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The colorful image found on the cover of Feb. 19, 2005, Church News was, at once, a Primary child's earnest drawing of the Biblical prophet Moses and a collective and powerful symbol of the Church's global development in its 175th year.
The notion that an 8-year-old LDS Russian artist named Valentina Olegovna Merzlyakova would have her work displayed on the cover of the Church's newspaper might have been a fanciful wish just a few decades ago amid the Cold War's chill. And for those handful of "charter" members who gathered for that first Church meeting in rural Fayette, N.Y., any thought of fellow members at any end of the world enjoying the present-day programs of the restored gospel was the stuff of dreams.
Indeed, that tiny farmhouse congregation of 1830 has grown into a worldwide religious community that guides, directs and uplifts the daily life of millions.
"It was said that at one time the sun never set on the British Empire," said President Gordon B. Hinckley in an Oct. 4, 2003, general conference address. "That empire has now been diminished. But it is true that the sun never sets on this work of the Lord as it is touching the lives of people across the earth."
While some corners of the globe have enjoyed a vibrant LDS presence for generations, other regions are penning their maiden chapters of local Church history. No matter. The countless lives of devout Church members everywhere in 2005 reflect the faith and hope exhibited by the few in 1830.
A Church for the World
Since its beginnings 175 years ago, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has, at various times, been dismissed as a provincial cult and a regional religion. An American church.
Yet demographics of the Church's 2,676 stakes tell a different story. Each Sunday, for example, hundreds of thousands of Mexican members gather in meetinghouses from Sonora to Chiapas. Indonesian priesthood holders and Relief Society sisters bless the lives of fellow members through welfare and humanitarian service. And the young artist Valentina Merzlyakova worships with her tiny branch in Noria, Russia, and looks forward to the day when she is surrounded by other Primary children.
Meanwhile, LDS stakes, wards and branches in nations named Ghana, Nigeria or, say, the Dominican Republic are being presided over and blessed by men of West African descent who would not have been able to enjoy the opportunities of priesthood service just three decades past.
A year before the Church was organized, the Lord instructed Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, "where two or three (disciples) are gathered together in my name . . . behold, there will I be in the midst of them" (Doctrine and Covenants 6:32). Those divine words continue to comfort. Today, thousands of LDS men and women who wear their country's uniform are far from home and family, living day to day in harm's way. Yet their involvement in the Church continues as they gather in sometimes sparsely numbered serviceman's groups for Sunday services, home teaching visits and weekday socials.
Four LDS chaplains are serving in Iraq. Another is deployed in Afghanistan.
And the expansion continues with the recent opening of the Mozambique Mission, the Church's 339th mission.
Programs in Action
Church members in 2005 are participating in the gospel's sacred programs as never before.
The Church Educational System (see page 10) has become a global campus as seminary and institute students from Paraguay to Paris study the Standard Works, LDS history and the words of President Hinckley and other Church leaders. A recent, first-ever national encampment of thousands of Guatemalan young women symbolized the fellowship and strength found in the Church's youth and its popular Mutual program.
Technology has also shrunk the world and brought the Church together. Thanks to the proliferation of satellite dishes in meetinghouses across the earth, Church members in, say, Tonga will be experiencing the spirit of the 2005 April general conference at the exact moment of their fellow members in the Yukon and the Yucatan alike.
Meanwhile, the pivotal role of the temple in the lives of today's Church members is being felt and experienced as never before. Many living Mexican members can read from their own journals of the often harrowing accounts of temple trips to the United States aboard decrepit buses and filthy trains. Today, most Mexican temple-goers are no more than a few hours away from one of the country's 12 temples. And sacred edifices continue to be built in areas boasting both long and short Church pedigrees. (Think Aba, Nigeria, and Draper, Utah.)
Unprecedented Member Participation
The Church's first members in 1830 were largely outcasts — folks without a voice in their communities. In the first decades of the Church's existence, faithful members were persecuted, mocked and scorned. They would be driven from their homes, witness the murder of their beloved organizer and leader and endure their government's cold shoulder.
Today, Church members are more visible and active in their respective communities than ever before.
Joseph Smith once struggled merely to find a printer willing to publish the Book of Mormon. Today, the Prophet's successor, President Hinckley, has become a worldwide media favorite — often representing the Church in live interviews with broadcast icons such as CNN's Larry King and 60 Minutes' Mike Wallace.
A Church convert from Nevada, U.S. Senator Harry Reid, is the most powerful Democrat on Capitol Hill and one of several LDS lawmakers serving in Washington D.C. Lifelong member Michael Leavitt, a Republican, was recently appointed to President George W. Bush's Cabinet while former 2002 Olympic chief Mitt Romney is midway through his term as Massachusetts's governor.
Countless Church members also serve in local and municipal offices throughout the world, giving them a secular, civic voice those first members of 1830 could not have imagined.
Meanwhile, one Mormon, Andy Reid, coached in the 2005 Super Bowl while another, inventor Rodney D. Bagley, received the National Medal of Technology from President Bush last month. And returned missionary/Jeopardy! champ Ken Jennings has become America's de facto pitchman for knowledge.
The world's notice stretches beyond personal achievement in 2005. The Church's respected humanitarian program was on display in recent months during the historic hurricane season in Florida and, most recently, in the aftermath of the tsunami that devastated much of southern Asia.
And a recent, widely publicized study of American adolescents found that Mormon teens "pray more, engage less in destructive behavior and can articulate their religious beliefs better than the average American teen." (See March 26 Church News.)
The lives of 21st century Church members seem far removed from their predecessors 175 years removed. Yet the legacy of faith and devotion passed on by those 1830 Fayette saints continues to fuel the Church's steady expansion in 2005.
E-mail to: jswensen@desnews.com
