This week in Church history
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50 years ago
During the first informal meeting of President Dwight D. Eisenhower's new cabinet in mid-January 1953, Elder Ezra Taft Benson of the Quorum of the Twelve was called upon to offer a prayer. The Church News reported in the Jan. 31, 1953, edition that the prayer was printed in its entirety in the Jan. 26 issue of Time magazine.
Then a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, Elder Benson had been appointed Secretary of Agriculture by the newly elected U.S. president.
The prayer printed in Time was highlighted in "Words of the Week" in the department of "Religion," the Church News noted.
In the prayer, Elder Benson expressed: "We are deeply grateful for this land in which we live. . . . We thank thee for our liberty — for our free agency, our way of life, and our free institutions. . . . We acknowledge gratefully the unselfish service of those who have preceded us. . . .
"We ascribe unto thee praise, the honor and the glory for all we have achieved or may accomplish. Gratefully we dedicate our lives to thee and thy service. . . ."
