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Show The Duchesne Stake of Zion (By U. S. Collett) The "Mormon' church is recognized recog-nized the world over today as being one of the most compact and efficient organizations in the world. Territorially Territo-rially the whole or the United States and most of the Christian countries of Europe is embraced within specl-Hc, specl-Hc, organized boundrles for the facilitating fa-cilitating of church work. The territorial subdivisions or units of the "Stake." the "Ward," the ".Mission." the "Conference," and! the "Branch." The "Stake" usually': embraces a district comparing to a eounty or natural geographical divis-j Ion. It is presided over by a presi- dent and two counselors, who have' full -mid complete executive control j if all church matters within the Slake boundaries. The Ward is the1 unit within the Stake embracing a town or center where people are brought together for school, social sind commercial purpose, or a subdivision subdi-vision of a large city. A ward is presided over by a bishop and two ounsciors. The bishop has complete executive powers in all church matters mat-ters within hia ward and he is the financial agent of the church within his ward, receiving, handing and accounting ac-counting for all tithes, offerings and donations to church purposes within with-in his ward. The bishop reports to the Stake president who In turn makes his report re-port to the president of the church. There are usually six to ten or twelv wards in a stake, each with a bishop reporting to the stake presidency, presi-dency, thus forming a unit within the stake. A Branch is a small subdivision! which is not strong enough, nuiucr- j ically and otherwise to become a ward. While It has its presidency.) elder, the hiuhop of the nearest ward I has jurisdiction and Is responsible! for the actions of the branch, its ' i (presiding authority and its members. ! Stakes and wards are only organized 'where the "Mormon" population is J numerically strong enough to form j considerable numbers of adherents. Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, j Arizona, some portions of New Mexico, Mexi-co, and Canada, have organized stakes land wards. The balance of the United States and the European countries coun-tries arc divided into missions and 1 conferances. A "Mission" is a large division of territory presided over by a president and usually two counselors. For in-1 stance, the Southern States Mission embraces almost the whole of the' southern states with headquarters at j Chattanooga, Tenn. Each state is I then divided into a conference while presided over by a president and I counselors These presidents report ( directly to the mission president, who In turn reports to the president of jthe church. Missionaries sent into it he mission by the home body of jthe church report to the mission president. He, in turn, distributes ' these missionaries to the various conferences under his jurisdiction as, in his judgment, the conditions de-(mand. de-(mand. The Elder or missionary, immediately im-mediately reports to the conference president where he Is sent and is (assigned a "titld" of labor by that president. Thus the matter goes on ; endlessly over the civilized world with the president of the church at Salt Lake City intimately in touch Iwiih each subdivision no matter how j remotely situated. The Duchesne Stake embraces all jOf the territory of Duchesne county and that portion of Uintah county west of the Uintah river. The territory was formally a portion por-tion of Wasatch Stake. Subsequently ; it was made a portion of the Uintah Stake with headquarters at Vernal. As the country grew and developed. after the opening of the reservation, j it was, on the 17th day of Septem- her, 1910, segregated from the Uintah Uin-tah Stake and formed into the Duchesne Du-chesne Stake with headquarter at Roosevelt, Utah. This special edition edi-tion of the Free Press celebrates the fifth anniversary of the birth of the stake. The stake is presided over by a president and two counselors. From the two wards of Roosevelt and Theodore at the time of its organization or-ganization It has grown to twelve organized wards and nine organized branches of the church. That is, there are twenty -one organized Sun- day schools, accepting all grades and tiges who desire to attend. Sixteen ! Primary associations admitting chil- ' dren from the kindergarten to 12 years of age. Fifteen Mutual Improvement Im-provement associations giving special Instructions to young people from 12 years of age to 90. Eighteen Women's Wom-en's Relief societies, specially organized organ-ized for the relief of the poor and the caring for the afflicted and needy. The Duchesne Stake of Zion is expanding ex-panding to proportions where it will become necessary to again segregate and divide it into two or more stakes. |
