LDS members told to raise standards high
Pres. Hinckley announces changes to streamline a large and diverse church
The challenges of a "very large and complex church" have prompted leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to announce changes aimed at streamlining administration, accommodating an increasingly diverse membership and setting higher standards of moral purity for prospective missionaries.
"In effect, we have taken the church apart and then put it together again," President Gordon B. Hinckley said Saturday evening in an address to the priesthood, gathered at the Conference Center and in LDS meetinghouses worldwide for the church's 172nd Semiannual Conference.
He then presented a series of changes and a set of financial priorities and moral standards that members will be asked to adhere to with increased faithfulness.
Some will notably affect the ways Latter-day Saints live their daily lives and the cultural expectations that have evolved among members, particularly in the church's heartland:
- In the future, departing missionaries will speak at a farewell service, but family members will not participate. Open-house receptions following the farewells are to be discontinued, President Hinckley said, adding that family gatherings are appropriate.
- Standards of worthiness for departing missionaries will be heightened.
- And temple recommend interviews will take place once every two years instead of every year.
President Hinckley endorsed the strong remarks of Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve regarding missionary worthiness: "We cannot send you on a mission to be reactivated, reformed or to receive a testimony. We just don't have time for that . . . .
"Please understand this: That the bar for the standard for missionary service is being raised. The day of the 'repent and go' missionary is over," Elder Ballard said.
He also counseled bishops to "judge wisely and remember not every young man need to be called to serve away from his home; some may best serve under your direction as ward missionaries."
President Hinckley urged church members to accept the new directives with the spirit in which they were presented. "I speak with a desire to be helpful," he said.
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