2001 year in review
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Church leaders and members emerged with solemnity, calmness and resolve following the devastating events of Sept. 11. The image of the three members of the First Presidency praying at the memorial service in the Salt Lake Tabernacle and President Gordon B. Hinckley offering a fervent prayer for the nation at October general conference capsulize the times.
Other notable events of 2001 in and pertaining to the Church included the dedication of the temple at historic Winter Quarters, Neb., and SeaTrek 2001, the two-month long voyage of tall sailing ships commemorating the epic gathering of saints in the 19th Century.
Here is a chronology of the year's major events:
Jan. 8: The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a ruling against plaintiffs in a lawsuit who sought to have construction of the Boston Massachusetts Temple forbidden. Later in the year, another court decision permitted placement of the steeple on the temple.
Jan. 13: At a celebration for the sesquicentennial of the founding of Parowan, Utah, President James E. Faust, second counselor in the First Presidency, was guest of honor. It was the first of three such observances this year of Latter-day Saint settlements that became thriving Utah cities.
Jan. 13: An earthquake in El Salvador killed 15 Church members. One month later, on Feb. 13, a second earthquake, worse than the first, devastated other communities in that nation and impacted hundreds of homes of members.
Jan. 14: At a Church Educational System fireside, President Thomas S. Monson, first counselor in the First Presidency, said young people, to be successful, must pass through the gates of preparation, performance and service.
Jan. 20: At the inauguration of U.S. President George W. Bush, the Tabernacle Choir rode in and performed in the inaugural parade in Washington, D.C. The previous evening, the choir performed an inaugural gala concert in Fairfax, Va.
Jan. 26: Relief supplies from the Church already en route to India for a longer-term aid project were diverted to help victims of a magnitude 7.9 earthquake that devastated the country's western Gujarat state.
Jan. 26: Ground was broken for construction of the largest institute of religion project in the Church Educational System at one of its oldest institutes, the one adjacent to the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Elder Vaughn J. Featherstone of the Seventy presided. Completion is expected in summer 2002.
Feb. 3: Elder Jay E. Jensen of the Seventy broke ground for the Asuncion Paraguay Temple.
Feb. 15: The First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve approved a series of guidelines to reaffirm the centrality of the Savior in the name of the Church and how Church members are identified.
Feb. 26: The Freedman's Bank Records, an important genealogical database for linking African Americans to their ancestors, was released on CD-ROM by the Church. It was announced at news conferences in 12 major U.S. cities.
March 10: Two new missions — one in the state of Washington and one in Mexico City — were created, it was announced in the Church News.
March 18: The Montevideo Uruguay Temple was dedicated by President Gordon B. Hinckley. Four sessions were held. Earlier, on March 6, the president of Uruguay, Jorge Batle, toured the temple during its open house.
March 20: In a special session, the Brazil Chamber of Deputies, a lawmaking body in that country, recognized the 159th anniversary of the Relief Society. More than 300 members of the Relief Society attended.
March 24: At the Young Women General Meeting, President Gordon B. Hinckley challenged the young women of the Church to become the women of their dreams.
March 31-April 1: At the 171st Annual General Conference, the following events occurred:
- A new Perpetual Education Fund was announced to help Church members in
developing areas become self sufficient. Conceived as a revolving-loan
fund, it was inspired by the Perpetual Emigration Fund of the 19th Century
that helped converts emigrate to the Great Basin.
- Twelve General Authorities were sustained to the First and Second Quorums of the Seventy and 22 to the Third, Fourth and Fifth.
April 17: The American Family Immigration Center officially opened at New York City's Ellis Island, the legendary gateway for immigrants entering the United States. Created through a partnership of the Church, the National Park Service and the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, it was deemed as a giant leap forward for family history research.
April 22: The Winter Quarters Nebraska Temple was dedicated by President Gordon B. Hinckley. This landmark location is so significant in Church history that the first of the four dedicatory sessions was transmitted by satellite to Church meetinghouses in North America as was the dedication of the Palmyra New York Temple in 2000.
April 27: President Hinckley and his wife, Marjorie, received honorary degrees at Utah Valley State College, where he delivered the commencement address.
April 28: Construction was announced for new temples in three California locations: Sacramento, Newport Beach and Redlands.
April 29: The Guadalajara Mexico Temple was dedicated by President Hinckley in four sessions.
May 3: The annual BYU Women's Conference featured service projects including one in which 7,000 conference-goers assembled 42,000 hygiene kits for disbursement through the Church's Humanitarian Center.
May 6: The 75th anniversary of the first Institute of Religion in the Church, which began in Moscow, Idaho, was observed with events that included a Church Educational System fireside featuring Elder Henry B. Eyring of the Quorum of the Twelve and emanating by satellite from Moscow.
May 12: A pioneer log cabin that once belonged to the grandparents of President Hinckley's wife, Marjorie Pay Hinckley, was restored and dedicated by President Hinckley at This Is The Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake City.
May 12: The Wyoming State Legislature declared May 12 as "Scott and Dee Lorimer Day" in honor of the former Riverton Wyoming Stake president's work in memorializing historic handcart pioneer sites along the Mormon Trail in Wyoming. President Faust was the featured speaker.
May 16: Elder Loren C. Dunn, 70, president of the Boston Massachusetts Temple and emeritus General Authority, died of complications incident to surgery.
May 16: A unanimous ruling by the Massachusetts Supreme Court ended a controversy about the height of the Boston Massachusetts Temple and paved the way for placement of a steeple on the edifice, which was dedicated in 2000.
June 1: On the 200th anniversary of his birth, President Brigham Young was honored with a variety of events in at least three states that included a program in the Salt Lake Tabernacle featuring an address by President Hinckley and selections from the Tabernacle Choir.
June 15-27: The Tabernacle Choir performed in eight southern United States cities. The tour included stops in Houston and Fort Worth, Texas; New Orleans, La.; Birmingham, Ala.; Atlanta, Ga.; and Orlando, Tampa and Miami, Fla.
June 16: Two new presidents of the Seventy were called by the First Presidency, it was announced in the Church News. The two were Elders Charles Didier and Cecil O. Samuelson Jr., succeeding Elders L. Aldin Porter and Marlin K. Jensen.
June 16: The First Presidency announced a new ecclesiastical area of the Church, the Idaho Area, made up of parts of what had been in the North America Northwest Area.
June 23: An earthquake in Peru, with numerous aftershocks, killed a young Latter-day Saint girl, injured four others, destroyed more than 130 member homes and seriously damaged 175. The Church sent aid to victims in Moquegua and neighboring towns.
June 24: Speaking in San Antonio, Texas, President Hinckley told members of four stakes in that locale that he had come to look into building a temple there and they should prepare themselves to receive it.
July 14: A bronze statue of Karl G. Maeser, the first president of BYU, was unveiled on the grounds of the Dresden Germany Stake Center by President Thomas S. Monson, first counselor in the First Presidency.
July 22: In the first annual televised Sunday devotional service in the Conference Center to commemorate Pioneer Day on July 24, President Hinckley urged Church members to continue to befriend others of different religious persuasions
July 24: Pioneer Day activities were observed in Salt Lake City and other communities honoring the coming of the pioneers to the Salt Lake Valley in 1847.
July 26: John Erik Forsgren from Gavle, Sweden, the first missionary to his homeland, was memorialized with a bust of his likeness dedicated in Gavle by Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the Seventy.
July 29: The Kazakhstan Almaty Branch was organized as the first unit of the Church in that vast area of Central Asia.
Aug. 7: SeaTrek 2001, an epic voyage involving eight tall sailing ships, departed from Esbjerg, Denmark, commemorating 19th century Latter-day Saint immigration to America from Scandinavia, Europe and the British Isles. Ships carrying passengers from both sides of the Atlantic stopped at a dozen cities, where events included performances of an original oratorio, "Saints on the Seas." The transatlantic crossing concluded at New York Harbor on Oct. 4.
Aug. 10: Nearly 100 years after its founding, Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho, officially became Brigham Young University-Idaho, its status changing from a two-year junior college to a four-year institution.
Aug. 25: The First Presidency and U.S. Vice President Richard B. Cheney were among dignitaries at the groundbreaking for the Jon M. Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake City. Founder and chairman Huntsman is an Area Authority Seventy.
Sept. 5: Welfare Square, reconstructed since 2000, was dedicated by President Gordon B. Hinckley.
Sept. 8: A wagon train left Spanish Fork, Utah, bound for San Bernardino, Calif., to commemorate the 1851 Latter-day Saint settlers of that community. It arrived Oct. 25.
Sept. 8: President Hinckley spoke at the sesquicentennial of Fillmore, Utah, which, for a brief period, was the territorial capital.
Sept. 9: The first stake in Kenya was created by Elders Robert C. Oaks and Steven E. Snow of the Seventy.
Sept. 11: On a day etched in history by the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, President Hinckley spoke at what was to have been a private performance of the Tabernacle Choir for a business convention in Salt Lake City. It became a televised memorial service, at which he said "there is shining through the heavy overcast of fear and anger the solemn and wonderful image of the Son of God, the Savior of the World." The Church donated $160,000 to the Red Cross and designated that sacrament meetings on Sept. 16 be memorial services and a time for expressions of faith.
Sept. 14: On a national day of prayer and remembrance in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, all three members of the First Presidency offered prayers for consolation at a televised memorial service in the Salt Lake Tabernacle that included music from the Tabernacle Choir. That evening, President Hinckley was interviewed on the CNN broadcast "Larry King Live" regarding the Sept. 11 events.
Sept. 17: Speaking in Logan, Utah, at a commemoration of the signing of the U.S. Constitution, President Faust decried a "new secular creed" that is placing the nation in spiritual jeopardy.
Sept. 20: President Hinckley was among 26 religious leaders who met at the White House with U.S. President George W. Bush regarding the events of Sept. 11. The leaders endorsed a joint statement issued by Cardinal Bernard Law, Catholic Archbishop of Boston.
Sept. 21: A statue of the Angel Moroni was placed atop each of three temples under construction: Nauvoo Illinois, The Hague Netherlands; and Boston Massachusetts.
Sept. 23: President Hinckley addressed the International City/County Management Association convention in Salt Lake City and gave 10 points to preserve "the most ancient and sacred of institutions, the human family."
Sept. 29: President Monson addressed the General Relief Society meeting, telling women of the Church to fill their minds with truth, hearts with love and lives with service.
Oct. 6: A new Internet web site of the Church became accessible, www.mormon.org, as a tool to help explain the gospel to investigators.
Oct. 6-7: At the 171st Semiannual Conference, the following events took place:
- President Hinckley offered a special prayer in his closing address
asking for blessings of faith, charity, perseverance for the nation and its
friends as the clouds of war gathered in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks.
- Elders Charles Didier and Cecil O. Samuelson Jr. were sustained to the
Presidency of the Seventy.
- Five members of the First Quorum of the Seventy and four members of the
Second Quorum of the Seventy were released.
- Elder F. Melvin Hammond was sustained as general president of the Young
Men, with Elders Glenn L. Pace and Spencer J. Condie and counselors.
- Elder Cecil O. Samuelson Jr. of the Presidency of the Seventy was
sustained as general president of the Sunday School with Elders John H.
Groberg and Richard J. Maynes as counselors.
- Three new Area Authority Seventies were sustained and 24 were
released.
- A new achievement program for the Aaronic Priesthood was explained.
Oct. 28: President Hinckley dedicated the restored John Johnson Farm in Hiram, Ohio, the site where 16 revelations were received in the early days of the Church.
Oct. 31: Visitors centers on Temple Square, renovated to better convey the message of the restored gospel of Christ, were dedicated by President Hinckley.
Nov. 10: President Hinckley spoke at the sesquicentennial observance of Cedar City, Utah, now a thriving town stemming from the unsuccessful Iron Mission of the Church in pioneer days.
Nov. 10: Latter-day Saint World War II veterans gathered at BYU to share experiences in the first Saints at War conference.
Nov. 13: The education building at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, was named in honor of President David O. McKay. President Hinckley spoke at the ceremony.
Nov. 18: The Columbia River Washington Temple was dedicated by President Hinckley in four sessions.
Nov. 23: The recent opening of the two renovated visitors centers highlighted the annual Christmas lighting of Temple Square and the adjacent grounds of the Church Office Building.
Nov. 24: Ground was broken for the Accra Ghana Temple by Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve.
Nov. 24: While in Africa for training of leaders, Elder Nelson paid a courtesy call to Ghana's President John Ageykum Kufuor .
Nov. 27: Participation by the Tabernacle Choir in the opening ceremony of the Olympic games in February was announced.
Dec. 1: Ground was broken for the Redlands California Temple by Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the Seventy.
Dec. 2: The annual First Presidency Christmas Devotional emanated from the Conference Center, featuring the Tabernacle Choir and the Orchestra at Temple Square.
Dec. 7-9: Acclaimed stage and screen actress Angela Lansbury joined the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square for the annual Christmas concert in the Conference Center. She also appeared with the choir and orchestra on the choir's nationwide Sunday morning television and radio broadcast.
Dec. 22: A new computer CD-ROM with all the text and study helps in the current LDS editions of the scriptures was made available for purchase.
Dec. 22: Church member Liz Howell, whose husband, Brady, was killed at the Pentagon Sept. 11, carried the Olympic torch to President George W. Bush at the White House.
E-mail: rscott@desnews.com
