Major Church News Developments Reported

Hello again, everyone! Less than 24 hours before General Conference is set to begin, there have been major and significant developments on many Church news fronts within the last 12 hours or less. Let's get right into all of those. First, as many of you have seen from the comments on previous posts, the Choir that US President Ronald Reagan called "America's Choir" has changed its' name.

This is being done in order to follow President Nelson's recent impression (about emphasizing and using the proper name of the Lord's Church), which discouraged against using "Mormon" as a term for the members or organization of the Church.

When President Monson became Church President in 2008, he and his counselors would sometimes refer to the Choir as merely the "Tabernacle Choir" and would omit any usage of the term "Mormon" in those references. So, in compliance with both the previous practice of a Church President, and, more significantly, in order to comply with the guidelines about the proper terminology for the Church and its' members, the Choir will now be known as "The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square".

It may take some getting used to, but to me, this change makes perfect sense. The Orchestra and Bell Choir that have previously performed with the Choir have been referred to respectively as "The Orchestra at Temple Square" and "The Bells on Temple Square". So this stylistic change seems not only needed, but very appropriate and timely. The Church News also provided some additional details on this name change. It was great to hear about that.

Also from the Newsroom, the Church will be posting all updated articles and other coverage relating to General Conference in this specific section  of that Newsroom. In the meantime, in an earlier post, I had mentioned that the Newsroom would feature stories throughout the weekend which are shared in the semiannual World Report, which will air during General Conference weekend. So stay tuned to that page for the stories that will be shared during this weekend as well.

We conclude now by turning to the Church News website, which has featured some additional inspiring articles. Church members around the world shared what the April 2018 General Conference meant to them. In another article in the "History Revisited" series, a Church News staff writer took a look back at the vital role of women's voices  during General Conference throughout the history of the Church.

There was another report about the Saints and our friends of other faiths who continue to work together to make progress with ongoing cleanup efforts from the aftermath of Hurricane Florence. While the road to full recovery and restoration may take a while, the common brotherhood of man and a mutual desire to help each other has transcended religious differences. And finally, the Church News has shared insights from a few Church members around the world about familial traditions being kept and the variety of other ways in which Saints around the world prepare for General Conference.

As the Conference weekend occurs, you can be sure I will continue to provide coverage of important developments as they occur. I do continue to also monitor any other Church and temple news and will bring word of those developments to you all as I become aware of them. That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any 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.

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.

Additional Church News Reported

Hello again, everyone! I am back to finally share the additional Church news stories which have recently crossed my radar. Let's get right into all of those. First, in advance of the upcoming General Conference, an article from the Church's News and Events subpage (not to be confused with the official Newsroom), shared two articles, the first of which highlighted how Church members from 3 different continents (each of whom lives outside of Utah) enjoy General Conference every six months.

The second story highlights testimonies from each current member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (shared either during the April General Conference, via social media, or as part of their worldwide ministry visits to various areas) about the divinely foreordained calling of Church President Russell M. Nelson.

I just want to interject a personal note here. Many people who are either ignorant, arrogant, or are lacking a clear understanding of the way the leading councils of the Church craft policy, practice, and general decisions impacting the entire Church have been relentless in advancing the notion that, now that President Nelson is "in charge", he is changing everything he can, as quickly as he can, on no more than a personal preference or whim.

But the reality, which some choose to either overlook or blindly ignore, is that no policy, practice, or decision is ever made by the President of the Church unless and until there is full unanimity about such matters among all those in the apostleship.

While any Church President does have the right, authority, and divinely-mandated obligation to discern and present the will of the Lord to his fellow apostles, unless all feel good about such actions, President Nelson would never unilaterally change such things on a personal whim or preference, without the input, support, and consent of his Brethren.

He and his predecessors have made that abundantly clear. Some people either aren't aware of that or choose to overlook it. Sorry. It's a sore spot for me that so many voice opinions without bothering to educate themselves about how things really work in the Church in that regard.

Getting off my soapbox now, we turn to other developments upon which the Church News has reported. A more complete report was provided about Elder Uchtdorf's recent tour of Europe. Elder Uchtdorf has long been one of my favorites, and I greatly appreciate hearing more about his recent ministry efforts.

In the meantime, the Church News also provided a look at how those of the rising generation have strengthened the Church in Cambodia. And the Church News additionally shared an inspiring love story about two young adults in the Church who helped each other and thereby fell in love as they individually battled cancer.

I greatly appreciated the opportunity to find and share these developments with you all. 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 Temple Developments Reported

Hello again, everyone! I am back to share some updates on a couple of temples. I had also hoped to cover some additional Church news which has been reported today, but will have to save that for another post later today. First, with the open house for the Barranquilla Colombia Temple set to begin exactly one month from today, the work of planting clusters of flowers on the temple grounds is almost complete.

Additionally, several developments have been reported on the construction process for the Durban South Africa Temple. Rather than trying to summarize all of those, I refer those interested to the Facebook page for the Church of Jesus Christ Temples site. That site, as previously noted, is anticipated to be up and running again this Saturday, if all goes well.

I again want to reemphasize something I have previously noted: Although the developments reported on temples anticipated to be completed next year are very encouraging, there is currently no reason to believe that those temples will be dedicated any sooner than specified by the estimates I offered on this blog previously. In summary, the anticipated time-frame for known temple events within the next 15 months is as follows:

October 28: Dedication of the Concepcion Chile Temple (confirmed)
December 9: Dedication of the Barranquilla Colombia Temple (confirmed)
At some point (hopefully sooner rather than later): Full-scale renovation anticipated to begin on the Asuncion Paraguay Temple
Note: This temple closed almost a year ago (in November 2017), but has been stalled in its' renovation process. While I would hope that process would not be stalled for too much longer, unless a miracle occurs, I would not anticipate that process getting underway within the final two months of this year. By extension, that also means that the Church's estimated reopening of that temple at some point in 2019 will not occur either.
March 10-17: Dedication of the Rome Italy Temple (confirmed)
April 14: Dedication of the Kinshasa DR Congo Temple (confirmed)
Early-to-mid 2019: Dedication of the Fortaleza Brazil Temple; Rededication of the Frankfurt Germany Temple
Note: Although the two events above may be considered somewhat interchangeable, and although I voiced my opinion that the rededication of the Frankfurt temple could occur before the already-scheduled dedication of the Rome Italy Temple, since the dedication of that temple is now 5 months away, and since there has been no official announcement on the Frankfurt temple, it seems more likely that the rededication of the Frankfurt temple will not occur until sometime after the already-scheduled dedications of the two temples above.
Mid-2019: Dedication of the Port-au-Prince Haiti and Lisbon Portugal Temples; Rededication of the Oklahoma City Oklahoma and Memphis Tennessee Temples
Note: Although the four temples may be considered interchangeable in terms of their future completion, the Port-au-Prince Haiti Temple, which is on the smaller side, is likely to be completed before the Lisbon Portugal Temple, and the Oklahoma City Oklahoma Temple has been confirmed as being ahead of the Memphis Tennessee Temple, although the latter closed first.
Mid-to-late 2019: Dedication of the Durban South Africa Temple; Rededication of the Raleigh North Carolina and Baton Rouge Louisiana Temple
Note: With the consistent progress reported within the last month on the construction of the Durban South Africa Temple, I would anticipate that temple's dedication to occur first. And although I had previously shared my thoughts that the rededication of the Baton Rouge Temple would occur first, a recent reevaluation of the information which I had available indicates that the Raleigh Temple is still slightly ahead.
Late 2019-early 2020: Rededication of the Oakland California Temple
Note: According to information given to me by a Church member living in Oakland, the Saints in that area were advised that this temple will reopen next year, as was indicated by the Church when this renovation process was announced. That said, my research indicates that temples undergoing renovation, particularly those that are older, may be delayed in their completion. For example, when the Frankfurt temple closed in 2015, it was anticipated to reopen in 2017, and, as noted, its' rededication is now estimated to occur in early-to-mid 2019. With that in mind, I have felt to be more conservative in my estimate for this temple until its' reopening in 2019 is certain.

Of course, some temple groundbreakings are also anticipated to occur within the next 15 months as well, but until more is known, I will forbear from including estimates for those for now. That said, I am working on an update to my general estimates for future temple events, and may include such estimates there if I feel confident enough in doing so at the time I am able to post them here.

I continue to monitor all temple developments and will do my level best to pass word of those along to you all as I receive it. 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.