A week ago, our LDS Stake made some major boundary changes, dividing our ward and creating two new wards in the process. One of the divisions runs between me and my BFFs, aka The Sisterwives. They all live on the same corner, so they`re together in the new ward, I`m out here by myself. I commented on my Facebook page, and later it occurred to me that my non-LDS friends probably have no idea what that means.
An LDS Ward is the local unit - with geographical boundaries. How large an area it encompasses depends on the density of the LDS members. In Arizona, the ward I grew up in is only about a square mile. Here, our ward included the towns of Prunedale ( more a rural area than a town) Castroville, Moss Landing, Marina and part of the military community housing on Ft Ord. We had about 700 members on the books, with about 400 "active" members; people who come to meetings and activities regularly. Several wards together make up a Stake. Our Stake boundaries are essentially the Monterey County lines, we have 12 wards. When a member moves to a new area, they don`t "shop" for a ward, they attend the ward for that geographical area; lds.org has interactive maps to help figure out which ward they should attend. New members are welcomed into the "family" and instantly have a crowd of people who have their backs, even if they don`t know anyone`s name yet.
A Bishop is called as the leader of a ward. His job is to oversee the physical and spiritual well-being of all of the members of his ward, whether they come to church or not. Of course, he has people called to help him, but with a large ward it is still a daunting task. As with all other "callings" in the LDS church, this is not a paid position. He still has a regular career and a family to take care of. He is usually called for a period of 5 years or so, then will be "released" and a new bishop called.
I have lived in many wards in the church in Arizona, Utah and California. I have never lived in a "bad" ward, though people assure me they exist. Most of my wards were good wards: where people were freindly, helpful etc. Then, I`ve lived in a couple of great wards, where we were like a giant family, with a lot of love for each other. Our ward here was like that. We were very diverse: well-off and not, military and civilian, Korean, islander, middle-eastern, white and just about every other color. But, we all love each other and we had many great traditions, just as a family does.
When we are baptised into the church, among other things we are charged to love one another, to "bear one another`s burdens that they may be light" and to "mourn with those that mourn and to comfort those that stand in need of comfort". Willingness to do this is what makes a ward great. Because you truly learn to love those whom you serve. It also means that this is not a Sunday-only church, throughout the week we are helping where we can to make sure that known needs are met. That doesn`t mean there are no problems, people are still human and imperfect, but overall there is a feeling of love and "we`re in this together". Like a family, we don`t pick our ward members, we learn to love them as they are.
As the LDS population in our area shifted around, partly due to old housing at Ord being razed and new areas built, we had wards in our stake that were tiny, and a couple that were the size of ours; very large. So to reduce the stress on the bishops and to allow them to lead and serve ward members more effectively, they redrew ward lines to balance the membership out better, and created two new wards. It`s really a good thing; we can serve and help one another more easily in smaller wards, fewer needs will slip through the cracks.
Realistically, we all still live in the same houses, just as before. The Sisterwives and I still have kids in the same activities, and the only thing that will change for us that we will be worshipping on Sundays in different buildings. But, it feels like someone separated our family and that part takes a bit of mourning to get over.
No comments:
Post a Comment