New Branch Created in Cairo, Egypt

The Church recently published an article on its Newsroom site regarding the recent visit of Church leaders to Latter-day Saints in Cairo. The article indicated that there is now an Arabic-speaking branch in Cairo to service members, most of whom are recent converts, who primarily originate from Arabic-speaking areas in Africa such as South Sudan and northern Nigeria. The Arabic-speaking branch appears to have been recently organized. The two Cairo branches are small, and there appear to be only approximately 60 active members in the two branches. For more information about the Church in Egypt, click here.

Updated Country Profile - Egypt

Click here to access the updated Reaching the Nations country profile for Egypt. Despite a presence since 1974, the Church in Egypt remains unregistered with the government. The Church has appeared to purposefully keep a low profile in recent years order to avoid any opposition regarding its operation of the only LDS branch in the entire country - the Cairo Branch - as significant Muslim-Christian conflict and terrorism has recently occurred. The Cairo Branch is almost entirely comprised of foreign members. There have been a handful of Egyptian converts abroad and most previously affiliated as Muslim. Although Egypt has the largest Christian population of any country in the Middle East or North Africa, of whom 90% are Coptic Christians, there have never been any formal LDS proselytism efforts to reach them. Click here on more information about ancient Christian denominations in the Middle East and North Africa and prospects for LDS proselytism among them.

Church Growth News

New Stake in Georgia

A new stake was organized in Georgia.  The Conyers Georgia Stake was created from the Atlanta Georgia, Jonesboro Georgia (renamed Fayetteville Georgia), and Lilborn Georgia Stakes and appears to include five wards and two branches.  The new stake becomes the first new stake organized since the Cartersville Georgia Stake in 2006.  There are now 16 stakes in Georgia.   

New Stake in South Africa

Members and missionaries in the Johannesburg, South Africa area report that a new stake was organized today named the Centurion South Africa Stake.  The new stake was organized from the Pretoria South Africa Stake and is the first new stake organized since the Port Elizabeth South Africa Stake in 2005.  There are now 12 stakes and four districts in South Africa.

Church attendance climbs in Mahajanga, Madagascar

Full-time missionaries opened Mahajanga to missionary work 18 months ago and currently there are over 110 attending church meetings.  The rented facility used for church services no longer effectively administers the size of the congregation, prompting a search for a new meetinghouse.  The organization of additional congregations in Mahajanga appears highly likely within the next year as long as sufficient numbers of local priesthood holders are available.   

First district to be organized in Angola in April

Members living in Luanda report that the three branches in the city will be organized into a district this April.  The Church continues to steady grow but ongoing challenges obtaining missionary visas and adequate buildings for congregations delay greater progress. 

Area branches organized in the Middle East and Africa

Four area branches have been organized in Djibouti, Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia.  Prior to the organization of the new branches, there were only three area branches in operation (Asia North Area, Europe East Area, and the Middle East/Africa North Area Branches).  These new area branches appear similar if not identical to administrative branches and provide a means of organizing few members in remote areas that meet in small groups.  The Djibouti Military Branch continues to operate, bringing the number of LDS congregations in Djibouti to two.  

Protests in the Arab World: Outlook for future LDS Church Growth

Protests in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, and other Middle Eastern and North African nations over the past month-and-a-half have greatly interested me and their potential impact on the status and growth of the LDS Church in the Middle East. Many of these nations at present permit Latter-day Saint meetings in private but heavily restrict religious freedom by forbidding or strongly discouraging proselytism, banning the dissemination/importation of religious literature, not granting formal recognition to the Church, monitoring the actions of former-Muslim citizens who join the Church, prohibiting public worship services, and refusing or highly regulating humanitarian assistance. Consequently, the LDS Church does not publish information regarding the names and locations of congregations in many of these countries. Members who visit or move to these nations can obtain meeting times and locations by contacting the Middle East/Africa North Desk at Church Headquarters.

Protests calling for revolution and change in government in many Arab nations have potential to facilitate lasting change for the LDS Church if new governments come to power which grant official recognition to the church; permit public meetings; allow greater opportunities for humanitarian and development work; criminalize religious discrimination and persecution; and permit missionary activity to occur on a member-referral basis. The Church has a small community of Arab LDS converts in several nations, such as Egypt, Palestine, and Jordan, which would enjoy greater religious freedom if government policies and laws become more accommodating to religious minorities.

Unfortunately recent political turmoil and prospects for revolution have no realistic prospects for increasing receptivity to the LDS Church or Christianity altogether in Middle Eastern and North African populations for many years. The homogenous Muslim population displays strong ethno-religious ties to Islam resistant to missionary efforts. Change in government policy and administration would likely have little affect on how Muslim communities socially respond to converts to Christianity, which often includes ostracism, persecution, and ridicule. The Afghan government has granted greater religious freedom to non-Muslims than in many other Muslim-majority nations, yet societal abuse of religious freedom remains intense. A relaxation in government restrictions on Christian groups may allow the LDS Church to reach non-Muslims in the region, such as Coptic Christians - a religious group that the Church has yet to perform organized mission outreach among and who number in the millions in Egypt. Sustained religious freedom granted by the government for Latter-day Saints and other religious minorities may impact receptivity over the long term.

Lastly, there is always the threat a more oppressive government regime may come to power and impose greater restrictions on religious freedom. Time will only tell how current world events will unfold, and how the status of the LDS Church in many of these nations may be affected.

The Most Populous Metropolitan Areas Without a Reported LDS Church Presence

Cities almost always offer greater proselytism opportunity for the LDS Church than rural areas. Large populations concentrated in small geographic areas allow for high mission efficiency with even a small missionary force and few church resources. Cities are generally easily accessible. Rural areas, which tend to be sparsely populated, often require a large number of mission outreach centers to administer a small population and in many areas are difficult to access. Large cities often attract people throughout the region, country, or world to visit, temporarily work, obtain education, or become permanent residents. Latter-day Saint converts from these temporary visitors or residents have many times in the past facilitated the spread of the Church to other unreached areas or even rural communities when they return to their hometowns. The Church has taken advantage of the benefits of city-focused church growth outreach as manifest by the Church generally establishing congregations in the largest cities prior to expanding into smaller cities or rural areas.

There remain many large cities which do not have LDS congregations established. Below is a list of the 14 cities which rank among the world's 100 most populous cities which do not have a reported LDS congregation. Some of these cities likely have groups of foreign or native members, especially in nations with a restricted Latter-day Saint presence like China. Population data was taken from www.citypopulation.de

1. Tehran, Iran (12.8 million)
2. Wuhan, China (8.95 million)
3. Shenyang, China (6.8 million)
4. Chongqing, China (6.4 million)
5. Ahmadabad, India (5.95 million)
6. Chengdu, China (5.7 million)
7. Khartoum, Sudan (4.975 million)
8. Pune, India (4.85 million)
9. Chittagong, Bangladesh (4.625 million)
10. Shantou, China (4.6 million)
11. Alexandria, Egypt (4.575 million)
12. Harbin, China (4.4 million)
13. Surat, India (4.225 million)
14. Kanpur, India (3.675 million)

With the exception of English-speaking branches or small congregations for native members in China, none of the above listed cities appear likely to have LDS congregations created in the near future. Iran, Sudan, and Egypt have heavy restrictions and widespread abuse or religious freedom whereas cities listed above in India are located in areas with few Christians and generally strong anti-Christian sentiments. Bangladesh offers considerable religious freedom for Christians, but the small Bangladeshi Latter-day Saint community concentrated in Dhaka may delay any gains in national outreach for many more years.