Thomas S. Monson, rest in peace

Thomas S. Monson passed away last night. Although when he died was just after midnight Michigan time.

It is hard at this juncture to say a lot. I am saddened by the passing and glad he has rejoined his belowed Frances.

President Monson was first called as an apostle in 1963. The president of the Quorum of the 12 then was Joseph Fielding Smith, whose parents had lived in exile in Hawaii for some of his formative years, and who was a teenaged before the Salt Lake Temple was completed.

The president of the Church who called President Monson was David O. McKay. When President McKay had become president of the Church all stakes were in the US, Albetrta, Canada or the Mormon colonies in Hawaii. No stake operated in a language other than English. It was only while President Monson was president of the Canadian mission that missionary work to French-speakers in Canada was initiatiated.

In 1971 Elder Monson was one of the apostles involved in setting apart the leadership of the Genesis Group. This group was created to serve the needs of African-American Latter-day Saints. In 1973 in his journal as noted in a Deseret News article published today, Elder Monson expressed the hope that the African-American brethren leading the Genesis Group could soon receive the priesthood. He was the last man alive who had been present in 1978 when President Kimball received the revelation on the priesthood. He was also present at the first sacrament meeting of the Genesis Group, and performed the first temple sealing involving a couple including an African-American. Also as a member of the Priesthood Executive Committee he was involved in issueing the first mission calls to people of African-descent in the 20th century (Elijah Able had been a missionary in the 19th-century). Among those then called was Marcus Martins who would be called as a mission president by President Monson.

President Monson dedicated Haiti for the preaching of the gospel in 1982. His first assignments as an apostle had been to Oceania. He organized the first stake in Tonga for example.

President Monson had a vision of a church where all wards and branches were lead by local brethren, and not by full-time missionaries. Where as many people as possible lived in stakes and could receive patriarchal blessings and where no members lived more than 200 miles from the temple.

From about 1969-1985 President Monson oversaw the Church in Eastern Europe. It was truly a labor of love. He was centrally involved in the negotiations that lead to missionaries in East German before the fall of the Berlin Wall, East Germans called as missionaries, and the building of the Friberg Germany Temple. While most of the major progress in eastern Europe happened after President Monson was called to the First Presidency, and it was Elder Russell M. Nelson who was the main point man on that, President Monson was key in laying the groundwork.

President Monson was also a key figure in the LDS edition of the scriptures that came out from 1979-1981.

He was a man who had a vision of ministry to the one.

His role while a counselor to Presidents Benson, Hunter and Hinckley is hard for me to directly assess.

As preisdent of the Church, he oversaw many major developments, although many were continuances of policies of those before.

The biggest change under his administration was the lowering of the missionary age, especially for young women. This also lead to a reformating of mission counsels. There were also major advances in missionary use of technology and changes in various other guidelines for misisonaries.

Another big change was seen in major revisions of Church curriculum. This started in 2013 with new youth curriculum. The CES curriculum went through major revisions as well. Then in 2016 came teacher councils. The 2010 revision of the Church Handbook of instructions also emphasized more the importance of the ward council. The Church moved to be more strongly governed by councils at all levels. The new melchizedek preisthood and relief society curriculum move this central role of councils and new approach to curriculum even more broadly. The adult Sunday School curriculum has not seen much revision. The Doctrine and Covenants online materials did include some very useful connections and additional material, but I have to say it was not uniformly utilized. On the other hand the online edition of the Old Testament student manual still uses the Old Bible dictionary name for an article, not even reflecting the alterations in the Bible Dictionary published in I believe 2013.

On the political and social issues front President Monson has largely reflected a continuation of policies from before. The 2008 support of Proposition 8 and similar measures in other states was in line with previous support. The move of the Church voicing its support for legal protection of man/woman marriage outside of the US may have been new under President Monson, but was a result more of the issue being voiced in areas where there was a chance for public comment combined with situations like an all Mexican area presidency in Mexico being about the only group that could have lead out on the issue in the political climate of Mexico. The Church seems to have possibly been more vocal in its support for finding solutions to immigration issues that would allow families to remain together, but I have not studied the issue in depth enough to be able to time Church statements on this issue very clearly.

While the Church has clearly endorsed a level of housing and employment protections from discrimination based on sexual orientation that I do not think was announced before, it has signaled that man/woman marriage will remain the only accepted place for sexual interaction in Church policy. The policy to excommunicate those who enter same-sex marriage has caused outrage to some, and others to misrepresent it.

The Church has also lead out in interfaith work, and a push for religious freedom.

At the same time the Church has majorly increased its openess and scholarly publications. The Chuirch Historians Press was launched under President Monson, although much of the initial legwork for this initiatiate was started under President Hinckley. Starting in 2013 the Church published several gospel topic essays, that dealt frankly with difficult subjects like race and the priesthood. The fact that a few weeks ago I was able to show such to an active Church member who had never read them shows that they have not been read as much as they need to be.

The role of women in the Church has also beeen changed in significant if not fully comprehended ways. Women giving prayers in regular sessions of general conference, and the women's conference being made for all women 8 and up and being clearly indicated as part of general conference are significant changes. The most recent, with the alternating general priesthood meeting and general women's meeting on Saturday evenings of general conference is also a big one. Also the role of the mission president's companion (wife) has been given a more formal place in mission structure, and the mission council now includes female missionaries, and there is the new leadership title for sister missionaries (the exact name escapes me at the moment).

The BYU pathway program has been another major initiative during President Monson's presidency.

Lastly, we have seen a push forward in the number of temples. Not on the level of what we saw under President Hinckley, but still a major push forward. We have seen temples announced for several places very far from existing temples.

I know there are lots more things to cover, but I think this is a good start.

Latly, President Monson was a man of compasion who was able to lead to Church to better reach out in service and caring to meet the needs of the individual.