Yesterday, the Church in the Philippines organized a new stake from a district. The Mati Philippines Stake was organized from the Mati Philippines District (originally organized in 1988). All five branches in the former district appear to have become wards in the new stake. The Mati Philippines Stake is the fourth stake to operate in the Philippines Butuan Mission (organized in 2006) which services eastern Mindanao. The other three stakes in the mission were organized in Butuan (1989), San Francisco (2018), and Tagum (2021).
There are now 124 stakes and 55 districts in the Philippines.
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How crazy is it to hope for a temple in Butuan?
Since I did say that, I am going to go through my list of 20 temples I am predicting for announcement in October. I hope this is not too soon to post the list.
Yomoussoukro, Ivory Coast
Abuja, Nigeria
Kampala, Uganda
Maracaibo, Venezuela
Iquitos, Peru
Chiclayo, Peru
Florianopolis, Brazil
Joao Pessoa, Brazil
Cancun, Mexico
Santa Ana, El Salvador
Jacksonville, Florida
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Appleton, Wisconsin
Lehi, Utah
Herriman, Utah
San Jose, California
Des Moines, Iowa
Charlotte, North Carolina
Edinburgh, Scotland
Naga, Philippines
I haven't seen any discussion yet about the Church News article about the lifting of the baptism restriction in Mozambique.
https://www.thechurchnews.com/global/2022-07-06/hundreds-of-baptisms-in-mozambique-africa-covid-19-pandemic-restrictions-ease-260708
Apparently no one was allowed to be baptized as part of pandemic restrictions. It reports that around 900 people have been baptized since April 20, 2022. This is is probably one reason for slow down in the growth rate. Here are the membership numbers that have been reported:
2017: 10,835
2018: 12,274
2019: 15,032
2021: 15,549
If no baptisms were allowed during that time, does the 500 member increase in the two years purely represent an increase in the children of record? It would be interesting to see the what the membership increase is at the end of the year and how it will compare to other African Nations that didn't have this type of restriction.
Cory, one of the photo captions in the church news article states: "Cleidy Maria Francisco, center, with other baptismal candidates in Nelspruit, South Africa, April 9, 2022. They traveled over the border from Mozambique in order to have the opportunity to be baptized, before Mozambique lifted the restrictions." It appears that some of the growth in the two years came from those who could cross the border to be baptized. I guess there could be other converts who also joined the church in other countries and returned home during the restrictions.
The increase in membership in Mozambique from 2019 to 2021 was probably almost all due to converts being baptized during the first quarter of 2020.
On the the 3. July the Reinach Ward in the Bern Switzerland stake was closed. The change does not show jet in CDOL or the Meetinghouse locator.
But it is mentionend in the artice about a new Bishop for the Basel Ward on the swiss news room.
https://news-ch.kirchejesuchristi.org/artikel/neue-bischofschaft-basel-2022
The article mentioned the reason was active members moving away and that the Reinach Ward had as many as 90 attending a year ago. Hor most of it's histroy the Reinach Ward had less than 80 attending.
I know form a fiend in the Bern stake presidency that they have been discussing a closing of the Reinach Ward since a few years. They fisrst hoped to build a new larger Chapel in Basel that they could use as a stake center that would have room for 2 larger wards, but plans where deied by the europe area office.
Now that attendance droped rencetly, it looked like the 2 existing chapels had enough room. (The Reinach ward always had rented office space).
The Basel Ward gave some of its area to the Pratteln ward, so that proppably both wards have a similar number of active members. The Bishop of the Basel Ward got moved to Pratteln and the Bishop of the former Reinach Ward became Bishop in Basel. It states that the Basel Ward will now have betweeen 120 and 150 attending. I asume the Pratteln ward will have about the same.
Active membership in the Basel area has been between 250-300 for many years and it looks like it is still in the same area and has propably sligtly declined in the last years.
I think the main reason for closing the Reinach Ward is because the current stake president likes larger wards. He also closed the Bern Ward a few years ago.
The average congergation in the Bern stake has now more than 130 members attending. For the Zurich and St. Gallen stake this number is 80. (+/- 2)
Bunju Branch (2209470) Active Tanzania, Tanzania Branch
Chanika Branch (2209497) Active Tanzania, Tanzania Branch
Kigamboni Branch (2209500) Active Tanzania, Tanzania Branch
Pugu Branch (2209438) Active Tanzania, Tanzania Branch
Sala Sala Branch (2209462) Active Tanzania, Tanzania Branch
Segerea Branch (2209446) Active Tanzania, Tanzania Branch
In the last two weeks 6 branches have been organized\recorded in CDOL for the Dar es Salaam Tanzania District (481475)
Querétaro México Valle Stake (2202409)
Active Date: 10 Jul 2022
San Jose de Iturbide Branch (2067145) Rama San Jose de Iturbide
San Luis de la Paz Branch (226629) Rama San Luis de la Paz
Fresnos Ward (273449) Barrio Fresnos
Juriquilla Ward (2041960) Barrio Juriquilla
Satélite Ward (327875) Barrio Satélite
Valle Ward (2096706) Barrio Valle
The Church News article indicates that some people in Mozambique were able to travel to South Africa to be baptized. It is probably mainly though from new children of record, although with baptisms banned you might also be loosing older children of record who turn 9. The ban on baptisms probably explains why 2 years membership grew by 500 while in the previous 1 year it grew by nearly 3000.
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