'Not that we're back, it's that we're still here'
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Little did a group of six missionaries understand the significance of their quiet meeting on the morning April 18, 1963. The full significance only became clear 39 years later when President Gordon B. Hinckley announced a temple in Manhattan.
That morning in 1963 the missionaries huddled around President Wilburn C. West of the Eastern States Mission in their beautiful stone mission home located at 973 5th Avenue to reopen missionary work in Manhattan that had ceased many years earlier.
Here, in an upscale setting across from Central Park, they organized the Manhattan District and made plans for the six elders to work with the 7 million residents on the island.
"This is the beginning of activity that will eventually result in the formation of a new mission," said President West in that meeting, speaking of a new day of missionary activity in Manhattan.
"This was the Lord's timetable for the Church in New York," said James M. Spens, one of the six missionaries, reflecting on that morning.
In 1963, one ward covered the borough of Manhattan. Meetings were held in an old synagogue owned by the Church. Membership was roughly 1,000 people in New York City, but as the bishop of the time described, most had become lost in the huge city.
Missionary activity in New York dates back to the earliest days of the Church. In 1837, Parley P. Pratt and Elijah Fordham proselytized in Manhattan. They published 4,000 copies of the "Voice of Warning," and after working for six months with little success, they felt they should leave.
"Of all the places in which the English language is spoken, I found the City of New York to be the most difficult as to access to the minds or attention of the people," wrote Elder Pratt. "From July to January we preached, advertised, printed, published, testified, visited, talked, prayed and wept in vain. To all appearances there was no interest or impression on the minds of the people in regard to the fulness of the gospel."
In response to their prayers, "the Lord said that He had heard our prayers, beheld our labors, diligence, and long suffering towards that city; and that He had seen our tears. Our prayers were heard, and our labors and sacrifices were accepted. We should tarry in that city, and go not thence as yet, for the Lord had many people in that city and He had now come by the power of His Holy Spirit to gather them into His fold." (Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt.)
At the time, there were about 50 members in New York City.
The Eastern States Mission was originally organized on May 6, 1839. During the next half century, the mission was discontinued then reopened three times until 1893 when it was reopened from the Northern States Mission. It was renamed the New York New York Mission in 1974. From that mission came the New York New York North Mission and the New York New York South Mission in 1993.
Creation of the New York Stake on Dec. 9, 1934, marked the first stake created east of Colorado since the exodus of the Church to the West. It was only the third stake, after Los Angeles and San Francisco, to be formed outside the areas of pioneer settlements.
Missionaries in 1963 rented an apartment at a reasonable rate in Harlem. Public transportation made the lengthy commute possible. Proselyting was difficult. Missionaries found the people very busy and generally unaccessible. But contacts were gradually made, people were taught and baptismal services held.
The greatest boon to missionary activity in New York came in 1964 with the opening of the World's Fair. Unknown to the missionaries at the time, President West had been working under the direction of President David O. McKay to create the Mormon Pavilion. The pavilion featured a large representation of the Salt Lake Temple, a copy of the "Christus" statue by Bertel Thorvaldsen and a new motion picture describing the purpose of life called, "Man's Search for Happiness."
The World's Fair was to have a major impact on the growth of the Church in the New York metropolitan area. On a later occasion, President McKay said the pavilion "was one of the most unique and effective missionary efforts in (the Church's) history." (Era 63:1170.)
Hundreds of missionaries were called to serve in New York during the fair. In the next 12 months, 6 million people toured the pavilion and 100,000 copies of the Book of Mormon were sold. Lives were touched and hundreds requested missionary discussions.
By the summer of 1964, Manhattan Island was served by 40 missionaries.
The Church secured its place in New York in 1973 when construction began on a building that included a visitors center, a center for the New York Stake and headquarters for the Eastern States Mission.
The building is set on a corner of Lincoln Center near the famed Metropolitan Opera House and Juilliard School of Music. President Harold B. Lee, then first counselor in the First Presidency, toured the site prior to the Church purchasing the property in 1971.
Emil Fetzer, at his retirement as Church architect in 1986, recalled touring the site with President Lee and how he "walked away, with his head bowed as if in meditation and prayer. He returned and said, 'This is the site. Buy this piece of property,' " said Brother Fetzer. "There is no question that this was the right thing to do; this is now a very important Church complex in downtown New York City."
The facility was built 85-feet high with a facade of light gray stone to conform with the other structures of Lincoln Center. Since being dedicated by President Spencer W. Kimball in May 1975 the complex has proven to be a hub and symbol of Church activity in New York.
Built to meet the needs of an expanding Church, the Lincoln Center Stake Center has been renovated as the Church's 119th temple to be dedicated June 13 by President Gordon B. Hinckley.
"Something exciting is going on," said President Brent Belnap of the New York New York Stake. "The growth is phenomenal," he told the Daily News.
In the past decade, membership in Manhattan grew from 1,700 to 4,000. Overall, in the five boroughs of New York, membership is more than 25,000, doubled from a decade ago.
Much of the growth stems from missionary work in ethnic areas. The number of branches in inner city areas has roughly doubled in the last decade.
"Because membership is growing at such a clip, the (Church has) launched an ambitious building program to provide enough worship and study space to meet the demand," stated the newspaper article that began with the headline, "More Mormons flocking to city."
One new meetinghouse is underway in Harlem.
"It's funny," said Scott Trotter, director of Church Public Affairs in New York, "but most New Yorkers don't realize that the Church began in New York. So it's not that we're back, it's that we're still here."
E-mail: shaun@desnews.com
Jim Spens contributed to this report.
