Wednesday, March 18, 2020
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I have had a lifelong love for Church history, which has extended to ongoing reports of the ministry of our apostles and prophets, General Conference, and all temple developments. This blog enables me to share that love with all who read my thoughts on these developments, which are sometimes reported multiple times per day as needed.
7 comments:
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.
Hello again, everyone! The Church just provided these updated guidelines for temple worship as information about the spread of COVID-19 continues to change:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.thechurchnews.com/temples/2020-03-18/coronavirus-covid-19-temple-adjustments-lds-177787
It also appears that the Newsroom summary of developments relating to COVID-19 is currently unavailable in English. Stay tuned for more information as news and updates are reported.
https://www.thechurchnews.com/temples/2020-03-18/coronavirus-covid-19-temple-adjustments-lds-177787
Hello again, everyone! The Church News has shared two new reports, one of which contained details of a surprising nature. So let's get right into those. A short while ago, as I mentioned in another thread, Sister Sheri L. Dew, a former member of the Relief Society General Presidency who has authored a couple of biographies of now-deceased apostles and prophets, wrote an article about "compensatory blessings" that the Church can experience while business-as-usual for the Church is interrupted as a result of COVID-19. In response to that article, the Church News has received numerous comments from readers, which began to be shared in the following article:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.thechurchnews.com/members/2020-03-19/coronavirus-covid-19-latter-day-saints-compensatory-blessings-177700
The other article is the one that brough a surprising development. The Church News continues to announce new temple presidents and matrons and to share new biographies for these new leaders. 5 more biographies were shared:
https://www.thechurchnews.com/callings/2020-03-19/read-about-these-5-new-temple-presidents-and-matrons-177426
The surprising development of which I spoke was that, among those whose calls were announced and whose biographies were shared are going to be the first president and matron of the San Juan PUerto Rico Temple. This is a surprising development because construction is just beginning, and because it is hard to tell at this point whether that temple will even be dedicated before the end of next year. I'm sure the Church has its' reasons for announcing that call this early, but it was still a surprising development. It does open the possibility that many more of the first presidents for temples now under construction which could be dedicated within the next year may be announced as well.
Among the other newest temple leaders called are also a new president and matron for the Oklahoma City Oklahoma Temple, which was privately rededicated in one session last year. The OKC temple was one of 10 temples on my list for which the then-current presidents had had their serice interrupted by their temple's renovation, so I had not been certain that new presidents would be called for those. But given that this has happened for OKC, it couold alsod happen at least for the the Baton Rouge Louisiana, Mesa Arizona, Raleigh North Carolina, Tokyo Japan and Washington D.C. Temples, which have reopened within the last year or will reopen within the next.
Above and beyond that, however, the following additional notes on the newest temple presidents may be of interest to some of you. Among those called are 1 former area seventy (who is succeeding another former area seventy), 1 current member of a different temple presidency (the first San Juan Puerto Rico Temple president serves as a counselor for the Santo Domingo Dominican Republic Temple), 1 former member of a different temple presidency than the one for which he will now serve as president (a former counselor in the Seattle Washington Temple presidency will be the new president of the Meridian Idaho Temple), and 1 current counselor in the Toronto Ontario Temple presidency who will assume oversight for that temple.
As a result of the 5 newest temple presidents and matrons who have been called, I have updated my list of temples which have gotten or may get a new president in 2020, and you can find the updated version at the following web address:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qcf4P9oxAlBJ7Mh20Ixy11WQ7BQGxOtgqIRwnFhSn6A/edit?usp=sharing
My thanks once again to you all for your continued interest and ongoing support.
Hey James,
DeleteShortly before the Salt Lake Temple closed there was an article that talked about the Presidency being released and a former Temple President from a different temple was interviewed. He said that in some cases the Presidency is released when a temple closes for renovation, but not always. (He wasn't)
That said I can verify that of the temples currently closed the following do not have temple presidents: St. George, Salt Lake, Hamilton, Washington DC, Tokyo, and Hong Kong.
Thanks, Scott, for that information, of which I was not aware. I appreciate you weighing in here. I will keep that in mind. But those temples, among others, are a few for which the listed presidents have served long than the standard 3 years of service. So I anticipate a large number of temples will have new presidents announced. And I'm sure there are bound to be some temples for which a new president is announced which may take me by surprise and won't have been on my list. Thanks again, Scott, for bringing that information to my attention.
DeleteApparently, while I was working on my previous comment, the Church News published the following additional article:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders-and-ministry/2020-03-19/lds-church-donates-relief-efforts-bushfires-australia-kangaroo-island-177818
Thanks again, everyone!
And the Newsroom has provided the following updates on the continued adjustments being made due to COVID-19:
ReplyDeletehttps://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/coronavirus-update#distribution-stores
And the list of temples which have temporarily closed due to COVID-19 has been updated:
https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/coronavirus-update#temple
I am unsure which temples have been most recently added to that list, but the number of temples temporarily closed due to COVID-19 has now reached a total of 46. My thanks once again to you all.
Hello again, everyone! The following additional articles have been published, which largely speak for themselves:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.thechurchnews.com/members/2020-03-20/earthquake-utah-salt-lake-city-damage-church-facilities-177899
https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/coronavirus-update#distribution-stores
https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/coronavirus-update#temple
As I noted yesterday, I am unsure which parts of the temple section for that last article have been updated: I just know that the section itself contains updated information of some form. In the meantime, my thanks once again to you all.