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Show Ezra Taft Benson to Preside At New Chape! Dedication The dedication of the new Seventh-Eighth Ward Chapel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been scheduled for next Sunday, March 7 at 7 p.m. The chapel is located on 1250 East 200 South, and has been under construction con-struction for the past year. Attending and presiding over the dedication will be President Ezra Taft Benson, president of the council of Twelve, who is the ranking apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was sustained to this presiding position in 1973, and has served 30 years as a member of the Twelve. President Benson has served the church in many capacities and also was for eight years United States Secretary of Agriculture during the Eisenhower administration. He has served the church in many capacities, serving as stake president in Idaho, Washington D.C., and was then called to serve in the Council of the Twelve. He was president of the 1 ; . ) , DEDICATION President Ezra Taft Benson will bepresid-ing bepresid-ing authority Sunday evening at 7th-8th Ward dedication. European Mission with headquarters in London from January to December in 1946, and again in 1963 he was called to preside over the European Mission and served in this capacity for two years. Speakers at the dedication ceremonies Sunday evening will be Bishop Clyde D. Crump of the Eighth Ward and Bishop A. Clyde Hill of the Seventh Ward. President Leon A. Walker,, president of Pleasant Grove Stake will also give remarks. A combined chorus of the two ward will furnish special numbers, for which they have been practicing this ast month. The completion of the new building will help ease the scheduling problems of the other wards of the Pleasant Grove Stake, as well as the two wards using the building. The Eighth Ward members have been using the Pleasant Grove Stake Center along with two other wards, and they no doubt will be glad to move into their own building and not have the long drive down to the Stake Center for their meetings. Seventh Ward has been using the old stake center on 450 East 200 South along with the Ninth Ward and Grove Ward, and while many church buildings house two wards, scheduling problems will be much eased with the wards getting back to only two wards in each building. LDS church buildings are used most afternoons, some mornings, and several evenings a week for various church activities for youth, adults and children, and also for the Scouting program, which is part of the LDS church activities in this area. Sunday meetings must also be scheduled carefully to allow each ward the necessary time for their various meetings during the day. Church meeting houses constitute the bulk of building activity in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They are designed in expandable ex-pandable phases to accomodate a well-rounded program of spiritual, cultural, educational and recreational activities of church members and non-members. non-members. When meetinghouses are completed, the church provides from its general funds, 70 percent of the costs of maintaining main-taining the building and grounds. Local members pay the rest. Members call it their ward as they speak of their home. They contributed toward the construction and each month contribute toward maintenance therefore, feel pride of ownership in it. The 3.3 million Latter-day Saints continue to build all over the world. The church's largest structure is the new $31.5 million 28 story Church Office Building in Salt Lake City. It has 683,000 square feet of office space and 3 levels of un derground parking for 1,400 cars. In contrast to this huge building, the new chapel in Pleasant Grove has been geared to house two wards with membership from 450 to around 900. The church says that average membership of a ward is about 900, but as a general rule, when the membership reaches somewhere around this number or sometimes smaller, the wards are divided, making for increased activity in the various positions held by ward members. The Church also says that they design buildings to accomodate ac-comodate three wards, however, the present building will house two wards comfortably, com-fortably, and wards generally find that when three wards are using a building, it increases their scheduling problems. The present building is laid out so that bishop's and clerk's offices are in the east and west wing of the building for each ward, the chapel is in the center of the building, the cultural hall directly behind the chapel, and classrooms and other rooms are built around the cultural hall in a U-shaped configuration, con-figuration, Throughout the world the church has approximately 5,000 buildings, 3,500 of them in the United States. These include chapels, temples, mission mission homes, visitors centers and seminary and institute buildings. Thhis total does not include church schools. At the dedication ceremonies Sunday evening, everyone is invited to attend. This includes members of the two wards, other church members in the area, and non-members who would like to attend. Everyone is welcome, says Bishops Crump and Hill, and everyone should be on time so that the dedication program can start promptly at 7 p.m. |
