Comments on: They Had Questions, 1953

By: jks

jks — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 05:06:16 +0000

Thanks for posting this.
I was waiting for the laser show you mentioned, but it was just a transparent picture with a light bulb behind it for the kids to look at during the junior sunday school sacrament. Not terribly daring, but I liked the answer that they didn’t want anything besides the sacrament to be something that was always done (except now white shirts).

By: Rosemary

Rosemary — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 12:36:07 +0000

As to the 300 member gospel doctrine class – remember how large some of the wards were at that time. Some had 1000+ members. Now the whole ward is kept not much larger than that one class!

By: Ziff

Ziff — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 06:44:23 +0000

Like Mark, I love the question about 100% subscriptions. I hope the answer given is still in effect, so that my household isn’t pulling the numbers down by not having multiple church magazine subscriptions.

By: Maurine

Maurine — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 04:20:50 +0000

Our ward clerk has to have the report on RS, Primary, YM and YW (and I assume SS) people not attending, as well as the HT and VT entered into the computer by the 10th of every month. He says the information then goes to the stake and then the church, but the only data that is used toward budgets for the wards are the “statistics” months of March, June, Sept, and Dec. My bishop says that our budget from the stake/church takes into consideration all of the above attendance as well as the Sacrament Meeting attendance. We have rolls kept in all of the SS classes.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:50:31 +0000

All the old rolls are here in the church archives — the only use I’ve ever known anybody to put them to is to demonstrate that somebody lived in southern Utah during the nuclear tests and was therefore eligible for Downwinder payments. We still pass around a roll in our ward, but I have no idea whether it is used for anything at all, much less preserved. Hmmm. Something else to ponder as I lie awake at night.

By: kevinf

kevinf — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:54:04 +0000

Other than I know we still record sacrament meeting attendance (numbers only), which is used to calculate budget allowances.

By: kevinf

kevinf — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:52:07 +0000

What exactly did they do with those attendance rolls from Sunday School, etc? I know at one time, we had to indicate how many folks on our ward rosters were not attending any meetings, but I’m not sure even that happens any more. Even home teaching and visiting teaching numbers seem to have slipped in importance. I can’t remember the last time I heard a bishop in our ward ask why the statistics weren’t up to date in the MIS. I also can’t remember the last time I saw someone actually recording attendance in our ward, or any ward that I’ve been in for a couple of decades.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:40:18 +0000

Tamary, many but not all issues of the Instructor answer such questions; sometimes they'll have just one, and sometimes a whole page, so I guess they answered them as the questions came in, or as they had space in the magazine. I'm not sure how abrupt the change from encouraging to discouraging questions was -- that's something I'll have to watch for. I remember that in the early '70s both the Ensign and the New Era published the answers to member questions. They seemed to be genuine questions asked by members, and answered by invited experts, but it's also possible, I suppose, that they were staged questions used to provoke an article that the editor wanted to write? I dunno. Those features at least gave the appearance to the members that it was okay, even great, to write to Salt Lake like that.

By: Tamary

Tamary — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:30:05 +0000

How often were question-and-answer lists like this published? It’s interesting to see what concerned people then. Now we’re told to ask questions of our local leaders rather than writing to Church headquarters. Was that a gradual change or was it set forth as a policy at some particular time?

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:20:12 +0000

Yes! When I read that one, I thought immediately of the so-called family history classes which focus exclusively on the weighty matter of whether to enter surnames in caps or mixed case, and provide no guidance whatsoever on finding the names to record.

As for where a class that large meets (assuming that was actual attendance), remember that most wards met in single-ward buildings in 1953 so the class probably met in the chapel. The same Instructor is just starting to offer suggestions, as if they were revolutionary, on how to handle Sunday School when two wards had to share a building and they could no longer both meet at 10:00. I think the only time I’ve ever had the luxury of a one-ward chapel was in a small logging-camp town in northern California!