Do you attend a ward that isn't the ward you geographically belong to?

[CJF]

I attend a branch outside our geographical location. We attended our assigned ward and I liked it. However, local church leadership decided to create an English only branch to allow all the other wards in the metro Manila area to go to Tagalog only meetings. So my branch is not only outside of my ward and stake, but outside of my mission. In fact, we have a mission president and his family attending our branch and it is outside of his assigned mission. I quite enjoyed attending the local ward and was reluctant to move to the branch. The Church made the decision that was in the best interest of the many. I don't know why they would have a problem if families made those same decisions based on the best interest of the family.

[Indy Coug]

Nice spin.

Holding out a temple recommend as a threat in reaction to something as trivial as attending a different ward seems awfully pharisaical to me.

As a threat? The HOI won't allow a bishop to issue a recommend for someone that doesn't belong to his ward. It's not some localized instance of manipulation.

[Jeff Lebowski]

As a threat? The HOI won't allow a bishop to issue a recommend for someone that doesn't belong to his ward. It's not some localized instance of manipulation.

I don't care where the rule originates, I don't like it.

Even so, it sounds like they are saying that they wouldn't be given a recommend even by the original bishop. That is nuts.

[TripletDaddy]

As a threat? The HOI won't allow a bishop to issue a recommend for someone that doesn't belong to his ward. It's not some localized instance of manipulation.

You can still get your recommend from your ward of origination.

The recommend questions do not require you to be attending within your assigned geographic boundaries, at least not that I recall. The ward will take your absentee tithing. Same principle, I would think.

This is the type of response I expected from you, though. Perfect.

[Indy Coug]

You can still get your recommend from your ward of origination.

Sure you can. I didn't state otherwise.

This is the type of response I expected from you, though. Perfect.

The type of post where I point out that HOI won't allow a bishop to issue a recommend to someone living outside his ward's geographical boundaries? I'm glad you expect accuracy from me.

[Jeff Lebowski]

BTW, for many years we had a family in our ward boundary that chose to attend the neighboring ward. They had temple recommends and their sons went on missions. Nobody seemed to care. We also have some YW from the neighboring ward that attend our ward. Their parents are non-members and they have friends in our ward.

[TripletDaddy]

Sure you can. I didn't state otherwise.



The type of post where I point out that HOI won't allow a bishop to issue a recommend to someone living outside his ward's geographical boundaries? I'm glad you expect accuracy from me.

Do you have a section from Book 1 that states this? I'm not entirely sure you are being accurate, actually.

[mUUser]

Due to a travel sports commitment, one of our kids attends a ward outside the boundaries with either me or my wife. The other kids attend the home ward. One parent does double-duty for the day -- two services. All records are in home ward.

We didn't ask permission for the arrangement.

[jay santos]

Where I live in Mormon suburbia, the ward is what society revolves around. Your ward is your street and the surrounding two or three blocks. It would be really weird not to attend a different ward. The only people I've ever known that have done this in 15 years and a few wards go to a different language ward or renting short term and don't want to change wards.

[UtahDan]

We got a letter signed by President Faust, authorizing the exception. This was in about 1996. I was amazed at that level of micro-management and I doubt that this still goes on.

I don't think it went on then. Think of all the things that have to be cleared through the first presidency. There is all kinds of stuff. There is no way on earth that they actually lay eyes on even a fraction of it. And yet, there is someone working in that office who is making that decision based, no doubt, on policies and criteria that have been articulated by the first presidency.

I think this is a fascinating topic because I believe there must be group of church employees, not priesthood leaders, who in practice make the vast majority of these decisions in the name of the first presidency. From a logistical standpoint this has to be done. Still, who are these people? Are they set a apart to receive the revelation and exercise discretion in individual matters (think of all the divorce requests, that alone is WAY beyond three people) on behalf of the first presidency? How does that work?

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

I have grown to despise 12:30 PM church time so much that I have given very serious thought to just always attending the 9 AM ward when my geographic ward changes every other year.

[happyone]

I have grown to despise 12:30 PM church time so much that I have given very serious thought to just always attending the 9 AM ward when my geographic ward changes every other year.

agreed - though once we were at 3:00 - 6:00 (our chapel was being remodeled and they farmed wards out all over Layton) and that was much much worse, plus we actually had to drive 5 minutes to get there

[clackamascoug]

I know of a family that lived next door to the Stake President. The husband of the family had a to-do with the Pres., over his unkempt personal property. The husband had a "good job" with the church, and the Pres refused him a Temple Recommend, which put his income at risk. The family requested and got 1st Presidency permission to attend a Ward outside the Stake. The end result was that the property issue was never resolved, and the kids had to travel way farther than normal for seminary and other youth activities.

The Stake Pres was a good friend, but I soured on him and his unrelenting hard line.

[statman]

When you have a branch to which multiple active families belong, but refuse to attend because

1. It has too many poor, uncouth minorities that may or may not speak English.

2. Because they know they will have to shoulder most of the load with leadership positions, bigger home/visiting teaching lists, etc. etc. etc.

Which then leaves the remaining attending people having to shoulder that much more of the burden in their absence.

Your Stake President needs to take names and kick asses.

Ask them to attend the proper ward they're assigned to. If they don't comply, they don't get temple recommends. It's as simple as that...

[statman]

I have grown to despise 12:30 PM church time so much that I have given very serious thought to just always attending the 9 AM ward when my geographic ward changes every other year.

Why don't they have 11 am church? Why wait until 12:30? That's just crazy. All but the oldest church buildings are designed with multiple wards in mind, and a 2-hour stagger is more than enough time.

We go to 1:00 pm in January. I'm dreading it. I'm hoping the Stake President pulls rank and skips our church time down to 9:00 am. But I'm not holding my breath...