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.
No comments:
Post a Comment
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.