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The value of $ervice
Amid talk of trade wars, deficits and surpluses — and against the backdrop of President Donald Trump’s turbulent tariffs — the church’s top ecclesiastical moneyman touted the earthly worth of a heavenly value:
Service.
“If service isn’t yet a core value in your organization, I encourage you to make it one,” Presiding Bishop Gérald Caussé told global business, government and community leaders at a trade summit in Salt Lake City last week. “Service doesn’t just benefit the community; it also strengthens businesses and other organizations.”
Caussé — who shepherds the church’s real estate, financial, investment and humanitarian operations — even credited volunteerism and charity as key contributors to fiscal fitness.
“It’s no coincidence that Utah is a leading state in economic growth and also in volunteer service,” he said, according to a church news release. “These two are connected. The values people develop through service, often beginning at a young age, carry over into their professional lives, driving hard work, dedication and innovation.”
In 2018, Caussé said the church enjoys its current prosperity due to the sacrificial giving of members, primarily through tithing, and the leaders’ adherence to sound, spiritually informed financial practices such as avoiding debt.
A prettier picture
(Grand Teton National Park) Moulton Barn at Grand Teton National Park's Mormon Row in 2016. Improvements for visitors are planned at this scenic site.
Grand Teton National Park is promising an even grander experience for visitors to Mormon Row, a historic farm community established by Latter-day Saint homesteaders in the 1890s and one of the most photographed places beneath the park’s picturesque peaks.
The National Park Service has announced plans to improve pedestrian and bike access, expand parking, enhance interpretive signs and restore native vegetation.
“We are excited … to preserve and renew Mormon Row, a beloved site for park visitors,” park Superintendent Chip Jenkins said in a news release. “These improvements will create opportunities for visitors to connect with the history and landscape in a meaningful way.”
Originally home to 27 Latter-day Saint homesteads, Mormon Row has been reduced to a handful of barns. The locale was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.
The latest ‘Mormon Land’ podcast: Be ye therefore perfect?
Members view Jesus as the perfect role model, but Brigham Young University researchers discover that struggles with perfectionism are more complicated than many think.
Listen to the podcast.
Sex abuse settlement
A proposed settlement, in principle, will end more than 100 child sexual abuse lawsuits the church faces in California, The San Diego Union-Tribune reports.
The cases allege congregational leaders knew about abuse but did not go to law enforcement, the newspaper said. Terms of the settlement have not been disclosed.
Mother’s Day tributes
Top church leaders celebrated women in Mother’s Day messages Sunday.
President Camille Johnson, head of the global women’s Relief Society, paid tribute on Instagram to a nurse in a neonatal intensive care unit for the tender care she gave to a recently born grandson.
“Thank you,” she wrote, “to all of the women out there who nurture and care for children who are not their own.”
Church President Russell Nelson, noting the conflicted feelings women may encounter on Mother’s Day, pointed to the “remarkable relationship” Jesus Christ had with his mother, Mary.
“I am deeply grateful for the remarkable women in my life who have enriched and mothered me, my family and countless others in life-changing ways,” Nelson said on Instagram. “Every woman has within her the essence of motherhood. Every woman is in a position to help build and change lives.”
From The Tribune
(The Salt Lake Tribune; AP) Russell M. Nelson, left, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Pope Leo XIV, right, leader of the Roman Catholic church.
• President Russell Nelson and his counselors in the First Presidency expressed “heartfelt prayers and greetings” to the new Catholic pope, Leo XIV, adding that they “look forward to continued opportunities to work together to bless the lives of God’s children everywhere.”
• Scholar Matthew Bowman explains how Catholics and Latter-day Saints see God’s hand when picking popes and prophets.
