The Porterville California Stake was created twenty years ago during the summer of 1996. In that time the number of wards has dropped by half, from ten to just five, though they have created a Spanish branch.

I know some of you will now say, why, of course, this is California. The cost of living is so high. But Porterville is smack in the middle of the Central Valley, in arguably one of the cheapest areas of the entire state. There also have been no signs of economic stress in the area that would cause a mass exodus of membership. In fact, the city of Porterville alone has grown from 29,000 in 1990 to about 56,000 today, almost doubling in size.

So I wonder, what is going on in this area??

The Porterville Stake in July 1996 constituted the following units:

Lindsay Ward
Porterville 1st Ward
Porterville 2nd Ward
Porterville 3rd Ward
Porterville 4th Ward
Porterville 5th Ward
Porterville 6th Ward
Tulare 1st Ward
Tulare 2nd Ward
Tulare 3rd Ward

Source:
http://www.ldschurchnewsarchive.com/articles/28349/New-stake-presidencies.html

And now, drumroll please, here is the Porterville California as of today:

Lindsay Ward
Porterville 1st Ward
Porterville 2nd Ward
Tulare 1st Ward
Tulare 2nd Ward
Porterville 6th Branch (Spanish)

Source: http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/statistics/unit/porterville-california-stake/

IMPRESSIVE! Always happy to have evidence of the decline. Neighbor lady who has been active all her life, confided in me last week that if she ever moved, she wouldn't let on she was ever affiliated with the church. She still attends here and leads the singing but she is sooo done.

On the other side of me, the other neighbor lady feels the same and has quit attending. Since they are both elderly widows, no one gives them the time of day. They feel abandoned and I tell them they are incredibly lucky.

Some people do wake up with time. Makes me smile.

One must wonder how much incoming revenue has dropped from that stake.

I used to live in nearby Visalia. Just for a couple of years when I worked at the Diamond International printing plant. Good to see the locals wising up. I can verify that the cost of living is low in that region.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/31/2016 06:18PM by donbagley.

What caused the initial creation of the Porterville Stake in 1996?

Were there lots of older members reaching retirement and selling their million dollar homes in the Bay Area and buying a newer home at a fraction of the cost?

Maybe some were trying to escape the problems of traffic in Orange County?

I know that it couldn't real growth from convert baptisms.

About the same time period, there was a significant increase in members that were moving from San Jose area into the foothills around Grass Valley.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/31/2016 06:20PM by messygoop.

Now I live in Rocklin, which is just a half hour from Grass Valley. My town added a ward or two when Bay Area Mormons moved here during the housing surge. The cost of living here is lower than San Francisco, but still pretty high.

My brother lives in Rocklin. Or is it Loomis. Can't ever remember.

There used to be orchards, farms and ranches between the two towns. Now there's a gazillion homes obliterating any distinction.

I was born literally up the road in Newcastle.

messygoop Wrote:
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> What caused the initial creation of the
> Porterville Stake in 1996?


We lived in the general Fresno area on church business in the early 90's. I'm not positive about the specifics of Porterville because I was a kid and didn't pay that much attention though we lived there very briefly (beautiful location right on the edge of the southern Sierra Nevada foothills, but it's a slum), but the Tulare Wards were part of a Visalia stake. I think there was more than one Visalia stake. Tulare 3rd Ward was a Spanish ward, I believe. Why it was a ward and not a branch I'm not quite certain, but I think it was huge with enough Spanish-speaking leadership to maintain itself. Since then a whole lot of them have probably gone inactive.

I have no idea where all the Porterville Mormons went. It seems like at some point Exeter was also part of the Porterville stake, though I could easily be mistaken about that.

Corcoran ward isn't listed at the temple tie as being part of any stake, though I think it's still a functioning wrd.

I went to Fresno State and knew exactly one mormon.

Well, it *was* the theater department--those sinful bastards.

LOL!

I worked with several Fresno State graduates when working near Fresno a few years ago. My favorite joke about Fresno State is "How do you get a Fresno State graduate off your front porch? Answer: Pay him for the pizza."

Chicken N. Backpacks, did you have EmanuEl as a proff while you were their? I did way back in 1980. Drama 62, funniest class I ever took in collage.

Ed EmanuEl showed The Three Stooges to demonstrate Roman comedy, right? That class was legendary for football players and business majors to get a humanities credit out of the way. I poked my head in once probably in '80 or '81 and saw a hundred people having a great time.

The girl I *should* have married was one of those Central Valley beauties from Sanger. Damn it! But she married a cool guy who just happened to become a two time Super Bowl member of the LA Raiders, so she did a LOT better than me...

Yup, that would be EmanuEl. I saw the Three Stooges film., I was an Engineer so this was my "humanities" class. The girl from Sanger wouldn't be one of the Bingham girls would it?

It would be one the Marble girls.

I grew up in the now closed Reedley Ward of the Visalia Stake, just north of the Porterville Stake and also central San Joaquin Valley "cheap" living.

Even as a casual visitor over the years (when the ward still existed) the frustration of the remaining members carrying the extra load of more and more assignments as real participation declined was quite evident. Yet they loyally hung on, lived what they believed and did the best they could.

After moving away I visited the ward over a period of literally decades and still came back to friends who knew me. How wonderful that was.

It leaves me with mixed feelings. It is easy to cheer on a lack of Mormons. But now I look at a closed and lonely building that was a part of my youth and filled with my memories but is now a lonely shell with no people in it. The Reedley Ward building was specifically re-opened for the funeral of my TBM father - a good man - and the gathering of my family as its last hurrah in my life - a weird sort of synchrony in my cosmos.

I look back fondly to the many Mormon experiences of my growing up years, the good Mormon people I knew, and many debts I owe to good and sincere people who I knew as friends and who fostered my youth.

While I have little sympathy for the hoax and many insanities of Mormonism, real people in real communities who intentionally live the best ideals they know is a more complex and nuanced reality with many good aspects. I shall miss the community of my childhood that is no more, and in yet another way there is no going home ever again.

poetic

Mårv Fråndsen Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I grew up in the now closed Reedley Ward of the
> Visalia Stake, just north of the Porterville Stake
> and also central San Joaquin Valley "cheap"
> living.
>
> Even as a casual visitor over the years (when the
> ward still existed) the frustration of the
> remaining members carrying the extra load of more
> and more assignments as real participation
> declined was quite evident. Yet they loyally hung
> on, lived what they believed and did the best they
> could.
>
> After moving away I visited the ward over a period
> of literally decades and still came back to
> friends who knew me. How wonderful that was.
>
> It leaves me with mixed feelings. It is easy to
> cheer on a lack of Mormons. But now I look at a
> closed and lonely building that was a part of my
> youth and filled with my memories but is now a
> lonely shell with no people in it. The Reedley
> Ward building was specifically re-opened for the
> funeral of my TBM father - a good man - and the
> gathering of my family as its last hurrah in my
> life - a weird sort of synchrony in my cosmos.
>
> I look back fondly to the many Mormon experiences
> of my growing up years, the good Mormon people I
> knew, and many debts I owe to good and sincere
> people who I knew as friends and who fostered my
> youth.
>
> While I have little sympathy for the hoax and many
> insanities of Mormonism, real people in real
> communities who intentionally live the best ideals
> they know is a more complex and nuanced reality
> with many good aspects. I shall miss the community
> of my childhood that is no more, and in yet
> anohter way there is no going home ever again.

It seems surprising that there ever would have been enough non-Mennonites (they had and have two separate Mennonite denominations which have been separate since the respective groups arrived here from Canada, Russia, Prussia, and the prairie states; they didn't just show up in Reedley, have a blow-up, and start a separate church) and non-Hispanic Catholics for a Mormon ward to have existed in Reedley, but now that you mention having lived there, i think we attended that ward a few times. Which Fresno stake was it a part of?

You eloquently described my feelings about the church and members of my youth as well.