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Two
Apostles to Take Overseas Assignments
Two apostles
of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will begin overseas
assignments for one year starting in August this year—the first
time such senior leaders have lived and presided in an international
area of the Church for nearly half a century.
Elder Dallin H. Oaks
Elder Dallin
H. Oaks will serve as area president in the Philippines, and Elder
Jeffrey R. Holland will serve in the same capacity in Chile.
The appointments
were announced today by the First Presidency in a post-general conference
training meeting with general authorities of the Church.
Assignments
of Church apostles to reside in international areas have not been
a practice in the Church for some four decades. Ezra Taft Benson,
who was ordained an apostle in 1943, presided over the European
Mission in the mid-1960s.
David O. McKay
similarly served as a mission president while a member of the Quorum
of the Twelve Apostles. He presided over the British Mission in
the early 1920s.
The move is
aimed at meeting the challenges that the Church has faced for years
in many developing areas: rapid Church growth and the need to train
leadership, and to help new members assimilate into the Church and
attend the temple. The assignments will enable members of the Quorum
of the Twelve to gain additional experience in meeting and resolving
these challenges.
Church growth
in the Philippines has been pronounced. In the past decade, Church
membership there has grown to nearly half a million following implementation
of modern day missionary work in 1961 by President Gordon B. Hinckley,
then Assistant to the Quorum of the Twelve.
By 1969, Church
work in the Philippines had spread to eight major islands and the
Philippines had the highest number of baptisms of any area in the
Church. The Manila Missionary Training Center was established in
1983.
Elder
Jeffrey R. Holland
Philippines
membership was 76,000 in 1984 and 237,000 in 1990. Today, it is
approximately 496,000, in more than 1,200 congregations grouped
in 80 stakes and 13 missions. A temple was dedicated in Manila in
1984.
Missionary work
in Chile was begun by Elder Parley P. Pratt in 1851. Chile now has
more than 520,000 Latter-day Saints.
Church President
David O. McKay visited expatriate Church members in Santiago in
1954. On 26 May 1956, Chile became part of the Argentine Mission,
and the first Chilean branch (a small congregation) was organized
in July.
The Chile Mission
was organized on 8 October 1961, with 1,100 members. When the first
stake (similar to a diocese) was organized 11 years later, membership
had grown to more than 20,000.
When the Santiago
Chile Temple was dedicated 14 September 1983, there were some 140,000
members of the Church in Chile. On 29 October 1988, Chile became
the fourth country in the world to reach 50 stakes.
At the 10th
anniversary of the dedication of the Santiago Temple in 1993, it
was noted that Chile, with the fastest growing Church membership
in South America, had doubled in membership and in the number of
stakes during that decade.
Continued growth,
including the creation of 26 new stakes from 1994-96, led to the
creation of the Chile Area in 1996. On 25 April 1999, Church President
Gordon B. Hinckley spoke to some 57,000 members in Santiago, the
largest gathering of members in South America.
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© 2002 Meridian
Magazine. All Rights Reserved.
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