Additional Church News Reported

Hello again, everyone! Some additional Church news developments have come to my attention within the last several hours. Let's get right into all of those. First of all, here in Utah, a major compromise has been reached between supporters of the ballot initiative which will go before voters that would legalize marijuana (both for medical and recreational use) and those who have opposed it, including a coalition of governmental and religious leaders and medical professionals who see problems with the wording of the initiative as it now stands.

The compromise, announced today by Utah Governor Gary Herbert, calls for the initiative to remain on the ballot, on the understanding that whether or not it passes, a special session of the Utah legislature will come together to either fix the existing problems if the initiative passes, or to craft legislation to legalize medical marijuana with the proper safeguards and protections if the measure does not pass. Both those in favor of and those opposed to the ballot measure have promised to scale down the level and manner in which their support or opposition is expressed. The Newsroom on the Church website has provided a thorough look at the compromise.

In the meantime, in ongoing efforts to emphasize the increasing influence of international service of our General Authorities, and to provide a look at how highly the Church needs, trusts, and uses international leaders, two articles were provided. The first provides some perspective and thoughts about the growing globalization of general Church leadership from two international leaders who have served as General Authorities since April 1994, Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (who hails from Europe), and Elder Claudio R. M. Costa, General Authority Seventy (who was born and raised in Brazil).

And the final article highlights how a recent interfaith forum demonstrated how the Church and its' leaders are having more of a global influence, politically (on issues, but never on candidates), medically, and on matters relating to both religion in general and the values, doctrines, and principles, which the Church has supported and for which Church leaders have been advocates.

As ever, I continue to monitor all Church news and temple developments. I will also be providing ongoing coverage of developments leading up to, throughout, and directly following General Conference. 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.

New President Called for the Frankfurt Germany Temple

Hello again, everyone! The Church News reported about an hour ago that a new president has been called for the Frankfurt Germany Temple, which was yet another change I had not anticipated when putting together my list of temples which might have a new president called this year. This brings the number of new temple presidents called this year to 67.

But more than that, the new president for this temple is Wolfgang Pilz, who is currently serving as an area seventy. This brings me to revisiting something I have previously mentioned on this blog: in recent years, we have seen an increase in the number of current area seventies who are called to serve as mission or temple presidents in any given year.

For area seventies called to preside over missions, it has not been uncommon to see them continue to serve as area seventies for 1-3 General Conferences following the beginning of their new assignments. For those called as temple presidents, however, the practice has generally been to release them during the General Conference before their service commences (which has traditionally been in November for currently operating temples, and for new temples or those undergoing renovation, that service begins once the temple is dedicated or rededicated.

That said, the number of area seventies on my list of those who may be released now stands at 16 (with 4 who began serving as mission presidents in July, 7 others who will be serving as temple presidents within the next few months, and 5 more who have served for seven years or longer), although in recent years, we have seen far more area seventies than that released each October. It used to be the case that the bulk of changes in area seventies occurred every April, with only a few changes in October, but, as others have observed in previous comments here, that does not seem to be the case now.

In the days ahead (particularly at some point during the upcoming General Conference weekend), we are sure to learn more about what President Nelson has planned for future temple-building efforts in the Church. And if those turn out to be on the scale that many (myself included) have heard is possible and likely, we are almost certain to see an increase in the number of temple developments reported, and that in turn may lead to additional news about new temple presidents in the years ahead.

To the best of my ability, I continue to monitor all Church news and temple developments and will bring word of those to you all ASAP after I learn of them. I will also be providing extensive coverage of whatever occurs during this General Conference weekend. 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.