Stokes Sounds Off: Additional Church News Reported

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Wednesday, October 3, 2018

Additional Church News Reported

Hello again, everyone! I am back to finally share the additional Church news stories which have recently crossed my radar. Let's get right into all of those. First, in advance of the upcoming General Conference, an article from the Church's News and Events subpage (not to be confused with the official Newsroom), shared two articles, the first of which highlighted how Church members from 3 different continents (each of whom lives outside of Utah) enjoy General Conference every six months.

The second story highlights testimonies from each current member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (shared either during the April General Conference, via social media, or as part of their worldwide ministry visits to various areas) about the divinely foreordained calling of Church President Russell M. Nelson.

I just want to interject a personal note here. Many people who are either ignorant, arrogant, or are lacking a clear understanding of the way the leading councils of the Church craft policy, practice, and general decisions impacting the entire Church have been relentless in advancing the notion that, now that President Nelson is "in charge", he is changing everything he can, as quickly as he can, on no more than a personal preference or whim.

But the reality, which some choose to either overlook or blindly ignore, is that no policy, practice, or decision is ever made by the President of the Church unless and until there is full unanimity about such matters among all those in the apostleship.

While any Church President does have the right, authority, and divinely-mandated obligation to discern and present the will of the Lord to his fellow apostles, unless all feel good about such actions, President Nelson would never unilaterally change such things on a personal whim or preference, without the input, support, and consent of his Brethren.

He and his predecessors have made that abundantly clear. Some people either aren't aware of that or choose to overlook it. Sorry. It's a sore spot for me that so many voice opinions without bothering to educate themselves about how things really work in the Church in that regard.

Getting off my soapbox now, we turn to other developments upon which the Church News has reported. A more complete report was provided about Elder Uchtdorf's recent tour of Europe. Elder Uchtdorf has long been one of my favorites, and I greatly appreciate hearing more about his recent ministry efforts.

In the meantime, the Church News also provided a look at how those of the rising generation have strengthened the Church in Cambodia. And the Church News additionally shared an inspiring love story about two young adults in the Church who helped each other and thereby fell in love as they individually battled cancer.

I greatly appreciated the opportunity to find and share these developments with you all. 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.

2 comments:

  1. Hello again, everyone! Sometime between when I started putting together the post above and now, the Newsroom on the Church's official website posted the following story providing more detail about how the Church's projects (including the construction of a temple) has blessed the general citizenry of Philadelphia Pennsylvania in the two years since the temple was dedicated. That is just one of many stories which will be highlighted this weekend on both the Newsroom website and on the "World Report" which the Church airs on all of its' available video resources in conjunction with General Conference every six months. That story follows at the address below. Thanks again to you all.

    https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/a-philadelphia-story-how-the-church-invests-in-communities

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello again, everyone! It appears that the Newsroom may have jumped the gun in terms of posting the story I mentioned above. It has since been removed, but I assume that that and other stories will be published on the Newsroom website over the course of the upcoming General Conference weekend. When I have word of those additional articles, I will try to post about them here thereafter. Thanks again to you all.

    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.

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.