Nigeria East Stake. The new stake includes the following seven wards and two branches: the Akpaju, Elelenwo, Mini-Okoro, Rumuogba, Rumuokwurushi 1st, Woji 1st, and Woji 2nd Wards, and the Elekahia and Rumuomasi Branches. There are now seven stakes in the Port Harcourt metropolitan area - four of which have been organized since 2016. 

There are now 62 stakes and 17 districts in Nigeria.

North Carolina

The Morehead City North Carolina Stake was organized from a division of the Kinston North Carolina Stake (renamed Greenville North Carolina Stake) and the Wilmington North Carolina Stake. The new stake includes the following six wards and one branch: the Harkers Island, Havelock, Jacksonville 2nd, Jacksonville 3rd, Morehead City, and New Bern Wards, and the Camp Lejeune Military Branch. The new stake is the Church's first new stake organized in North Carolina since 2015.

There are now 18 stakes in North Carolina.

Sierra Leone 

The Wellington Sierra Leone Stake was organized from a division of the Kissy Sierra Leone Stake (organized in 2017) and the Kossoh Town Sierra Leone District (organized in 2014). The new stake includes the following five wards and one branch: the Allen Town, Calaba Town, Congo Water, Grassfield, Wellington 1st, and Wellington 2nd Wards, and the Allen Town Branch. The Church has experienced rapid growth in the Kissy Sierra Leone Stake since its organization in 2017 from a district. The new stake is the Church's fourth stake in the Freetown metropolitan area.

There are now eight stakes and two districts in Sierra Leone. The first stake in Sierra Leone was organized in 2012.

Brazil

The Church reinstated the União da Vitória Brazil District on October 24th. The district was originally organized in 1995, but it was discontinued in 2015. The reinstated district includes the same three branches originally part of the district immediately before the district was discontinued in 2015, namely the Canoinhas, Mafra, and União da Vitória Branches. 

There are now 280 stakes and 40 districts in Brazil.

43 comments:

Ohhappydane33 said...

Hi Matt, You haven't summarized the discontinuation of the Pleasanton California Stake.

Matt said...

You are correct! I forgot one - I will make another post to report on this consolidation later this week.

Eduardo said...

Ah, how many stakes has California lost in the last 20 years? Yet still adding temples…
My former stake based in Highland disappeared around 2004. Numbers are incrementally growing there, but, it is strange to see so many stakes go away.
Good news, it seems a niece from California may serve a full time mission. Her older brothers served in Freetown, Sierra Leone and Cuzco, Peru. Their dad served in southern Italy. His dad, also from California, not sure.

Eduardo said...

Checked Cumorah stats. California peaked in 2006 with 161 stakes and has retracted since. The membership peaked in 2013 with around 780 thousand members and has retracted since.
Yet, the temples up north, near or in Yuba City, and in Yorba Linda are promising.
I lived in the state mostly 1999 to 2008.
My temples were L.A., Redlands, and Oakland.
I attended San Diego, and helped my wife attend Fresno and Sacramento. She has been to the Newport one but I have not, yet.

MainTour said...

Looks like the church is very close to 3500 total stakes. Will probably make it to the milestone by year end. I wonder which stake will that be? (MainTour)

MainTour said...

Matt - I cannot find your writeup on the Ashaiman Ghana Bethlehem Stake - July 4th, 2021. (MainTour)

Chris D. said...

With the Lagos Nigeria Egbeda Stake just organizing it's 13th ward, "Egan Ward", this week, I wonder how close it is to splitting the stake again?

170 Nov 02, 2021 Egan Ward

https://classic.churchofjesuschrist.org/maps/#ll=6.554772,3.26166&z=12&m=google.hybrid&layers=stakecenter&q=Egan%20Ward&find=ward:2189216

Along those lines, it has been a while since Matt posted his lists of most likely Stakes to split in the different areas of the Church.

John Pack Lambert said...

Lagos getting another stake would be wonderful. I hope this makes the calculus to an Ibadan Temple easier. Although I don't expect Yorubaland will have a second temple announced until after Lagos is complete.

I do not think the decision on an Abuja Temple is effected at all by events in Lagos.

A Port Harcourt Temple looks possible. The distance calculator I used said it is a 55 mile drive, although unlike one I found before it did not allow calculating to the temple site.

I was thinking it was less than that. Another one gives me 40 miles. The one that gave me 55 looks like it is sending me beyond Aba.

I think there are enough stakes in the combined states of Rivers, Abia and Akwa Ibom to justify both Rivers State and Akwa Ibom state getting temples. Port Harcourt will get the one in Rivers. I am less certain where the one in Akwa Ibom will be located. I am pretty sure these temples and Abuja will round out Nigeria's first 6. I am less sure as to the timeliness.

Legos and Benin City seem to have no progress. Of course who would have thought that when Monterrey was announced there would be 10 more temples announced for Mexico before that temple was dedicated.

Nigeria has fewer stakes than Mexico did when Monterrey was announced, it was close to if not at 100 at that point. Mexicobis bigger but less populous than Nigeria. However while the Church has stakes in pretty much every state in Mexico, there are not even branches in all Nigerian states. Kano is I believe the only city in the northern third of the country with a branch.

Even in the middle of the country there are states that got their first branch less than five years ago, and may still be some unreached.

On the other hand Aba Temple is roughly 11,000 square feet while Mexico City Temple is over 100,000. I believe Mexico City Temple has more surface area than the next 11 temples in Mexico combined.

James G. Stokes said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

@James: Please give JPL a break. I know you just want to get to the bottom of things, but correcting so often is exhausting and takes the fun out of sharing.

James G. Stokes said...

Anonymous, thanks for recognizing my good faith intentions on the one hand and for the suggestion to give JPL a break. Your observationses are on point. I see my comments as efforts to clarify both my viewpoint and to ensure I correctly understand where anyone else is coming from, but I also recognize that I can come across in such comments as abrasive, rude, or abrupt. More often than not, what I say and how I say it has been taken entirely differently than what I intended in providing such comments.

Becuase I agree with you in this case, I think I will go back up over this thread and delete any comments I directed to JPL. Thanks again for recognizing my good intentions on one hand and how those well-intended comments might come across to JPL. I will also be sure to keep myself from commenting in reply to his subsequent comments. Hopefully that will solve the problem for the time being. Thanks again, Anonymous. I know that you and I have had some misunderstandings in the past here (for which I was likely at fault as well), so to see you take the middle ground here means a lot to me personally. Thanks again.

Eduardo said...

I find it sad that two smart people who love the Lord and His Church cannot get along in a simple forum. If that is any representation of humanity, I can see why the Nephites fell.

Bermuda has very few members but geographically should have its own temple.

Daniel Moretti said...

I lost the confusion, I didn't understand what happened...

James G. Stokes said...

Eduardo, I agree with you there 100%. I think in my case, my desire to contribute to the ongoing dialogue on these threads had led me to go overboard too much in trying to pass along information. Unfortunately, JPL and I take very different views regarding some subjects, including and especially relating to the details and timing of the implementation of guidelines on Wikipedia that conform to President Nelson's request. Both JPL and myself have been trying to resolve that conundrum, but from two different perspectives. In JPL's case, he violated Wikipedia policies about assuming good faith about his fellow editors working on this. While I've never crossed that line on Wikipedia and do my best to be civil in those discussions, but my personal impatience about how that process was seemingly misrepresented and mischuaracterized by JPL here led to my numerous uncivil comments directed to JPL in recent threads.

So for the time being, I'll restrict my replies to JPL's comments here, which should not exacerbate these issues further.

As far as your comment about Bermuda is concerned, I'm convinced there will be a temple there one day. The big question is how soon that might occur. It will be interesting to see how that unfolds. Thanks, Eduardo.

James G. Stokes said...

Hey, Daniel. In my reply to Eduardo posted in the last couple of minutes, I explained what happened and why. I'd be happy to address any further questions you have on that matter.

Сњешко said...

I know this may be a more minority held opinion, but I think it is helpful to ask people to provide reasoning on occasion. When this doesn't happen mis-informed ideas can exist. I immediately think back to when someone on this blog suggested that a temple be built in montenegro. Now, as someone who is very familiar with the Church's situation in Montengro it should be noted that Montenegro has gone several years since two native montengrins administered the sacrament, and the country has not had a single non-missionary/ non-american embassy worker branch president. A quick search of the church newsroom would have revealed that Montenegro has less than 30 church members, and the rate of growth is essentially stagnant.

My point with all this is somebody was throwing out ideas WITHOUT DOING ANY reasearch prior to posting. Encouraging more research and evidence to support theories should be regarded as a benefit for this forum. I think that we should also recognize that baseless claims and theories are a detriment to the forum as a whole.

Eduardo said...

Sure, baseless claims and theories and can be detrimental. However, Joseph Smith received revelation about the future temple of the New Jerusalem when there was little chance of really establishing there. Far West maybe even more so.
Jim Bridger thought no one could settle Salt Lake Valley.
The Balkans are a rough part of Europe for Church of Jesus Christ growth, but the continent in general is.
Armenia has had some big developmental problems, we know.
All in due course. Both may have temples by 2030, who knows? That may seem baseless, but crazy or unexpected things happen. Bermuda only has 100 plus members, so unlikely to see a temple there.
I think there ought to be a temple ship.

brycen said...

The dedication for the Rio de Janeiro Temple has just been announced, it is scheduled for May 8, 2022. The officiating General Authority will be Elder Gary E Stevenson.

This leaves 3 current members of the Quorum of the Twelve who have never dedicated a New temple, although all have rededicated at least one. President Ballard is dedicating the Pocatello Temple this Sunday, that leaves Elders Holland, Cook, and Christofferson. I'm sure with the reopening of new temple dedications that all will have that opportunity soon.

I am amazed, it looks like we will have 14 new temples possibly dedicated next year alone, not counting the 2 from this year. This is an exciting time!

Christopher Nicholson said...

If the Church is hoping to have 300 temples dedicated by 2026, as Matt said in another thread, it does seem that the active membership requirements to warrant them will have to be virtually nonexistent.

Unknown said...

It would seem so. One obvious question that raises is how the temples will be staffed. The smaller sizes do obviously require fewer temple workers, and limiting hours of operation helps with that also, but even so there already are many temples that require senior couples from the mountain west to keep them operational. With 300 temples, most of which are likely to require senior couple missionaries, it seems like either there will be fewer senior couples working as proselytizing missionaries (I hope not — I think if you had offered my mission president another senior couple at the price of giving up 2 of the younger missionary companionships, he would have jumped at the offer, and for good reason), or there will need to be a large and sustained increase in the number of senior couples serving missions.

twinnumerouno said...

I would guess that Elder Holland will probably be the one to dedicate Red Cliffs.

twinnumerouno said...

Also rededicating St. George.

L. Chris Jones said...

To make that happen then need to announce 35 more to add to the 265 total temples in any phase, plus a few to accommodate the temples that take more time to build. So if we announce 50 temples in the next2 years and build modular temples or temples that can be built quickly. We still have temples from three years ago that have not started construction. We have about five years by the end of 2026 or just over four before 2026 begins. I've seen most temples don't start construction until 2 to four years after announcement. And most take about 2-4 years to build. Some may take less or more time. Think Moticello Utah and Tampico Mexico, and Louisville KY or Salt Lake, Guayaquil Ecuador and Los Angeles CA.

Gnesileah said...

The announcement to close all the temple cafeterias said there were 24 temples that have them. But I count 34 (based on information from churchofjesuschristtemples.org).

Bogota, Bountiful, Campinas, Cardston, Cochabamba, Dallas, Guayaquil, Hamilton, Idaho Falls, Jordan River, Laie, Las Vegas, Lima, Logan, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Manti, Mesa, Mexico City, Mount Timpanogos, Oakland, Ogden, Portland, Preston, Provo, Quetzaltenango, Recife, San Diego, Santo Domingo, Sao Paulo, Seattle, St. George, and Trujillo.

L. Chris Jones said...

I wonder if the cafeteria closures will allow for renovations to turn them into ordinance space such as a second baptistry. I wonder if this could this be a mini renovation that can be done during a scheduled 6-8 week closure.

Unknown said...

It is unfortunate to see the cafeterias go. The food was actually quite good (at least in the Portland, Oregon temple). I agree with L. Chris Jones, they should definitely consider converting that space into a second baptistry. The more ordinance work, the better.

-Austin

Eric S. said...

@brycen I agree. It's great to see the new dedication date announced for the Rio Temple. It makes me hopeful we will soon see the dedication dates announced for both Yigo and Quito which are completed and the rededication dates for Hamilton and Tokyo which are also both complete with their respective renovations. It will be interesting to see the order in which they are dedicated. Yigo will likely be the first Nelson era temple to be dedicated, but Praia and San Juan seem to be not too far behind in nearing completion (all three were announced in Oct 2018). Next year is shaping up to be a busy year for dedications and rededications! Hopefully groundbreakings and announcements follow suit (as all signs continue to suggest).

Brett Stirling said...

Sydney had a cafeteria. I went not long after it opened in 1993.

twinnumerouno said...

There was also a cafeteria in the Washington, DC temple, though that may have been removed as part of the renovation.

John Pack Lambert said...

I am now wondering if President Nelson will dedicate any more temples. I hope he does, but I think he has now set up a system where such assignments will be rotated between all the first presidency and quorum of the 12.

It will be a long time before anyone breaks President Hinckley's record of dedicating I believe 84 temples. Elder Soares is at 2 though, so he may live to break it.

John Pack Lambert said...

Maybe, but Elder Soares served in the Rio mission and is not dedicating Rio. To be fair when Elder Soares served there Forteleza, Belem, Salvador, Brasilia, Belo Horizonte and Vitoria were all in the mission, and as a Sao Paulo native Elder Soares would be lead contender to dedicate Sao Paulo. As a Portuguese speaker he would be lead contender for Beira and Praia as well. So having Elder Soares dedicate all the temples he us top contender for may not make sense, especially if we do not want him to seem as just the apostle to the Portuguese.

It is more than likely that Elder Holland will be dead before St. George gets a 3rd temple.

John Pack Lambert said...

My guess is in some cases that information may be outdated. I know St. Louis used to have a cafeteria and it was later closed.

Trujillo looks to be the most recent temple with one. Unless Quezaltenango is more recent.

John Pack Lambert said...

I read that the plan is to turn them into break rooms with microwaves. However this will still allow elimination of food pred areas and many end up with less seating. So in some cases it may be part of a renovation strategy.

I doubt a baptistry could be fully put in in 6-8 weeks. My temple was closed for renovation from July until just now, it may not reopen until next week. I would think building a baptistry, even if it is done with no exterior changes, would take about that long.

EP said...

It's disappointing to see the cafeterias close because they always had the best food at reasonable prices and were a nice perk of staying at the temple all day, but I can understand from a labor perspective at a minimum. I just feel for the workers who are at a temple not near other food places. Vegas you would have to drive for a few miles to get to a food place. Kind of discourages people from staying at the temple longer to do work, but maybe that's the point. More frequent shorter visits instead of longer ones once a year or so.

Christopher Nicholson said...

Missionaries evacuated from Ethiopia due to war: https://www.deseret.com/faith/2021/11/6/22766917/why-latter-day-saints-missionaries-and-the-u-s-embassy-are-evacuating-ethiopia

Eduardo said...

The Washington DC Temple in Kensington MD cafeteria closed at least as far back as 2009, maybe 2006 when I lived in the area. I ate there in 1999.
The temples don’t need hot chow, but vending machines with sandwiches would be good.
What is the next temple for Mexico?

brycen said...

I've eaten in the space in the Boston Temple which used to be a cafeteria, a couple of times - it is still a dining area and seems to be a place where the ordinance workers kind of hang out when they are on break. It's a fairly large temple, nearly 70,000 sq ft, and they haven't done anything to reclaim the space. It still has vending machines, tables, microwaves, several refrigerators, etc. Perhaps in smaller temples there would be more of a need to transform the space into other use.

I don't know when it was changed, but it was before my time attending in Boston.

I didn't realize we still had so many temples with cafeterias, I don't recall if I've ever eaten in one.


Eduardo, I can think of several more locations in Mexico that need a temple, but I wouldn't be surprised if the next one is a 2nd Mexico City Temple. With all the major cities getting a 2nd, I think Buenos Aires, Argentina could use one too.

Johnathan Reese Whiting said...

I'm surprised Lima has/had a cafeteria with how small it is.

Johnathan Reese Whiting said...

I always looked forward to our meals in the Temple Cafeterias back in Idaho Falls as a youth and as a YSA.

Whizzbang said...

They split the Winnipeg Manitoba Canada Stake, so now it's the Winnipeg West and Winnipeg East Stake now. They got rid of the Fort Frances District in order to help with the split. Plus a new ward was created, the River Heights Ward. So, now it's two Stakes attending the Winnipeg Manitoba Temple, plus the two wards from Grand Forks, ND

Eduardo said...

Great news from the Canadian plains! That is great.
An amazing list (and a lot of work and insight) would show the next most likely stake to split or be created in every temple district.
I wonder if there are any in Chile.

Elton Sousa said...

Matt.
Sou de Osasco - SP e no dia 14 de novembro foi criada uma nova estaca na região metropolitana Oeste de SP.
A ESTACA CARAPICUÍBA BRASIL foi criada a partir da divisão das seguintes estacas: Estaca Osasco Brasil, Estaca Alphaville Brasil, São Paulo Brasil Raposo Tavares Estaca.
A Estaca Carapicuíba Brasil tem as seguintes Unidades: Ala Ariston, Ala Carapicuíba, Ala Nova Granada, Ala São Camilo, Ala Vila Dirce.
A Estaca Osasco cedeu a Ala Nova Granada, a estaca Alphaville cedeu as Alas Ariston, Ala Carapicuíba, Ala São Camilo e Ala Vila Dirce.
A Estaca São Paulo Brasil Raposo Tavares Estaca cedeu uma parte geográfica da Ala Novo Osasco que agora faz parte da Ala Nova Granada.

Johnathan Reese Whiting said...

Obrigado pela notícia, Elton. :)