Changes for singles wards

I made a comment on my Facebook page the other day about how it’s interesting to be a single in the Church right now. Several people wondered what I meant by that. Rather than responding, I think it’s easier to just write a blog post that explains it all.

Since general conference a few weeks ago, it’s become clear the Brethren are concerned about the high number of singles in the church, so it came as no surprise to hear they were going to be making some major changes in the next few weeks. For three days this week they held meetings at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City to let us, the affected parties, know what these changes were going to be.

To sum it up, basically they’re getting rid of all university singles wards, except those on campus and are instead forming 12 singles wards between Farmington and Point of the Mountain. This is for two reasons: a) to give us more opportunities to meet other singles and b) to help keep track of people better or to eliminate overlap in who has jurisdiction over people so they don’t slip through the cracks. They started this in Ogden a year ago and have since done it in St. George and Cache Valley, to great success.

All six singles stakes on the U campus were dissolved, and all the singles wards on the south end of the valley formerly attached to family stakes are now in their own stakes. Basically we were told they’re eliminating several choices down to one: attend the singles ward in the boundaries where you live or the family ward. Period. Again, this will help get rid of confusion on who has jurisdiction over any given single so we can help fellowship those who’ve fallen away.

Tomorrow they’re having a special stake conference to announce all the new stake presidencies as well as the bishoprics of all the new wards. Some will be called back and others won’t. We’ll just have to see what happens. Of course, the ward leadership for many of the wards is going to be reorganized as well, so it’ll be almost constant change in the next few weeks.

I for one feel these changes are for the best and will be very interested to see how they all turn out. I’m sure much inspiration has gone into these decisions and it’ll be fascinating to see what happens.