Stokes Sounds Off: Update on the Number of Current Area Seventies

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Tuesday, November 6, 2018

Update on the Number of Current Area Seventies

Hello again, everyone! I thought I would take some time right now to provide an update on the number of current Area Seventies. I wanted to first pass along some preliminary information. As mentioned in earlier posts, prior to the October 2018 General Conference, the number of Area Seventies in all but the first two Quorums was within 10-20 members of the maximum 70. Two major factors came into play in relation to those numbers.

The first was the ambiguity and confusion over whether or not the Church had consolidated the 10 North America Areas down to 6 (as there are only 6 area presidencies with oversight of those areas). If those areas had been consolidated (as appeared to be the case), then the composition of the 5th and 6th Quorums would have been altered in some manner, since the Idaho Area has been part of the 5th, and the North America Central Area has been part of the 6th.

Particularly, I had been under the impression that the previously-separate 3 Utah Areas had been consolidated.into a single Utah Area based on what I could find in available sources. But as noted a few days ago, President M. Russell Ballard, who was the Church leader quoted at the time the reestablishment of area presidencies throughout North America were announced, spoke at a regional conference for Saints living in what had been the Utah North Area, and he still referred to them by that designation. So the Utah Areas have not been consolidated, which, by extension, means that there are still 10 North America areas in the Church. 

The second factor was that, as anticipated, there were a massive number of area seventies released during General Conference at the beginning of last month. While not everyone whose potential release I was anticipating actually was released, as of right now, only two Quorums of Area Seventies are anywhere close to having 70 members, and those two Quorums (the 4th and 5th) are 15 and 19 members respectively short of that maximum number. Accordingly, at least for the next year, and barring anything unexpected, I no longer believe we will see any new Quorums established for area seventies.

That said, the data speaks for itself. You will see from it (when I post it below) that the total number of area seventies is now 268. I remember a time when the total number of area seventies was less than 200. But as the Church has grown, so too has the number of area seventies. And we may see a day when more that 6 Area Seventies Quorums are needed to administer the work. We could even see a day when the membership of each Quorum is consistently close to 70. And there are scriptural and doctrinal provisions for each of those scenarios.

The table showing the current number of area seventies follows below. By way of additional explanation, the table has three columns. In the first, the number of Area Seventies serving in each individual Area is shown (with no change having occurred from what is listed here in terms of the relevant areas that comprise each Quorum). The second column shows the total number of members in each Quorum. And the third column shows a running total which adds the number of members in each of the 6 Quorums together.

Here is that table:
Quorum
Totals within each Area
Quorum Total
Grand Total
3rd
11+13+18+4+1
47
47
4th
4+14+20+17
55
102
5th
7+5+10+5+9+15
51
153
6th
7+11+8+14
40
193
7th
18+17
35
228
8th
8+9+11+12
40
268
I hope that this information can prove valuable to at least some of you. I continue to keep as faithful a record as possible of the number of current area seventies, and will pass any additional information about those numbers along as those developments occur. I likewise continue to monitor all Church news and temple developments and remain committed to bringing word of new developments to you all ASAP after I become aware of them.

That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time. Thank you for the privilege of your time. If you enjoyed what you read here and would like to stay informed of newly-added content, please feel free to subscribe. Until my next post, I wish each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.



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