Genealogy from the perspective of a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon, LDS)

Monday, April 9, 2018

How will the changes to the Priesthood Quorums affect family history?

https://www.lds.org/blog/president-nelson-announces-changes-speaks-of-revelation-and-ministering-at-general-conference?cid=HP_SU-1-4-2018_dOCS_fBLOG_xLIDyL1-A_&lang=eng
Of course, since I have been a genealogist for many years and I am currently serving a full-time mission digitizing records for FamilySearch.org at the Maryland State Archives, I almost immediately thought about how family history will be affected, if at all, by the changes announced at General Conference in April 2018. If you haven't read about the changes, I suggest clicking on the caption to the above screenshot from LDS.org.

The most obvious change involves the reorganization of the Melchizedek Priesthood quorums. Heretofore, a large measure of the responsibility for temple and family history work has been assigned to the High Priests groups in the Wards with direction coming from the High Priest Group Leader. For example, the description of the responsibility of the High Priest Group Leader from the Family History section of LDS.org has been moved, altogether, to the Elders Quorum President Resources. Here is a screenshot of the new page.
https://www.lds.org/callings/temple-and-family-history/high-priest-group-leaders?lang=eng
I wonder how many of the new combined Elders Quorum Presidents have been told about their "new" area of responsibility? Traditionally, in all of the Wards I have attended across the country, the High Priest Group leader was given the default responsibility of temple attendance, i.e. organizing temple excursions and other activities. These were sometimes held by the Elders but not because of any training or direction. Previously, the Elders Quorum President's main visible activity was standing up and reminding everyone to do their home teaching.

What about existing Temple and Family History Consultants? The training responsibility for Ward Temple and Family History Consultants is currently assigned to a called Stake Temple and Family History Consultant who is trained by the Area Temple and Family History Consultants who are then trained by the Area Authority Seventy and FamilySearch. It looks to me like much of responsibility for all areas of the Ward are now the responsibility of the Elders Quorum President including the responsibility to support and coordinate the efforts of the Temple and Family History Consultants. The Ward Temple and Family History Consultants should be offering to help and train everyone in the Ward, including the Ward Priesthood and Relief Society Leaders.

The bottom line for Temple and Family History Consultants is exactly the same as it has been: they are to help the members of their Wards to have a personalized discovery experience. We all have the responsibility of learning about our own callings. The resources for training and support of Temple and Family History Consultants are already available. Just keep on doing what you are called to do. There is no change in that.

1 comment:

  1. In our ward yesterday the old EQ presidency has been told to continue until the new presidency is sustained and set apart, but in our Sunday Quorum meeting this topic came up briefly. As the Temple and Family History Consultant Coordinator I wanted to hold a meeting, but I decided to hold off so the new president can preside at our meeting. Typically all our consultants meet every couple of months to coordinate and the HP Group Leader presided.

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