Hello, everyone! I am back again, this time to report on how the Church created two stakes yesterday: 1 YSA Stake (in Lethbridge Alberta; AFAIK, that is the first YSA stake to be created in Canada) and the Eagle Mountain Nolan Park Stake. I will not attempt to analyze what this might mean in the context of Church history, nor do I intend to report on which units comprise these new stakes. Other resources do that well, and it's not my specialty. Others do that so well, and I will not take that from them.
For the details that are known, you can find information here (the LDS Church Temples page devoted to newly created units) and also within the next few days or so on the LDS Church Growth Blog (where Matthew Martinich, a Church growth expert, will put these developments into their proper context). For now, I wanted to mention that, with recent unit developments, there has been a net increase of 37 stakes, a net decrease of 11 districts (though some of that is due to districts being upgraded to stakes) and a net increase of 53 wards and branches.
That said, I do also want to note what has been so well observed by a couple of you that have commented on this blog: the number of wards & branches do not reflect what are called "sensitive units" that are counted on the Church's end of year report but are not counted by many sources that track general units developments. I am told there are around 100 of those. That being the case, the number of stakes now stands at 3,303, while the number of districts is 545, and the total number of units counted by most sources is 30,357, with the actual number of total units somewhere around 30,475 or so. That does it for this update. Comments are always welcome and appreciated. For now, thank you for the privilege of your time, and may the Lord continue to bless you all.
Monday, August 28, 2017
Two New Stakes Created
I have had a lifelong love for Church history, which has extended to ongoing reports of the ministry of our apostles and prophets, General Conference, and all temple developments. This blog enables me to share that love with all who read my thoughts on these developments, which are sometimes reported multiple times per day as needed.
7 comments:
In addition to my life-long love for the subjects which I cover in the posts of this blog, I have long held the belief that we can disagree without becoming disagreeable. Differences of opinion are natural, while being disagreeable in expressing those differences is not. And in that sense, I have no desire to close the door on anyone who earnestly desires to contribute to the ongoing dialogue on subjects covered in the posts on this blog.
At the same time, however, I recognize that we live in a time when incivility, discourtesy, unkindness, and even cyber-bullying has regrettably become part of online interactions. With that in mind, while anyone who wishes can comment on anything if they choose to do so, I hereby reserve the right to immediately delete any comments which are critical, unkind, lack civility, or promote prodcuts, services, and values contrary to either the Church, or to the rules of online etiquette.
I'd also like to remind all who comment here that I try to respond personally to each individual comment as I feel is appropriate. Such replies are not meant to end the conversation, but to acknowledge earnest feedback as it is submitted.
And in order to better preserve the spirit and pure intentions for which this blog was established, I also hereby request that anyone not commenting with a regular user name (particularly those whose comments appear under the "Unknown" or "Anonymous" monikers, give the rest of us a name to work with in addressing any replies. If such individuals do not wish to disclose their actual given names, a pseudonym or nickname would suffice.
Any comments made by individuals who opt to not give a name by which they can ber identified may, depending on the substance and tone of such comments, be subject to deletion as well. I would respectfully ask that all of us do all we can to keep the dialogue positive, polite, and without malice or ill-will. May the Lord bless us all in our discussion of these important matters.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
That is awesome for Eagle Mountain Utah and Lethbridge Alberta. As in Alberta I anticipate a new YSA stake in Idaho Falls soon. There are five YSA wards in Idaho Falls, Ammon, and Ucon split between different traditional stakes. Both Shelley stakes and Firth to the south each have a branch. Eastern Idaho Technical College just got upgraded to. Community college. The first semester as a community college began last week with a 100 student increase from last year and they expect more in the spring. It is anticipated that more students will stay in town for at least the first two years of school. I hope for more growth among the young LDS and look forward to an expansion of the institute and maybe some student housing.
ReplyDeleteInteresting information, as always, Chris! Thanks for sharing. In terms of the YSA stakes, I know the Church started small, and that most YSA stakes created have been in the traditional Mormon corridor. But I have heard from several of my sources that YSA stakes will soon spread to other areas of the US and Canada, and that some will be established, where practical, in other areas of the world. I hadn't heard any information about a possible YSA stake in Idaho Falls, but I don't doubt what you say about how it might be feasible. I do know that my parents' stake in American Fork, Utah established a Singles' Ward sometime around the time my older sister became a Young Single Adult. But it wasn't until I had been married for a few months that what was then the AF 34th YSA ward of the AF East Stake became part of the newly-created Lehi Utah YSA Stake and its name was changed to the American Fork 1st YSA ward. So I can personally attest to how the Church takes things in small strides. I don't mean to assert in any way that I have any knowledge relating to the YSA units in Idaho Falls, but I will say this: the YSA ward that was established in my stake did not become part of a YSA stake until around 8-10 years after the ward was established. So I know from my observations of that process that the Church carefully considers how, when, and where such units should be established, along with considering the question of if there will be enough interest and priesthood support from surrounding stakes to enable such stakes to be successful. Please keep me posted on any news about the potential YSA stake you mentioned, Chris. Thanks for your comment.
DeleteThe idea of a YSA stake in Idaho Falls is my own and others who may have speculated the feasibility. As far as I know there have been no official reports of this possibility. I hope to see it happen soon as more students stay here or others that choose to come here to begin thier studies. However this school may pull some students from ISU, BYUI, and other schools at least for the first year or two before they transfer. We may see the first major increase after the recent high school graduates return from missions in two years. This area is about 50% or more LDS, so I think a significant portion of the students will also be LDS. The institute is smaller than others on the Mormon corroodor, so I expect that will have to expand soon as well to accommodate the growth.
ReplyDeleteMore info on the College of Eastern Idaho. At the ribbon cutting last week they said that this semester they have 800 students enrolled(100 more than last year). They said they expect to double the enrollment in January for spring semester. The school began in 1969 as a vocational school. Last may we voted to make it a community college. They are now working on adding more programs and associates degrees. The school is said to be able to handle about 4000 students and there is some space/land they can use to build and expand beyond that in the future. I am not sure where the institute will expand. I think it's space is small unless there is a land swap or another lot near campus to build on.
ReplyDeleteThanks for that clarification, Chris! I hope you know that I didn't mean to sound as if I was discounting the idea of any YSA stakes anywhere. My only objective was to describe, from my observation, how long it took between the initial creation of my stake's YSA ward to the time it joined one of the first YSA stakes established in that part of Utah County. I for one am glad to see any ward or stake devoted to special groups, including YSAs, Single Adults, and different language wards. I have previously spoken here and on the LDS Church Growth Blog comment threads about the fact that, during my six years as a temple worker, the most common foreign languages in which I assisted patrons were Spanish and Portuguese. In my current resident city of Orem Utah, we not only have at least 3 YSA stakes, we also have foreign language units in almost every stake. In the stake of my current residence, the Orem Utah Geneva Heights Stake, we have one ward each in Portuguese and Spanish. So I hope it is clearly understood how much I appreciate these units for specific groups, and I hope we will hear of many more such units being established in both the immediate, near, and far distant future. In the meantime, thanks for your ongoing comments, Chris! You inspire me.
DeleteAbout the sensitive units, I am not sure about how to report them or not. It is easy enough to count the units on 31 December of the year, and wait for the April statistical report on wards and branches.
ReplyDeleteTHere are four sensitive wards and something like 108 sensitive branches. The owner of the Cumorah International Resources site has done a good job on reporting on most of them. Also the number of districts on 31 Dec versus the Church reported ones in April revealed a discrepancy of negative 11.
From a Pakistani sister that was at the Temple Square mission, there are three districts in Pakistan and something like 12 or 13 branches. That leaves eight districts in other countries marked sensitive, as well as between 95 and 96 branches marked sensitive. I would be willing to bet dollars to donuts that those 8 and a sizeable majority of those 95 are in PR China.
Bryan, thank you for your comment. You were the one that originally tipped me off about the number of sensitive units. While you are right in a way that any calculations of the number of those units may have to wait until between the end of the year and the April Statistical Report, it is enough to know that there are a "certain number" of them that need to be added. I think one of the main reasons I may have been so far off on my estimates of previous units is that I have not taken these "sensitive units" into account. Based on what is known about how many of them there will be at the end of this year, I can go on from there to make an educated projection from which to add the number of wards and branches. Of late, I have been thinking that the best way to do that would be to take an average of 75 and 100, which is between 87 and 88. So that might be a good rough estimate. Based on what has been reported in terms of unit developments this year, maybe some of these units will have been upgraded to wards or branches. So that seems to be a sound way to figure out those averages. There have been a lot of unit developments since I wrote this post on Monday, and that will play into the total number of units I report in my next such update. Until more is known, I will continue to use my best judgment. For now, thank you for commenting further on this issue. Hope you are well.
Delete