Hello again, everyone! As many of you are no doubt aware, the First Presidency's 2020 Christmas Devotional is coming up on Sunday. Through 2012, the devotional featured addresses from the entire First Presidency. But in 2013, the Church announced that the format would change to allow other general Church leaders to participate. Beginning in 2014, and clear through last year, almost every year has seen 4 speakers: 1 member of the First Presidency, 1 member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, 1 member of the Presidency of the Seventy, and 1 of the 15 General Officers of the Church.
The one exception to that general pattern occurred in 2017. For that year's devotional, aside from a member of the First Presidency, only 1 General Officer of the Church and 1 of the Church's General Authority Seventies were selected to speak. But since that was the sole exception to the general format, I have a rough standard template to draw on when considering who might speak each year. What might the general pattern tell us about the potential speaking lineup for this year's devotional? That is a question I will attempt to answer in this post.
Firstly, since the new format and general template for the Christmas Devotional was introduced in 2013, only the counselors in the First Presidency have conducted the devotional, generally alternating each year. We also know that since President Nelson became Church President, he has only opted to conduct 1 session of General Conference (the Sunday Morning Session in April 2018).
Since his almost three years as Church President, he's done an excellent job of delegating things, so I think it may safely be assumed that, for the most part, President Nelson will leave the task of conducting each year's Christmas Devotional to either of his counselors on an alternating basis. With President Oaks having conducted the 2018 devotional and President Eyring conducting the one held last year, I am predicting that President Oaks will be the one to conduct this year's devotional. And since President Nelson spoke during the 2018 deovotional and President Oaks did so last year, it seems safe to predict that President Eyring will be the representative speaking on behalf of the First Presidency.
In terms of the speakers from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, we have heard from then-Elders Nelson and Oaks, along with Elders Bednar, Christofferson, Stevenson, and Soares. Based on which Quorum mebers have spoken, among those who have not done so are President Ballard and Elders Holland, Cook, Andersen, Renlund, and Gong. You may note the omissions of Elders Uchtdorf and Rasband. In listing the current Quorum members who have not spoken, I didn't include Elder Uchtdorf, since he previously spoke twice during that devotional while he was serving as President Monson's Second Counselor in the First Presidency.
While it is also true that Elder Rasband has not yet been tapped to speak in the Devotional since his call to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in October 2015, he was the first member of the Presidency of the Seventy assigned to speak when the noew format first took effect in 2013, so I'm considering that in my analysis. Although any of the others I mentioned could speak, for some reason, the thought occurred to me that Elder Neil L. Andersen might do so this go-round. But any of those who have not yet done so would be great to hear from this weekend.
Meanwhile, the mmbers of the Presidency of the Seventy who have spoken to us have included Elders Ronald A. Rasband (as noted above), Richard J. Maynes, L. Whitney Clayton, Craig C. Christensen, Terence M. Vinson, and Patrick Kearon. Only two of those just mentioned remain in the Presidency of the Seventy. In 2017, General Authority Seventy Elder Kevin R. Duncan was asked to speak. From among the ranks of the General Authorities of the Church, only the Presiding Bishopric has not been represented in aan assignment to speak during the devotional. In view of that fact, I am predicting this go-round that Presiding Bishop Gerald Causse may be tapped to do so this go-round.
As far as general officers of the Church are concerned, we have heard twice from the Primary General President (the current one and her immediate predecessor), and once each from the since-released Young Women and Relief Society General Presidents and the since-released First Counselor in the Young Men General Presidency, the current Second Counselor in the Primary General Presidency and First Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency .
Although we have not yet heard from a member of the Sunday School General Presidency, the last time we heard from the Young Women General President in the Christmas Devotional was 6 years ago, so I'm predicting that Sister Bonnie H. Cordon may be tapped to speak this time around, though I would not in any way be shocked to see something else happen.
In summary, I am predicting that, for this year's devotional, which will be held this Sunday, that President Oaks will conduct, and that the speakers will be Sister Bonnie H. Cordon, Young Women General President, Presiding Bishop Gerald Causse, Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and President Henry B. Eyring, Second Counselor in the First Presidency.
Anyone interested in doing so is more than welcome to look over the history I have kept on these Christmas Devotionals, and if any of you have any thoughts on the predictions I've laid out for this year, I'd love to hear from you. I look forward to this Sunday's devotioynal regardless of whether or not I correctly predicted any or all aspects of this devotional. Whatever might happen in that respect, you can count on my passing along whatever is reported after that is made available.
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! The latest episode of the Church News podcast has featured Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.thechurchnews.com/podcast/2020-12-01/episode-7-elder-holland-testimony-covid-19-pandemic-health-restored-gospel-198716
And several general officers of the Church recently joined together to participate in a virtual walk to raise awareness for global hunger:
https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/church-leaders-raise-hunger-awareness-virtual-walks
My thanks once again to you all.
This afternoon, the Church News also reported on the virtual walk for global hunger:
DeleteMy thanks once again to you all.
Yesterday, I published a post about the release of the schedule for Churchwide Events which are set to be held next year. Apparently, at some point between now and then, the Church has also noted additional details about other events for next year. The BYU Women's Conference, which will be held at the end of April, will feature Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles as a keynote speaker:
ReplyDeletehttps://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/event/2021-byu-women-s-conference
Additionally, it has been noted that the May 2021 Worldwide Devotional for Young Adults will feature Elder Gary E. Stevenson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, marking what I believe is the first time in quite a while (if it has happened at all) that the first two devotionals for YSAs in any given year both feature speakers from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles:
https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/event/may-worldwide-devotional-for-young-adults
It is currently not clear whether or not Elder Stevenson's wife Lesa will also be in attendance/offer remarks during that devotional.
Additionally, it has been announced that Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, along with Sisters Jean B. Bingham, Relief Society General President, and her First Counselor, Sister Sharon Eubank, will be the featured guests for the mid-June Face-to-Face event for Single Adult members of the Church:
https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/event/face-to-face-for-single-adults
It appears that the featured guest for the Face-to-Face event for Young Single Adults in September of next year will be announced at a later time. In prior years, the first and last devotionals for YYAs every year have featured apostles, with another speaker from the general Church leadership featured in May. With apostles announced as the featured speakers for the first two devotionals, it is anyone's guess whether another member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles or First Presidency will be featured in September's devotional.
So there are the additional details on Churchwide events that will be held next year. I have a feeling that the increased participation of apostles in the Churchwide events has a lot to do with the fact that most of the leading Brethren have not been able to make many of the usual public appearances or visit congregations of Latter-day Saints and friends of other faiths during COVID-19.
Hopefully these additional details are helpful to many of you. My thanks once again to you all.
This also appears to be the first time they have held a Face to Face or similar event for children and 31+ aged single adults. When they started these it was YSAs and youth faily close to each other each for the first ones.
ReplyDeleteThe McAllen Temple groundbreaking was put on Youtube last Wednesday and revealed a possibe pattern for where temples might be announced. May be that they are going by coordinating councils if the area is more than at least 200 miles away from the nearest one announced or built already. Those related to McAllen were in that areas coordinating council. In an area like Dallas, the would go by member population and utilization of an existing temple before announcing another, there are other factors besides that I've mentioned that they might use also.
Hello, Jim Anderson, and thanks for taking time to comment. You may be right on both counts. Last November, the Church did have a Face-to-Face event for all children and youth in the Church to introduce the new program, but this may be the first exclusively for youth. It's not surprising that they are expanding to do one for the gingle adults of the Church. Among the leading Brethren of the Church, President Eyring was the oldest at the time of his marriage, age 29. And we have Sister Eubank in the Relief Society General Presidency who is a single adult herself. Since the population of older single adults in the Church appears to be increasing, it makes sense that an event specifically geared for that demographic group would be on the calendar.
DeleteThe interesting tidbits about temple construction plans just keep coming, don't they? It would make sense that if the Church has established a coordinating council in a specific region, at some point, a temple would be established within that region. As we also know, there are plenty of locations that could get a temple, with a variety of factors determining when and how soon that might happen.
As we've seen, temple groundbreakings are just one of many settings where intel about temple locations can be gleaned. I'm currently in the preliminary stages of revising my list of potential locations for which a temple could be announced in April. With that in mind, Jim Anderson, I also know you;ve mentioned a few locations on your radar in the past.
It's also obvious that more information is being made available that points to how the Church decides on some locations, particularly in the United States. So I'd like to offer you a specific invitation, Jim Anderson. I know you mentioned coordinating councils in your comment above, and that I've come across a list of those in North America in the past, but I don't have a current list of those handy right now. So, based on what you mentioned in your comment above, if there are any specific North American cities you'd suggest I look at as I prepare my list for April, I'll be happy to take that under advisement.
Similarly, if you know of any locations I should specifically look into outside the United States, please let me know that as well. And if it makes a difference, I'm not really great with geographic regions, landmarks, or street names, not even when it comes to my current city of residence (Orem). So if any of your recommendations could specifically include the name of a city with it, that would likely help me out a lot in terms of processing the information you're offering in your comments.
Unfortunately, I have always been somewhat geographically challenged. I like to joke that, while I was in the Boy Scouts, I earned my Orienteering merit badge on accident, and that it wasn't the usual sort of accident either. I'm sure the way you've described specific prospective temple locations has worked for you, but i wanted to let you know about what would be most helpful for me on my end. In the meantime, thanks so much for stopping by to comment. I always appreciate hearing from you.
For the US, there is that big list in the documents that went out with the announcement of FSY in the United States, and since that is every other year thing one would look at 2021 and 2022, with 2020 having supposed to be the shakedown year but the pandemic torpedoed that plan for this year.
DeleteNot sure if there is an available list of overseas units, but if one can find a list of area seventies and where they live by city, and some of that has typically been in post-conference articles and materials, then we can maybe tell from those by seeing what and how many stakes are close by. If an area has widely scattered stakes it may be the coordinating councils will only have a few stakes. Larger metro areas will have one or more councils with 8-10 stakes, if more than one then those would take in nearby stakes that could easily get to the larger location.
That may help us figure out who might get a temple next, and a potential order as some may be in areas that are growing while others have not had a stake formed in ages.
Jim Anderson, thanks for weighing in on this again here. That's very helpful. I know that I've watched a bunch of different developments when looking at candidates I want to put on my list. Large temple districts, especially those that cover fairly remote locations, are one of the key metrics I look at, as well as the mileage involved, the strength of the Church in areas, by nations, states, territories, provinces, etc. I also look extensively at outliers, or at candidates that would not have been feasible as recently as 5 years ago, but which have an increased chance based on what President Nelson's temple announcement patterns have been thus far.
DeleteSo regarding that, I have a few thoughts. I can certainly find and consult the list of coordinating councils from that FSY announcement, as I now remember seeing that as well. That will be a big help for North American temple site candidates.
As far as international candidates are concerned, given how we have recently seen an increase in "second temple" candidates. With President Nelson's last temple announcements, a second temple was announced for the Greater Guatemala City area, and also for the eastern region of Sao Paulo. Based on that, and the previous announcement of second temples for Lima Peru and Manila Philippines, someone on the Church Growth Blog recently suggested the prospect of a second temple for Buenos Aires Argentina, which seems to be likely.
Aside from that prospect, one other thing I want to mention here is a new theory presented by Matthew Martinich earlier today on his Church Growth Blog. Matt released the Monthly Church Growth Newsletter from cumorah.com for November.
In that newsletter, one thing that stood out to me was that, in view of some significant growth developments reported in the Ivory Coast for this year, even in the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the effect that has had on Church operations, Matt mentioned his theory that, if and when the Church starts announcing second temples for any capital cities of African nations, he'd anticipate Abidjan being the first of those. So that's something else we can keep on our radars. I personally see one or two other cities in the Ivory Coast that may get a temple before a second is announced for Abidjan, but I understand Matt's reasoning as to why Abidjan would be the first capital city in any African nation to get a second temple, and, depending on what happens, we could see that occur in the next decade or so.
I think part of what makes formulating a thorough list of temple prospects is that there are so many good candidates, and I've already had to do some back-and-forth shifting of candidates between my standard list for each General Conference, the list of near-future prospects, and the list of dark horse candidates based on latest reports. I'm sure that will be on track to continue in the future. And it's looking like the Church is on track to have 200 operating temples by sometime in 2023, so I can only imagine what the numbers will be by April 6, 2030, which will mark the Church's bicentennial.
Thanks for giving me a lot of food for thought. I'll do my best to keep all your feedback in mind as I continue to work on my list of potential locations in which a temple might be announced in April. I always appreciate hearing from you, Jim Anderson.
The Church News has provided some information about how Temple Square Christmas celebrations are kicking off in their virtual form this year:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.thechurchnews.com/living-faith/2020-12-01/temple-square-christmas-virtual-concert-light-the-world-198897
My thanks once again to you all.
Hello again, everyone! The Newsroom and the Church News have both covered a couple of the same developments, and I also have one other report solely provided by the Church News:
ReplyDeletehttps://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/familysearch-30-languages
https://www.thechurchnews.com/global/2020-12-02/familysearch-30-languages-family-history-website-genealogy-198865
https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/latter-day-saint-charities-provides-grants-us-refugee-agencies
https://www.thechurchnews.com/living-faith/2020-12-02/refugees-latter-day-saint-charities-2020-pandemic-198970
https://www.thechurchnews.com/living-faith/2020-12-02/elder-kearon-ensign-college-devotional-politics-peacemakers-198934
My thanks once again to you all.
With Thursday December 3 having rolled around, I wanted to note here that several updates have been provided for those in the current construction queue. First, I should note that, in view of comparative progress between the Moses Lake Washington, Orem Utah, Bangkok Thailand, and Auckland New Zealand Temples, the Auckland temple has now been moved from its' prior completion window (late 2022-early 2023) to a completion in early 2023, and that the other 3 temples I mentioned are all anticipated to be completed before Auckland, which makes sense.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, full-scale construction efforts are officially underway on the Brasilia Brazil Temple, which leaves 6 temples in the "Full-scale construction pending" status. And status updates have been specifically provided on the following temples:
Orem Utah:
https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/orem-utah-temple/
Auckland New Zealand:
https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/auckland-new-zealand-temple/
Alabang Philippines:
https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/alabang-philippines-temple/
Brasilia Brazil (which, now being under construction, sits in the queue between the Alabang Philippines and Taylorsville Utah Temples):
https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/brasilia-brazil-temple/
I'd just add here that, for the other temples that have recently had a groundbreaking but have not seen full-scale construction begin, the two in Central America (San Pedro Sula Honduras and Coban Guatemala) will likely be delayed in starting their construction until the ongoing conditions caused by the recent tropical storms clear. That being said, hopefully there might soon be word on the start of construction for the Salta Argentina, Davao Philippines, McAllen Texas, and Antofagasta Chile Temples.
It's also worth noting that there has still been no word on the Mendoza Argentina Temple groundbreaking having taken place. Given that Mendoza is 4 hours ahead of Utah time, it's just after 5:00 AM there on December 3, so hopefully there might be word on that temple later this weeka.. Meanwhile, we are also seemingly not any closer to knowing any specifics on how soon the groundbreakings for the Harare Zimbabwe, Bengaluru India, and Okinawa Japan temples might take place. But given the time differences, it is now just after 10:00 AM in Zimbabwe, just after 1:30 PM on Thursday in India, and just after 5:00 PM Thursday in Japan.
So I;m hopeful more temple news will be coming down the pike in fairly short order. I will keep my eyes open for any such updates. In the meantime, if the Church is planning to announce any new missions or mission consolidations that will be effective in July of next year, we may hear about that within the next few weeks. So there will hopefully be a lot to look forward to in the days ahead. In the meantime, I have a post set for publication later this morning in honor of Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who is marking his 80th birthday today. My thanks once again to you all.