Programs and Policies Newsletter

Tithing in Kind. Ordinarily, the Church does not accept tithing in kind. Instead, members are encouraged to dispose of property and make payment in cash. However, immediately marketable stocks, bonds, and securities can be endorsed by the owner to the Corporation of the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a Utah corporation sole. Such securities should be forwarded by registered mail to the Office of the Presiding Bishopric, 47 East South Temple, Salt Lake City, Utah 84111.

Temple Marriages. Couples planning to be married in the temple should be encouraged to use the regular temple officiators who have been given the sealing power and refrain from asking General Authorities to perform such marriages. This procedure will lessen the burden on General Authorities, whose time and energies are already overtaxed.

Genealogy Seminar. Advance notice of the sixth annual priesthood genealogical seminar at the Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, August 2–6, 1971, will allow priesthood leaders who intend to participate to plan their vacations accordingly. Especially invited are all stake presidents and bishops and other priesthood leaders who wish to attend this training session.

Priest Quorum Leadership. The bishop, as president of the priests quorum, should appoint a priest as group leader, two priests as assistants to the group leader, and one priest to act as quorum secretary. The priests quorum group leader also acts as group leader of the bishop’s youth committee, which includes three members of each quorum/class presidency for the priests, teachers, deacons, Laurels, Mia Maids, and Beehive girls.

Family Name File. Names submitted to the Genealogical Society for temple ordinance work that members wish to do themselves should be entered on separate forms and reserved in the family file. If names for family file and temple file are not submitted on separate forms, family name files receive no priority, and the large number of temple file names waiting to be processed will cause an unavoidable delay in processing family file names. Increased temple attendance will reduce the backlog of temple names considerably. The Provo Temple is now accepting names for the file.

Bishop’s Training Course. The new training course for bishops, which has been prepared by the Church Leadership Committee and under the direction of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve, will run from January 1 to June 30, 1971, in most stakes. Stake presidents will head the training teams to assist bishops, primarily, but other stake and ward leaders may participate if the stake president so directs. Some of the topics covered in the Bishop’s Training Course and Self-help Guide to be used in the course are: correlation and relationship principles, duties of the presiding high priest and father of the ward, effective methods in working with young people, welfare and financial management, and counseling, interviewing, and serving as a common judge in Israel. The suggested lesson outlines for 1971 monthly high priest quorum meetings have been prepared from this training manual and will be sent to each stake.

Illustrated Bibles. A large illustrated Bible, which has been designed especially for eight- to eleven-year-olds in Sunday School and Primary, will help children to locate and memorize scriptures readily. These Bibles may be purchased from Church Distribution, 33 Richards Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84111, for $2.50 a copy.

Relief Society Lessons. Extra copies of the November and December issues of the Relief Society Magazine may be obtained through the Relief Society business office. The November issue contains the Relief Society lessons for February and March, and the December issue will carry lessons for April and May, which complete the 1970–71 courses.

Sunday School Bulletin. Matters of Sunday School procedure and administration, which were formerly published in the Instructor, will now be printed in the Sunday School Bulletin. Sacrament gems and choices for prelude and postlude music will also be included in the monthly newsletter.