Stokes Sounds Off: Additional Church News Reported

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Monday, July 16, 2018

Additional Church News Reported

Hello again, everyone! Although Church and temple news has slowed in recent days, there have been a few interesting stories published within the last 8-12 hours or so, which I am pleased to pass along to you now.

First, after a brief hiatus, the Church News resumed publishing articles about new Church leaders who were sustained in General Conference last April. The latest article in that series features an introduction to Bonnie H. Cordon, who, as you may recall, served as Second and First Counselor in the Primary General Presidency prior to being sustained as the new Young Women General President. The things that were highlighted about her experiences were interesting to read about.

Next, at some point yesterday, the Church News published this inspiring account of a man who has volunteered with the Church every week since his retirement 2-3 decades ago, which has constituted over 25,000 hours of service he has rendered. It is not uncommon in the Church for retired men to render service so extensively, and this latest account was certainly inspiring.

BYU-Provo has announced the theme of their 2018 Campus Education Week: "Doubt Not, Fear Not". It has been traditional for one of the leaders of the Church to be the featured speaker at the devotional held in conjunction with that annual event, and this year, that speaker will be Primary General President Joy D. Jones. This article provides more details on that.

Another natural disaster has struck the Asia and Asia North Areas of the Church, specifically through Japan, Taiwan, and eastern China. This article provides more specific details on how members, missionaries, and Church facilities were impacted by that natural upheaval.

And finally, the Deseret News reported today that the cooperative effort which began a month or two ago with the NAACP (which included a press conference with statements from President Nelson and the president of the NAACP) is continuing today, with the two organizations launching a joint initiative which will focus on education and employment.

Elder Jack N. Gerard, who was just sustained as a General Authority Seventy last April and who serves as Executive Director of the Church Public Affairs Committee, represented the Church in speaking at an NAACP gathering to introduce the initiative. Mormon Newsroom provides more details here.

I continue to monitor all Church news and temple developments and will do my best to pass word of those along to you as I receive it. That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. 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.

4 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Hey, Chris! I hope you're doing well. I was surprised to see that you had removed your own comment. I always appreciate hearing from you, so I hope you continue to feel free to leave subsequent comments as you feel impressed to do so. Thanks for always taking time to share your thoughts.

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    Replies
    1. James, I don't remember why I removed that last comment. Usually I remove a comment when I want to edit and rewrite what I had submitted. However now I don't even remember what this original comment was.

      Delete
  3. Okay. Good to know. If you do happen to remember what it was, I always appreciate hearing from you. Thanks, Chris!

    ReplyDelete

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.

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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.