Instead, Elder Craig C. Christensen, a General Authority Seventy with pioneer ancestry, who is also currently serving as President of the Utah Area, has been asked to fill that assignment. KSL carried a one-on-one interview between one of the anchors and Elder Christensen, who discussed the honor he felt at having been asked to represent the Church and the Brethren in responding to this assignment.
Additionally, I have a couple of preliminary insights to offer due to the August 2019 Ensign being made available in its' HTML format earlier this afternoon. As has been the tradition for at least the last 20 years or so, the area leadership assignments, as they were announced in late April, were confirmed therein. Two takeaways from that: For the first time in a year or two, there have been no changes whatsoever in those assignments since the original announcement was made.
Also, beyond a general statement confirming the merging of seven North American areas into three, the specifics were not spelled out. One or two sidenotes as well: first, for the last several years, the August edition of the Ensign has featured the area leadership assignments on pages 14-15, but this year, that edition of the Ensign has those featured on pages 36-37, which I assume is where they had space for them.
And secondly, until the PDF version of the magazine is made available, there is no way currently to tell if there has been any change in the magazine editors and advisers, as has typically been the case each year. But I will be watching for that information and will pass it along here once I learn of it. In that respect, I am only anticipating 3 changes.
Brian K. Ashton, who served as Second Counselor in the Sunday School General Presidency until April of this year, was released as an adviser to the Church magazines as a result of his release as a general officer of the Church, so he is likely to be replaced by a new member of that same presidency. Last month, Elder Erich W. Kopischke was also released as an adviser to the Church magazines, in view of his new assignment ias a member of the Europe Area Presidency.
And Elder Donald L. Hallstrom, who has been an adviser to the Church magazines for a couple of years now, will observe his 70th birthday in just 4 days. Since he will likely be granted emeritus status during the upcoming October 2019 General Conference, I would anticipate his release as an adviser has occurred as a result. Insofar as I have been able to ascertain, official confirmation of this information is still pending. But when I find anything more solid in that respect, I will be sure to bring it up here.
I continue to also monitor any and all Church news and temple updates and will bring word of the significant highlights to you all here as well. That does it for now. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such feedback is in compliance with the established guidelines. 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.
In order to not disturb the flow of that information, I
will end here as I always do: That does it for now. Any and all comments are,
as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such
feedback is in compliance with the established guidelines. 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.
