Mormon teens to have greater opportunities for temple service in 2018

[zil]

Well, I can't post in the forum for current church events, so it'll have to be here.  Very interesting news - Priests will be able to officiate in proxy baptisms; and YW will be able to serve in the baptistry: https://www.deseretnews.com/article/865694033/Mormon-teens-to-have-greater-opportunities-for-temple-service-in-2018.html

Very interesting.

[Sunday21]

4 hours ago, zil said:

Well, I can't post in the forum for current church events, so it'll have to be here.  Very interesting news - Priests will be able to officiate in proxy baptisms; and YW will be able to serve in the baptistry: https://www.deseretnews.com/article/865694033/Mormon-teens-to-have-greater-opportunities-for-temple-service-in-2018.html

Very interesting.

Our temple needs all help it can get! We are really struggling! Any southern saints who feel like serving a temple mission, we could really use you! 

[zil]

6 hours ago, Sunday21 said:

Our temple needs all help it can get! We are really struggling! Any southern saints who feel like serving a temple mission, we could really use you! 

Well, hopefully youth will step up and free some of the adult workers to work elsewhere - I think that is part of the point of the change - utilize more fully all the available resources!  (Almost sounds, in some ways, that the youth of the Church are putting the adults to shame - if so, I actually think that's good (in a sense) as it means we are raising a temple-going generation.  Let's hope they don't slack off on that as they grow into adulthood.)

[Anddenex]

I am looking forward to this, "Priests will be able to perform baptisms for the dead and serve as witnesses for those proxy baptisms." My son will be able to baptize me for family names now! He is excited also.

[Guest]

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Edited December 16, 2017 by Guest

[zil]

9 minutes ago, Carborendum said:

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Well, that was my second thought.  I guess great minds think alike, just not always at the same time...

[seashmore]

This will be great for units like mine who have a hard time bringing enough endowed  brethren to help officiate.

[Sunday21]

37 minutes ago, seashmore said:

This will be great for units like mine who have a hard time bringing enough endowed  brethren to help officiate.

I think that this policy may also help adult involvement. Someone has to drive the priest to the temple. A keen temple going son may encourage a less keen dad or Mom. I did two sessions today. Ahhhh...temple ?

In the second session, there were only two female patrons. Sigh. 

[seashmore]

6 minutes ago, Sunday21 said:

I think that this policy may also help adult involvement. Someone has to drive the priest to the temple. A keen temple going son may encourage a less keen dad or Mom. I did two sessions today. Ahhhh...temple ?

In the second session, there were only two female patrons. Sigh. 

I know what you mean. I've been on (Tuesday night) sessions where the only patrons are temple workers from that shift who have been assigned to be patrons. Almost 100% of our Tuesday night sealing sessions were that way. I think one of my favorite sessions, though, was one very early into my call as a temple worker when there was only one "citizen" patron in an endowment session. I felt like that session was just for her in a way. It reminded me of how important each individual is to our Savior. Even if you or I were the only person to have benefited from his Atonement, He still would have considered it worth the sacrifice.

[Maureen]

14 hours ago, Sunday21 said:

I think that this policy may also help adult involvement. Someone has to drive the priest to the temple. A keen temple going son may encourage a less keen dad or Mom. I did two sessions today. Ahhhh...temple ?

In the second session, there were only two female patrons. Sigh. 

It is Christmas time. Could it be that many members are busy with Christmas preparations?

M.

[Sunday21]

1 hour ago, Maureen said:

It is Christmas time. Could it be that many members are busy with Christmas preparations?

M.

Oh yes! Spending time with living relatives! Very important. Many lds people are run off their feet. I long for more members. I wish we could convert everyone. 

[Fether]

On 12/14/2017 at 9:49 PM, zil said:

Well, I can't post in the forum for current church events, so it'll have to be here.  Very interesting news - Priests will be able to officiate in proxy baptisms; and YW will be able to serve in the baptistry: https://www.deseretnews.com/article/865694033/Mormon-teens-to-have-greater-opportunities-for-temple-service-in-2018.html

Very interesting.

I love this, but I’m just curious why this changed or why it wasn’t so in the past. I had the Melchizedek Priesthood while in Highschool and went to do baptisms thinking I could baptize my friends but they said I needed to be endowed to do so. 

[zil]

27 minutes ago, Fether said:

I love this, but I’m just curious why this changed or why it wasn’t so in the past. I had the Melchizedek Priesthood while in Highschool and went to do baptisms thinking I could baptize my friends but they said I needed to be endowed to do so. 

My suspicion: there was a growing need; the brethren took it to the Lord, perhaps having already decided this would be a viable solution¹ and this is the result.

¹Show me where in scripture it says Priests can only baptize the living for the living (i.e. that they can't baptize the living by proxy for the dead).  My first thought was also, "I thought you had to be endowed to do this."  But I cannot think of any scripture which limits a Priest's baptismal authority to living ordinances - not that I'm an expert on this by any stretch.

Edited December 17, 2017 by zil

[Shath]

15 hours ago, Fether said:

I love this, but I’m just curious why this changed or why it wasn’t so in the past. I had the Melchizedek Priesthood while in Highschool and went to do baptisms thinking I could baptize my friends but they said I needed to be endowed to do so. 

I'm not LDS so take this with a grain of salt.  I have studied Mormons for YEARS though. 

They say that the there are the first principles and ordinances of the church.  These are the things you do outside the temple.  In order to do or be the person who does the ordinance in the temple, this is a different ordinance.  So baptism for the dead is a different ordinance than baptism.  To be over any temple ordinance, you had to be endowed in the temple.  You could do the ordinance as a person (so person baptized as proxy), but the person who does it (does the baptizing) has to be endowed (anyone know why it's called an endowment?  I don't, but wonder why).

This is a rule that's been set for lots and lots of years, at least what I hear.  I don't know why it changed.  Maybe they are going to change other rules about the temple?  This might be the first rule change.  Next they will change the rules for other things?  I don't know.  You could ask the people higher up, maybe they could tell you.

[Jane_Doe]

3 hours ago, Shath said:

I'm not LDS so take this with a grain of salt.  I have studied Mormons for YEARS though. 

They say that the there are the first principles and ordinances of the church.  These are the things you do outside the temple.  In order to do or be the person who does the ordinance in the temple, this is a different ordinance.  So baptism for the dead is a different ordinance than baptism.  To be over any temple ordinance, you had to be endowed in the temple.  You could do the ordinance as a person (so person baptized as proxy), but the person who does it (does the baptizing) has to be endowed (anyone know why it's called an endowment?  I don't, but wonder why).

This is a rule that's been set for lots and lots of years, at least what I hear.  I don't know why it changed.  Maybe they are going to change other rules about the temple?  This might be the first rule change.  Next they will change the rules for other things?  I don't know.  You could ask the people higher up, maybe they could tell you.

(The below is my personal thoughts)

Speaking broadly, in the church there are three general categories things fall into: doctrine, policy, and culture.  Doctrine is given by God through His prophets.  Policies are set by us humans trying to best go about His work, but their needs to be some standardization of "how" to go about it.  And then there's culture, which are the quirks any group of humans develop (like Utah's strange love of Jello).

Now, zooming into the temple example on hand: the previous policy was only for endowed men to do proxy baptizing in the temple (doing the dunking, unendowed youth have gotten dunked for decades).  This, was a matter of policy, not doctrine.  Now, it has been studied and decided that unendowed priests may also do the dunking, so that is the new policy.  Yes, policies do change, to better enable us to do His work (which is the entire reason they exist in the first place).  Another recent example of policies changing would be the lowering of the missionary age.  

As to why it's called an "endowment", see these verses: https://www.lds.org/scriptures/gs/endowment

[zil]

24 minutes ago, Jane_Doe said:

Utah's strange love of Jello

Strange!?  Straaaange?  Clearly you're too busy riding horses rather than melting their hooves into a delivery mechanism for whipped cream...