The Mormon to English Post
Here is the long-awaited post where I try and explain these terms that I toss around so freely. I will do my best to have this make sense, but remember, I've grown up with this terminology, so my definitions may make perfect sense to me, and perfect nonsense to everyone else. Please ask if you have a question; I never get offended by honest inquiry and would much rather have the chance to explain than have you confused. Why am I writing this as if someone I don't know will read it? Oh well, read and enjoy.
As this post gets longer and longer, I realize that there's going to be a massive amount of lj cuts. I hope this all fits on one entry!
I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, more commonly known as the Mormon Church. This is often abbreviated LDS since, let's face it, the full title is a bit cumbersome. The nickname of Mormons comes from the fact that we have an additional book of scripture called The Book of Mormon, a book that details Christ's dealings with his people here in the Americas, that we use as a companion to the Bible.
Church general leadership
The Church has a very clearly-defined, but occasionally somewhat confusing, system of leadership. As you read, it may seem like we have a lot of leaders and a kind of rigid hierarchical structure. This is because we do. The system is designed to make sure that everybody can know who to turn to for help and that everybody has someone looking out for them. Also, most church leadership positions are held by men, and can only be held by men. This is because, in the LDS faith, only men can hold the Priesthood - God's power given to mankind - and the Priesthood is the organizing authority of the church. I'll explain more about this after I get done with the organizational chart.
Like in biblical times, we believe our church is lead by a prophet of God. Our current prophet, and church president, is President Gordon B. Hinckley. He has two counselors, and those three men constitute the First Presidency. Under the First Presidency is the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles or just the Quorum of the Twelve. There are, oddly enough, twelve men in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and they, combined with the First Presidency, are the leaders of our church.
This basic structure of leadership is mirrored at all levels of the church. Any organization of the church (of which there are many) has a president, first counselor, second counselor, and usually a secretary of some sort.
Ward leadership and how we spend our time every Sunday
Unlike many other churches, our church is split up geographically, and we are assigned wards according to where we live. A ward is basically a congregation. Each ward has, as its leader, a bishop. The bishop is responsible for the welfare of his ward. Probably the closest equivalent in other religions is a pastor or a rabbi. The bishop has a first and second counselor to help him and there are usually one or two ward clerks to serve in a secretary kind of role. The bishop and his counselors are collectively called the bishopbric.
Every Sunday, I and every other member go to three hours of church at the specific time and location our ward is assigned. This is not as horrendously long as it seems, because it's split up into three blocks of time.
1) Sacrament Meeting: This is an hour and 10 minutes long, and everybody is together in the chapel. We sing hymns, have an opening and closing prayer, listen to talks, and take the sacrament. Talks are given by members of the ward who are asked to by the bishopbric. They are 5-20 minutes long (depending on how long they've been asked to speak), and are about whatever gospel topic has been assigned to them. We have a lay clergy (i.e. no one is paid for their service in the church), so we don't have someone whose job it is to preach a sermon every Sunday. The Sacrament is roughly equivalent to communion; we eat bread and drink water in remembrance of and symbolic of Christ's sacrifice for us.
2) Sunday School: This is where things get a little zoo-y (zooey?). Sunday School lasts for 50 minutes and everyone goes off in different directions. The church has several auxiliaries, each of which is responsible for various sections of the church population. During Sunday School, these are the ones used:
--Primary: for children ages 3-11. It has a presidency consisting of adult women. Assuming sufficient children, there is a class for every age group. The 3-turning-4-year-olds are called "Sunbeams." I don't know how that got started, but it's just always been like that for as long as I can remember and probably will always be that way since we have a Primary song called "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam." Then we have classes with numbers after them indicating the age of the children at the beginning of the year. So, there's CTR (standing for Choose the Right) 4, CTR 5, CTR 6, CTR 7, Valiant 8, Valiant 9, Valiant 10, and Valiant 11. *inhales deeply* The change in class name indicates a change from Junior to Senior Primary. Junior Primary meets together in the Primary room while Senior Primary has their individual class lessons, then they switch after the second block, and Senior Primary all meets in the Primary room while Junior Primary goes to their individual classes. And yes, we do try to teach religious lessons to 3-year-olds, though obviously quite simplified. Sometimes it works better than others.
--Nursery: this is actually under the direction of the Primary presidency, but it's the place for the 18 month to 3-year-olds. Most of Nursery is just playing with toys and eating snacks and coloring and reading books, but there is a lesson time where we teach very, very, very simple religiously-oriented lessons to them. I served in the nursery for a while, and I think my favorite title for a lesson was "I am Thankful for Fish."
--Sunday School: in charge of teachers for ages 12 and up. In the Sunday School organization, there are teachers for each age level (as in 12 turning 13 within the calendar year, 13 turning 14, 14 turning 15, etc.) up through the year the kids turn 18. For 18 and up, there are several potential classes that are run depending on what the Sunday School presidency feels the ward needs. Gospel Doctrine and Gospel Essentials are two classes that are always running. Gospel Essentials is geared towards those who are visiting from other faiths, who are investigating the church, or are new members. It focuses on the fundamental principles of the gospel. Gospel Doctrine is geared more towards those who have been in the church for a while and already have a working knowledge of our basic beliefs. Each year, Course 15 and older focus on a different book within our scriptoral canon: Old Testament, New Testament, the Book of Mormon, and Doctrine and Covenants/Church History. Doctrine and Covenants is our book of scripture containing prophecies and revelations made in the modern day, since the Church was restored by Joseph Smith.
3) Priesthood/Relief Society: I don't know why we don't have a better name for this. Sometimes it's just called '3rd hour' since it's usually the third block of time (the order of blocks can differ if there's more than one ward using a building at the same time). Basically, this is the time when everyone 12 and older breaks off into their gender-specific auxiliaries:
--Young Women's: This is the girls' organization for ages 12-17/18. What a surprise. Within the YW organization, there are different classes by age group: Beehives (12-13), Mia Maids (14-15), and Laurels (16-18ish). Again, I'm not really sure why they ended up named what they were, but there you have it. The YW is directed by a presidency of adult women and each class also has an advisor assigned to it. Each class also has a presidency made up of class members. They, along with their adult leaders, are in charge of planning the weekly class activities (held on some weeknight) and watching out for the girls. Essentially, it's good training for being in leadership positions later on.
--Young Men's or Aaronic Priesthood: This is the boys' organization for ages 12-17/18. Again, I know, what a shock. The boys are also split up by age group: Deacons (12-13), Teachers (14-15), and Priests (16-18ish). The YM is set up just like YW: there is a presidency, and then there are also advisors and youth presidencies for every class. These class names are also the names of different offices in the Aaronic Priesthood, so please see below for a better explanation of the Priesthood and what it entails.
--Relief Society: This is the women's auxiliary of the church. Once a girl hits 18 or goes away to college, she's in it for the long haul. Wow, how awesomely short was that?
--Melchezidek Priesthood: This is often just shortened to Priesthood. This is the men's auxiliary, and it gets split into two groups: Elders and High Priests. Again, see the Priesthood section below for explanation. Elders' Quorum has a presidency while the High Priests have a group leader with two counselors. This is because High Priests are organized at a stake level (see the stake leadership section below).
Ideally, wards have about 300-400 people. If a ward gets too big or too small (due to population growth or people moving or whatever), the ward boundaries are redrawn (not by the bishop, but at a higher level) in order to even out the ward sizes. For instance, my family's been in the same house since 1991, but we were in the Academy Ward to begin with, then Mountain Shadows Ward, then we were moved back into the Academy Ward. We've also changed stakes once.
Stake leadership
coming soon
An explanation of the Priesthood
coming soon
How callings work in the Church
coming soon
Special Sunday meetings and other meetings
coming soon
Other [read: better] resources
coming soon
Wow, I had no idea that this would get so long. Thanks for sticking with me, and I'll try and get this finished ASAP!
Now, the big question, do I sticky this to the top of my journal for easy reference or not?
As this post gets longer and longer, I realize that there's going to be a massive amount of lj cuts. I hope this all fits on one entry!
I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, more commonly known as the Mormon Church. This is often abbreviated LDS since, let's face it, the full title is a bit cumbersome. The nickname of Mormons comes from the fact that we have an additional book of scripture called The Book of Mormon, a book that details Christ's dealings with his people here in the Americas, that we use as a companion to the Bible.
Church general leadership
The Church has a very clearly-defined, but occasionally somewhat confusing, system of leadership. As you read, it may seem like we have a lot of leaders and a kind of rigid hierarchical structure. This is because we do. The system is designed to make sure that everybody can know who to turn to for help and that everybody has someone looking out for them. Also, most church leadership positions are held by men, and can only be held by men. This is because, in the LDS faith, only men can hold the Priesthood - God's power given to mankind - and the Priesthood is the organizing authority of the church. I'll explain more about this after I get done with the organizational chart.
Like in biblical times, we believe our church is lead by a prophet of God. Our current prophet, and church president, is President Gordon B. Hinckley. He has two counselors, and those three men constitute the First Presidency. Under the First Presidency is the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles or just the Quorum of the Twelve. There are, oddly enough, twelve men in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and they, combined with the First Presidency, are the leaders of our church.
This basic structure of leadership is mirrored at all levels of the church. Any organization of the church (of which there are many) has a president, first counselor, second counselor, and usually a secretary of some sort.
Ward leadership and how we spend our time every Sunday
Unlike many other churches, our church is split up geographically, and we are assigned wards according to where we live. A ward is basically a congregation. Each ward has, as its leader, a bishop. The bishop is responsible for the welfare of his ward. Probably the closest equivalent in other religions is a pastor or a rabbi. The bishop has a first and second counselor to help him and there are usually one or two ward clerks to serve in a secretary kind of role. The bishop and his counselors are collectively called the bishopbric.
Every Sunday, I and every other member go to three hours of church at the specific time and location our ward is assigned. This is not as horrendously long as it seems, because it's split up into three blocks of time.
1) Sacrament Meeting: This is an hour and 10 minutes long, and everybody is together in the chapel. We sing hymns, have an opening and closing prayer, listen to talks, and take the sacrament. Talks are given by members of the ward who are asked to by the bishopbric. They are 5-20 minutes long (depending on how long they've been asked to speak), and are about whatever gospel topic has been assigned to them. We have a lay clergy (i.e. no one is paid for their service in the church), so we don't have someone whose job it is to preach a sermon every Sunday. The Sacrament is roughly equivalent to communion; we eat bread and drink water in remembrance of and symbolic of Christ's sacrifice for us.
2) Sunday School: This is where things get a little zoo-y (zooey?). Sunday School lasts for 50 minutes and everyone goes off in different directions. The church has several auxiliaries, each of which is responsible for various sections of the church population. During Sunday School, these are the ones used:
--Primary: for children ages 3-11. It has a presidency consisting of adult women. Assuming sufficient children, there is a class for every age group. The 3-turning-4-year-olds are called "Sunbeams." I don't know how that got started, but it's just always been like that for as long as I can remember and probably will always be that way since we have a Primary song called "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam." Then we have classes with numbers after them indicating the age of the children at the beginning of the year. So, there's CTR (standing for Choose the Right) 4, CTR 5, CTR 6, CTR 7, Valiant 8, Valiant 9, Valiant 10, and Valiant 11. *inhales deeply* The change in class name indicates a change from Junior to Senior Primary. Junior Primary meets together in the Primary room while Senior Primary has their individual class lessons, then they switch after the second block, and Senior Primary all meets in the Primary room while Junior Primary goes to their individual classes. And yes, we do try to teach religious lessons to 3-year-olds, though obviously quite simplified. Sometimes it works better than others.
--Nursery: this is actually under the direction of the Primary presidency, but it's the place for the 18 month to 3-year-olds. Most of Nursery is just playing with toys and eating snacks and coloring and reading books, but there is a lesson time where we teach very, very, very simple religiously-oriented lessons to them. I served in the nursery for a while, and I think my favorite title for a lesson was "I am Thankful for Fish."
--Sunday School: in charge of teachers for ages 12 and up. In the Sunday School organization, there are teachers for each age level (as in 12 turning 13 within the calendar year, 13 turning 14, 14 turning 15, etc.) up through the year the kids turn 18. For 18 and up, there are several potential classes that are run depending on what the Sunday School presidency feels the ward needs. Gospel Doctrine and Gospel Essentials are two classes that are always running. Gospel Essentials is geared towards those who are visiting from other faiths, who are investigating the church, or are new members. It focuses on the fundamental principles of the gospel. Gospel Doctrine is geared more towards those who have been in the church for a while and already have a working knowledge of our basic beliefs. Each year, Course 15 and older focus on a different book within our scriptoral canon: Old Testament, New Testament, the Book of Mormon, and Doctrine and Covenants/Church History. Doctrine and Covenants is our book of scripture containing prophecies and revelations made in the modern day, since the Church was restored by Joseph Smith.
3) Priesthood/Relief Society: I don't know why we don't have a better name for this. Sometimes it's just called '3rd hour' since it's usually the third block of time (the order of blocks can differ if there's more than one ward using a building at the same time). Basically, this is the time when everyone 12 and older breaks off into their gender-specific auxiliaries:
--Young Women's: This is the girls' organization for ages 12-17/18. What a surprise. Within the YW organization, there are different classes by age group: Beehives (12-13), Mia Maids (14-15), and Laurels (16-18ish). Again, I'm not really sure why they ended up named what they were, but there you have it. The YW is directed by a presidency of adult women and each class also has an advisor assigned to it. Each class also has a presidency made up of class members. They, along with their adult leaders, are in charge of planning the weekly class activities (held on some weeknight) and watching out for the girls. Essentially, it's good training for being in leadership positions later on.
--Young Men's or Aaronic Priesthood: This is the boys' organization for ages 12-17/18. Again, I know, what a shock. The boys are also split up by age group: Deacons (12-13), Teachers (14-15), and Priests (16-18ish). The YM is set up just like YW: there is a presidency, and then there are also advisors and youth presidencies for every class. These class names are also the names of different offices in the Aaronic Priesthood, so please see below for a better explanation of the Priesthood and what it entails.
--Relief Society: This is the women's auxiliary of the church. Once a girl hits 18 or goes away to college, she's in it for the long haul. Wow, how awesomely short was that?
--Melchezidek Priesthood: This is often just shortened to Priesthood. This is the men's auxiliary, and it gets split into two groups: Elders and High Priests. Again, see the Priesthood section below for explanation. Elders' Quorum has a presidency while the High Priests have a group leader with two counselors. This is because High Priests are organized at a stake level (see the stake leadership section below).
Ideally, wards have about 300-400 people. If a ward gets too big or too small (due to population growth or people moving or whatever), the ward boundaries are redrawn (not by the bishop, but at a higher level) in order to even out the ward sizes. For instance, my family's been in the same house since 1991, but we were in the Academy Ward to begin with, then Mountain Shadows Ward, then we were moved back into the Academy Ward. We've also changed stakes once.
Stake leadership
coming soon
An explanation of the Priesthood
coming soon
How callings work in the Church
coming soon
Special Sunday meetings and other meetings
coming soon
Other [read: better] resources
coming soon
Wow, I had no idea that this would get so long. Thanks for sticking with me, and I'll try and get this finished ASAP!
Now, the big question, do I sticky this to the top of my journal for easy reference or not?