Today, the Church announced plans to organize the following six missions in July 2023:
- Cote d’Ivoire Abidjan North Mission
- Democratic Republic of the Congo Kananga Mission
- Nigeria Aba Mission
- Nigeria Abuja Mission
- South Africa Pretoria Mission
- Romania Bucharest Mission
The creation of the new missions will increase the number of missions in the Church to 416. I will provide additional analysis regarding these new mission creations in the coming days.
14 comments:
Matt, Maybe you can clarify a difference I have with the published "410 current Missions" reported by both the Newsroom and Church News Articles today regarding the future 2023 6 new missions to be organized next July 2023, to bring the new 2023 total to 416?
According to both my personal list taken from the Classic Maps site, and the www.fullerconsideration.com/dailystats.php on 10/17 when the site went down officially. There was a total of 411 Missions, not 410.
"Date Temples Areas Missions Stakes Districts Wards Branches Meetinghouses
"2022-10-16 173 23 411 3514 516 24277 7044 18293
Broken down by the 23 Church Areas, my totals are 417 with the new 6:
AREA MISSIONS
AFRICA CENTRAL 12
AFRICA SOUTH 12
AFRICA WEST 20
ASIA 11
ASIA NORTH 11
BRAZIL 36
CARIBBEAN 8
CENTRAL AMERICA 19
EUROPE CENTRAL 19
EUROPE EAST 5
EUROPE NORTH 15
MEXICO 32
MIDDLE EAST/AFRICA NORTH 0
NORTH AMERICA CENTRAL 20
NORTH AMERICA NORTHEAST 19
NORTH AMERICA SOUTHEAST 15
NORTH AMERICA SOUTHWEST 23
NORTH AMERICA WEST 29
PACIFIC 17
PHILIPPINES 23
SOUTH AMERICA NORTHWEST 34
SOUTH AMERICA SOUTH 27
UTAH 10
TOTALS 417
AVERAGE 18
I can post the list of all 417 if it helps to find the "extra" one? I believe I know which is not counted int the articles, as it is a mission in name only with no leadership or missionaries assigned that I am aware of since approx. 2016.
Also, I have grouped the 2 Ukraine missions in the Europe North Area, even though on the Classic Maps they weren't assigned officially to any Administrative Area.
Christopher. Are you counting Laie Misión which was created this year?
Yes. My "extra" Mission that I believe the Church is "not" counting in the 410 is the "Nicaragua Managua South Mission - 2012588" originally organized October 15th, 1989, as the Managua Nicaragua Mission. It is a Mission in name only since on the map it shared its borders with the neighboring "Nicaragua Managua North Mission - 1175777" organized June 30th, 2010, since about 2016 on the map. And the South Mission has not been assigned a new Mission President since Pres. Mark Steven Brown in 2016. So given the overlapping mission borders and no new leadership in almost 7 years, I infer no assigned missionaries. And as such a Mission on paper only. And was never officially consolidated with the North Mission since 2016. Those that have access still to the Organizations and Locations Directory can confirm if it is still listed.
I was hoping someone here would confirm that this is my and the fullerconsideration.com/dailystats.php "extra" mission that the Newsroom and Church News sites no longer count.
I have screenshots of both missions from the Classic Maps site just before the site went offline.
Either that, or it could be that the Church secretly operates a mission in mainland China and just isn't telling anyone. My great-uncle's second cousin twice removed's neighbor had a friend who recently got called there.
Sorry, I couldn't help it.
Managua south listed as active, but doesn't have a mission president. Has a mission leader
This is an exciting development. Elsewhere someone asked where thry will pull missionaries from to operate these missions. The think is, none of these are new missions opening new areas, at least not fully.
Abidjan North will allow the huge number of districts in Ivory Coast to be more effectively administered. It may also help with outreach to some under reached parts of West Africa.
I have to admit that getting a separate mission in Dakar would be nice, but the situation in Ivory Coast needed a split.
The Abuja mission is great news. I hope this will lead to more outreach in the northern half of Nigeria, but it will probably be more outreach in the middle region.
Aba getting its own mission is awesome. The south-south region of Nigeria is where most of the Church growth is.
With the number of temples approaching the number of missions I wonder how soon it will be we have a temple announced for every mission. Since some missions have multiple temples that may be a ways off.
Kananga is a city that got a temple before a mission. I wonder how soon Mbuji-Maye will have a temple announced?
Pretoria is a great development. Botswana I think was originally planned to just be that country, but political issues limited foreign missionaries. It also includes Namibia.
I have to admit I also hoped that Malawi would get a mission as well as Benin.
Romania getting its own mission again is a very good development. I wonder if Moldova will be placed in that mission.
New developments in India:
They just built a statue to the Prophet Joseph Smith, of all things (at the request of native Indians)!
Also, Elder Christofferson reflects on the Indian Stake Presidency leadership.
Read more:
https://news-in.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/joseph-smith-india-world-peace-dome
This article also links to another short official article, discussing the history of the Restored Church of Jesus Christ in India:
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/global-histories/india/in-overview?lang=eng
The church didnt build the statue
"Inside Church Headquarters: The location, design and construction of Latter-day Saint temples"
By Sydney Walker 26 Nov 2022, 10:00 PM MST
"...How are temple locations identified? The Presiding Bishopric answers this and other questions about temples
https://www.thechurchnews.com/temples/2022/11/27/23466258/inside-church-headquarters-presiding-bishopric-location-design-construction-of-temples
@Danny
To clarify: I meant they (native Indians - non-members) built the statue, at the request of other native Indians.
The Presiding Bishopric statement seems to suggest temples are not generally announced until a site has been picked.
This of course leads to the next question, at least if I am reading things right, so why are there over 50 announced temples where no site has been publicly revealed?
There are probably different reasons per se in various cases. Most of the time when The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announces a temple site, there is some announcement of at least the rough size. In some cases this may be determined after the initial site is picked.
I am also guessing there may be at least initial moves to get at least some preliminary approvals before the announcement of the site.
There are cases of sites being changed after announcements, Philadelphia was fairly quickly and by a,block or 2. Tegucigalpa is the extreme, in that it was moved after Groundbreaking and so had 2 Groundbreakings.
Nashville, Tennessee was moved when the first location city absolutely refused approval. Harrison, New York had a very specific site, but was never technically moved elsewhere.
There are probably other cases I do not know of.
Tooele Valley to Deseret Peak changed sites.
One reason about the site not being announced would be either getting the site information to make sure it will be good or suitable for a temple. Another may be governmental issues, such as zoning rules and needing to change them.
The church has sometimes not waited for government approvals even to have the groundbreaking. I am not sure whether that was the problem with Tegucigalpa, or if the local government changed their minds after approval. But a couple months ago, just before the Heber Valley groundbreaking, there were a couple news articles in which local officials said they had not yet approved any plans by the church.
Another example is Fortaleza Brazil, ground was broken in 2011, but it wasn't until 2015 that they got a building permit, and construction did not start until 2016.
Post a Comment