Hello again, everyone! Some additional breaking news was just shared that is unrelated to temples or any other recent announcements. As reported by the Church News, some changes have been made in area leadership assignments, with the assignments of other General Authority Seventies also changed in the announcement as follows:
First, the Church News has confirmed all area leadership changes previously shared by ScottS in his comment on that subject in the threads of a previous post, so we now have another official Church source stating that, with Bishop L. Todd Budge's new assignment in the Presiding Bishopric, Elder James R. Rasband replaces Bishop Budge as First Counselor in the Asia North Area Presidency, while Elder John A. McCune in turn succeeds Elder James R. Rasband as Second Counselor in that Area Presidency.
And since Elder McCune has been serving as Second Counselor in the North America Northeast Area, he has also been replaced in that assignnment as previously detailed by ScottS in his aforementioned comment, with Elder Kelly R. Johnson now filling that role. Elder Johnson had previously been serving as an area assistant for that area, so it was a fairly logical shift.
But for the first time of which I'm aware, the First Presidency also provided information today about additional assignments that have been given to other General Authority Seventies. Announced today was the assignment of Elder William K. Jackson as an Asssistant Exeuctive Director of the Church's Missionary Department.
I had previously mentioned that the Church had confirmed that Elder Brent H. Nielson, the newest member of the Presidency of the Seventy, had been succeeded as Executive Director of the Church's Missionary Department by Elder Marcus B. Nash, so it's not altogether surprsing that additional assistants have been called for that department, given how the current COVID-19 pandemic is impacting missionary work.
Meanwhile, in addition to their other assignments, Elder Adrian Ochoa will serve as serve as a Priesthood Advisor for Welfare and Self-Reliance Services and as a member of the JustServe Steering Committee, with Elder Lynn G. Robbins now serving as as a member of the Welfare and Self-Reliance Executive Committee. In light of these announcements, I hope that is an indication that the Church will be trying to be more transparent about the assignments in which each of its' leaders are serving.
I continue to monitor all such news and temple updates and will be sure to pass word of those along to you all as I become aware of them. 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 comments are made in accordance 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.
Hello again, everyone! I had mentioned in my above post that the First Presidency had confirmed some assignment changes, both in area leadership and in committee, council, and departmental asssignments. As some of you might also recall, when I covered the October 31 groundbreaking for the Taylorsville Utah Temple on October 31, I had mentioned that Elder Dean M. Davies was present for that event, which may have marked his first assignment since being released from the Presiding Bishopric and sustained as a General Authority Seventy.
ReplyDeleteAs a result of Elder Davies' attendance, I had conjectured that he was there as either an area assistant for the Utah Area, a representative of the Temple Department, or both. But late last night, I came across some additional information that may indicate something different regarding Elder Davies' attendance.
As some of you might recall, Elder Larry Y. Wilson had served as the Executive Director of the Temple Department until August 1, 2019, at which point he was succeeded in that assignment by Elder Kevin R. Duncan, who has been in attendance at several temple events within the last year.
With that background in mind, here's what I wanted to note: For most of this year, the Church's biography for Elder Duncan has noted his assignment as Executive Director of the Temple Department. But at some point very recently, Elder Duncan's assignment with the Temple Department was altered to "Assistant Executive Director":
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/learn/kevin-r-duncan?lang=eng
And, as we know from Elder Davies' biography, he worked extensively with the Church's Special Projects Division on matters of special purpose real estate, temple design and temple construction:
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/learn/dean-m-davies?lang=eng
Further we also know that, until his reassignment as a General Authority Seventy, then-Bishop Davies had been the represetnative from the Presiding Bishopric serving on the Temple and Family History Executive Council.
What I am attempting to convey here (sorry for rambling through it so much) is that, if Elder Duncan has gone back to an assignment as the Assistant Executive Direcotor in the Temple Department, that could be because now-Elder Davies, given his extensive involvement with temple design, construction, and operation, both before his call toe the Presiding Bishopric and even more significantly after that, the Church may have opted to assign Elder Davies to serve as the Temple Department Executive Director while having Elder Duncan return to his former assignment as an Assistant Executive Director.
Of course, unless and until the Church officially confirms the assignments for Elder Davies and/or Elder Duncan, this is all just conjecture on my part, based on the evidence and facts as I've laid them out above.
Hope my analysis here, length though it was, was helpful in some way to at least some of you. In the meantime, my thanks once again to you all.