The Mormon Land newsletter is The Salt Lake Tribune’s weekly highlight reel of news in and about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Join us on Patreon to receive ad-free podcast episodes, the full newsletter and access to all of our religion content.

Going places

Latter-day Saints, it turns out, like to move — more so than Presbyterians, Catholics, Lutherans and Baptists.

Citing the General Social Survey, numbers nerd Alex Bass reports on his Mormon Metrics website that nearly 30% of members reside in a different census region than the one they called home at age 16.

To be clear, we’re not talking about Latter-day Saints moving from Logan to Lehi but rather relocating from, say, Colorado to California — and living, Bass notes, “somewhere meaningfully different from where they grew up.”

A lot of those U-Hauls are traveling back and forth between the Mountain West and the Pacific Coast.

For migrating members, “California, Oregon and Washington feed Utah, Idaho and Arizona at a rate that dwarfs every other interregional flow,” Bass writes. The next largest pattern is the inverse, with Latter-day Saints leaving the Mountain West and heading to the Pacific states.

No wonder elders quorums seem to double as moving services.

What won’t be in the new hymnbook

An aspiring lyricist’s dreams of having one of his songs added to the church’s new hymnbook ended on a sad note — with, ironically, a sad note.

In a Times and Seasons blog post, Mike Winder shared the rejection letter he received for four new hymns he submitted with high hopes and admittedly low expectations of making the grade.

“This letter is to inform you that your works were not selected for inclusion in the new collection, ‘Hymns for Home and Church,’” the note states above the signature of general authority Seventy Matthew Carpenter, an adviser on the sweeping project that began eight years ago.

The missive notes how massive the task was: more than 17,000 submissions from members living in 66 countries and territories. A mere 50, it adds, will be in the final book.

“That’s a one in 340 chance that your hymn submission was selected,” Winder writes. “...Your odds of winning some amount of money in the Powerball lottery (which is one in 25) are 14 times more likely than getting your hymn submission chosen.”

The letter does point out that the digital songbook will include additional new works from members.

While Winder lost the lyrical lottery, he said he won something else. “Putting praise to paper was,” he said, “... a worshipful experience for me.”

His hymns include references to Elohim, Heavenly Mother and Heavenly Parents. Check out all four here.

Latest ‘Mormon Land’ podcast: The leavers and stayers

The author of “Torn: Why People We Love Are Leaving the Church and What We Can Learn From Them,” a former mission president, says church culture needs to make room for more nuanced members, including those who question and doubt.

Listen to the podcast.

Around the world

• Church President Dallin Oaks and his counselors in the governing First Presidency toured the faith’s new 250,000-square-foot Humanitarian Center last week in west Salt Lake City.

The building, which was to be dedicated Wednesday night, boasts space for job training, language instruction, donation processing and large-scale preparation of humanitarian relief.

“This facility will serve an important role in preparing and distributing emergency supplies to meet global needs,” Oaks said on social media. “I express appreciation for members of the church and for all who minister in quiet and consistent ways.”

• The Osmond family unveiled plans to build an amphitheater as part of a large entertainment venue near the mouth of Provo Canyon, with majestic Mount Timpanogos as a beloved backdrop.

The complex would replace an old gravel pit.

“We aren’t just building a concert venue here,” singing star Donny Osmond said in a KSL story. “We are honoring the beauty of Provo Canyon.”

• A former Latter-day Saint bishop near the San Francisco Bay Area has been charged with multiple counts of child sexual assault, KRON4 reports.

Michael Delar Morris, 76, also led a Young Men group and served as a Boy Scout leader, KTVU FOX 2 noted. Prosecutors say the crimes took place largely during the 1990s.

Morris’ attorney said in court that his client had been excommunicated and later rebaptized.

• Outgoing Primary General President Susan Porter and her second counselor, Tracy Browning, met with kids, helped with a service project, and huddled with government and church leaders during a recent visit to Chiapas, Mexico.

“We hope that children learn that they can look beyond themselves, look at their community and know that they can make a positive difference with their efforts,” Porter said in a news release.

• Everyone knows that friendships can cross any faith boundaries. Witness, for instance, apostle Dale Renlund’s joyous reunion earlier this month with Javier Del Río Alba, the Catholic archbishop of Arequipa, Peru.

“He is a great friend to me and to the church,” Renlund said in a news release of their meetup in Lima, “helping us in many ways, and he is a great example of being a disciple of Jesus Christ.”

Said Del Rio: “We are brothers, and for me, being with [him] is truly to feel that love of God that is manifested among brothers.”

From The Tribune

• Facing friction in the church during the 1960s and ’70s, these Latter-day Saint feminists carved their own paths and stayed true to the faith. Listen to the podcast. Read the excerpts.

• A deep dive into the church’s one-of-a-kind system of annotating member records to track abusers — how it’s done and whether it works.

• The church donates $25 million to a United Nations agency to prevent and treat malnutrition in millions of mothers and children worldwide.

• How a sentence uttered by Brigham Young in 1847 may have shaped the odd way Utah names its cities.

• Religion News Service columnist Jana Riess sees a growing divide between the church and the Trump administration.

• Funeral tributes honor a missionary-minded general authority who died unexpectedly at age 59.