Loading ...Did Romney lead the LDS Archdiocese of Boston?
flockwoodThe Washington Post’s “On Faith” blog has an interesting article about Mitt Romney, but I was puzzled to see him described as bishop of the Mormon “stake (archdiocese)” in Boston.
Typically, a U.S. archdiocese encompasses huge swaths of territory — often multiple states. A stake, most often, isn’t usually quite so expansive.
Is there a better term to describe “stake” than “archdiocese?” What would it be?
October 5th, 2011 at 3:02 pm
In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints a Bishop is in the same position as a pastor of a congregation. Mitt was a bishop and later a stake president. A stake is comprised of several congregations in a geographic area.
Hope that helps clear things up a bit.
October 5th, 2011 at 3:06 pm
Thank you, Travis. Unlike bishops in, say, the Catholic, Methodist or Episcopal churches, LDS bishops are unpaid and volunteer their time. Unlike many other denominations, LDS bishops aren’t “bishops for life” either.
October 5th, 2011 at 7:28 pm
The office of bishop in the LDS church doesn’t sound comparable to a bishop in the mainstream Christian denominations. Our bishops oversee a number of churches, and active bishops work a busy fulltime schedule. Retired bishops in The United Methodist Church do not preside over a conference but they continue to serve the church for as long as they are capable. There are other Methodist denominations where the bishop serves for a term and then returns to the local pastorate.
As for “LDS bishops are unpaid”, it is more accurate to say that LDS bishops are not paid *by the church*. That might work, I suppose, if the position is a part time job. But are there other offices in the LDS church which require a substantial commitment of time, perhaps even fulltime, but which are similarly “unpaid”? It seems like that would restrict the pool of candidates to men who are either retired or independently wealthy. A man’s gotta eat. The other possibility is that a company or group would pay a salary to their guy so that he can serve in a position of influence with a powerful organization.
October 5th, 2011 at 9:10 pm
When in doubt, ask Wikipedia:
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Stake_%28Latter_Day_Saints%29
October 8th, 2011 at 11:08 pm
Definition of a Stake (brief)
A Stake would most often have from 3,000 to 5,000 members and would often be made up of 8 to 12 individual congregational units each called a “Ward” or a smaller counterpart unit called a “Branch”.
Wards would usually have from 250 to 500 members. When a Ward reaches the larger end of the above membership, the Ward would often be divided creating two separate wards.
Full size Ward meetinghouses are constructed to accommodate more than one ward with each ward meeting at different times on Sunday and different days for week night activities.
Obviously the Church subscribes to the concept of smaller rather than larger memberships with a general philosophy that smaller congregations promote more member involvement, increased individual activity, and are less of a burden on lay leaders.
There are no paid Church members in a ward or in a Stake and members most often have an attitude of committed service to assist the Savior in helping all members to, “Come unto Christ and be perfected in Him”, this being a declared mission of the Church.
Currently there are eleven Stakes serving members living in Arkansas . Some congregations serve within stakes that are based in cities outside of Arkansas such as Memphis, Joplin, Shreveport, etc.
Currently there are nearly 30,000 recorded members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints living in Arkanss.
George Wing
North Little Rock Arkansas Stake
Director of Public Affairs
October 14th, 2011 at 1:30 pm
I suspect that the problem is among the way that traditional Christians, not Mormons, use the term. The Biblical word upon which we base our word “bishop” is more akin to what most churches would call a pastor. But, the early church, perhaps desiring to leverage their few “bishops” even more, created the lower order of “presbyters,” or priests. I suspect the Mormons, like some African American churches, use the older use of the term, which would denote someone with responsibility in a given church rather than a whole region or diocese.
November 8th, 2011 at 10:09 am
José, Bishops in my church (Mormon) are not paid. It is often quite a hardship for them to take on this responsibility. All men within the church dread being called as Bishop. No one asks for this job. (If they do, they are pretty much guaranteed NOT to get it.) They do tend to be the financially more well-off within the ward. Usually professionals of some sort or another or self-employed so they have more flexible schedules. It’s always a joke in the church that if you’re a doctor or lawyer, there’s a good chance you will be called as a Bishop. On the plus side, the calling as a Bishop is only for about 5 or 6 years. It is not a lifetime calling, as far as active duties, but once you are “set apart” as a Bishop you are always a Bishop. There are old men in my ward whom we still address as “Bishop So-and-So” because they once served as a Bishop 40 years ago—most in other wards.
Stake Presidents are in charge of 8 or 10 wards, as George Wing says, and are also not paid. This is more of an administrative calling and is not a specific office within the Priesthood, such as a Bishop is. They are in office for 8 or 9 years and are often former Bishops, but not always.
Both these positions are supposedly part-time (ha ha). It has always been another joke in the church that the wildest kids are those of the Bishop or Stake President, because their Dad is never home—he has his full-time job earning a living, and then another full-time job serving the church members.
Incidentally, there are some positions within the church that are paid. These are full-time administrative employees, building supervision, publications editors, and such, but they are very few and have absolutely no spiritual leadership responsibilities. I have heard some Mission Presidents (a 3-year full-time calling) may get a stipend, but usually these guys are financially quite well-off—kind of a prerequisite to get the job. My cousin, a lawyer, won a big case and no longer needed to work. He told the Church he was available for whatever they may need and they called him as a Mission President. All was at his own expense, except the Church provided the home he and his family lived in while serving.
So, I guess you can technically call him “Bishop Romney” since he was ordained to that calling, though no longer serving in that capacity. The Church could easily call him to serve in that position again. I think it may do a lot of good to have a President who also serves as the leader of his church’s local congregation. Good thing his kids are all older, or they would go really wild, like Amy Carter. (Didn’t Jimmy Carter serve as a Sunday School teacher?)
November 8th, 2011 at 7:29 pm
Thank you.