What have I missed?

Dedication of a home (non-salvific).

Mark, my mother-in-law is not long for this world, shall I ask my husband to do the honours when she departs?

Seriously, though, she’ll probably be cremated. We’ve never come across the procedure for dedicating the final resting place of cremated remains (urned as opposed to scattered); if anyone can shed light on that I’d be grateful.

“Dusting of Feet,” of course. (I seem to be channeling my smart aleck husband this afternoon.)

I think you are correct in that it took Robert Millet Matthews about ten years to get access to the original manuscripts of the Inspired Version, along with Joseph Smith’s Bible with his notes in it. Part of the delay had to do with the RLDS not wanting to give access to the manuscripts because of the very poor quality, and the deterioration that had occurred in a rather short time. The RLDS church historian’s office was actively seeking a photography/copy process that would make high quality images that would be satisfactory for scholars to use, and was unable to find one for some time.

Also, as the RLDS church was reviewing the original manuscripts themselves, they discovered some things that were different from what they believed was in there, and it created a bit of a theological crisis. The end result was that they found a process to make good images sometime around the 1970s, and finally got a release from their first presidency to allow Millet Matthews access to the manuscripts at about the same time. Interestingly enough, this also corresponded to a reversal of the RLDS policy on the Inspired Version as the authorized version to be used in their services, to a policy that it could be one of several versions used, but no longer the preferred text. Now, I hear, you are as likely to hear the RSV or NIV or other translations as the IV in their services.

Prior to Dr. Millet Matthews making his requests for access to the manuscripts in the 1960′s, you are correct that the relationship was strained at best. Dr. Millet’s Matthews’ scholarship appears to be one of the contributing factors to a better relationship between the churches.

I wouldn’t know about dedicating a mountaintop, or the ocean, or all of the High Uintas. Maybe the next Keepa reader who is called on to dedicate a grave can pronounce a general dedication of the whole earth as a final resting place for those who have died or who will die without a “proper” burial.

The same concerns about “this generation” have puzzled Christians for centuries. A verse like Matthew 24:34–Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.–has led a bunch of people to conclude that all the prophecies in that chapter have been fulfilled and that the Second Coming has occurred. I suspect that the safe answer about its meaning is “we don’t know.”

I was completely surprised by J. Stapley’s comment that the dedicating of graves didn’t become a priesthood ordinance until so late as approximately 1946! This was news to me.