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Africa rules
Good news keeps flowing out of Africa.
Once again, the continent led the way in church expansion, providing 11 of the top 13 nations with the fastest growth rates last year, topped by Mozambique (34.1%), Rwanda (33.2%), Tanzania (32.3%), Burundi (24.3%) and Angola (23.9%).
“The church continues to experience rapid, unprecedented growth in East Africa,” independent researcher Matt Martinich writes at ldschurchgrowth.blogspot.com. “... In Mozambique [where a temple was announced in 2021], there was a net increase of 6,290 just in 2023 — a remarkable number, considering there were only 18,443 Latter-day Saints at the beginning of the year.”
In Central Africa, meanwhile, swift growth persisted. Membership in the Democratic Republic of Congo (with one existing temple and three more planned) jumped into six figures, at 115,027, according to the church’s latest nation-by-nation statistics.
Growth rates in West Africa, the center of robust increases a decade ago, however, have slowed.
“There were no countries in West Africa (with published membership statistics) that experienced an annual membership growth rate of 10% or more during 2023,” Martinich notes. “... Mission leaders in West Africa have generally reported an emphasis on improving the quality of prebaptismal teaching.….Missions such as the Liberia Monrovia Mission, have reported a renewed emphasis on quality over quantity for convert baptism goals, and this has resulted in a substantial decrease in the numbers of converts baptized.”
Africa’s overall Latter-day Saint membership was nearly 850,000 at year’s end.
U.S. rebounds
The United States, home to more than 6.8 million Latter-day Saints, saw a surprising spike in church growth, recording a net increase of 64,765 members, an eight-year high.
That number on the U.S. rolls also represents an annual growth rate of 0.95%, the highest it has been since 2015, and accounted for nearly 30% of the church’s global growth.
“It is unclear what has driven a [net] increase of more than 20,000 for 2023 compared to the annual average for the several previous years,” Martinich states. “Some possibilities include fewer deaths, larger numbers of convert baptisms, larger numbers of new children of record, higher rates of children of record being baptized at age 8, and fewer incidents of name removal or … loss of membership.”
The latest ‘Mormon Land’ podcast: Together forever?
What happens inside Latter-day Saint families when a loved one leaves the faith.
Listen to this special “Mormon Land” live recording from Utah Valley University.
In your dreams
It turns out that Latter-day Saint missions are the stuff dreams are made of — even into middle age.
In a Times and Seasons blog post, Stephen Cranney writes about former missionaries nodding off at night and being transported back to Mexico or Maine or Mozambique or wherever they served as a suit-wearing, scripture-packing 20-something.
This phenomenon is “so widespread I suspect the return-to-the-mission dream means something psychologically,” Cranney states, “but I don’t know what.”
So, sweet dreams Elder and Sister So-and-So.
Losing faith in Trump
In the swing state of Arizona, pockets of Latter-day Saint women, some of them lifelong Republicans, are rejecting Donald Trump, the GOP’s presumptive presidential nominee, NPR reports, in favor of reelecting Democratic President Joe Biden.
From The Tribune
• The governing First Presidency adjusts the temple recommend questions and an accompanying statement to emphasize that faithful members are to wear their garments “day and night” throughout their lives. The stricter language comes as little surprise to careful Tribune readers. We reported last month that such a move would be coming.
• Get ready for your next temple recommend interview by reviewing the full list of questions, including the new garment instructions.
• A Japanese Latter-day Saint economist says one simple — or not so simple — change would help attract and retain converts in his country: allowing members there to drink green tea.
• Challenging church orthodoxy, even at BYU, the faith’s flagship school, can help students build their faith, maintains Tribune guest columnist Natalie Brown.
• BYU men’s basketball coach trades in his Cougar blue for Wildcat blue in Kentucky’s hoops heaven. Meanwhile, an NBA assistant is leaving the Valley of the Sun(s) for the top coaching job in Happy Valley.
• Featuring a century-old Tiffany stained-glass window salvaged from a New York Presbyterian church, Utah’s twin-spired, three-story, 94,000-square-foot Layton Temple opens to public tours ahead of a June 16 dedication by apostle David Bednar.
