In 1987 the LDS Church in Scotland documented 53 Wards/Branches in 5 Stakes.
In 2019- 32 years later - there are now 37 Wards/Branches in those same 5 Stakes.
This includes at least 6 LDS built chapels no longer in use.
The Scotland Edinbirgh Mission now encompasses the whole of Ireland.
Growth?

It's a special kind of growth, seen only through spiritual eyes.

Gross sinners such as we simply can't quite capture the splendor and majesty of the work being done in Scotland. We're not in tune with the watchamacallit...the spirit thingamajig!

Nailed it !!! *LOL*

Ha ha reminds me of my mission in Switzerland in the 80s. We were repeatedly told "the field is white already to harvest..." What a joke. Many missionaries went home without baptisms, and of those baptized, a very small percentage stayed active.

Today there is no longer a mission in Zurich. As of 2012, foreign missionaries, especially Americans, are no longer allowed in Switzerland as they are no longer issued the work permits required for missionary work.

I don't have the stats, but I doubt very much that the church is growing in Switzerland, especially now that the missionaries are no longer there. I doubt the Mormon church is growing anywhere in Europe.

From my limited experience of it, I noticed that the outfit catered very little to Scottish needs. In some places, the leadership was American or even worse, consisted of Scotland's "old enemy" the English, especially in the small towns such as Dumfries. In my experience Scots resent being ordered around by English people but will not always say so openly. They even call them "white settlers" in some places (not making this up). It's something to do with having been colonized by them for hundreds of years - sorry, you're not allowed to say "colonized", because Scotland's not officially a colony. Whoops! Let's just say "dominated" instead. If you want to see how much the Scots love the English, watch them singing their national anthem which is about how they repelled one of their previous invasions around the time of Braveheart.

Gina Colvin hosted an excellent podcast on this a few years ago.

https://www.athoughtfulfaith.org/the-church-as-a-cultural-misfit-the-scottish-case/

yorkie Wrote:
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> Gina Colvin hosted an excellent podcast on this a
> few years ago.
>
> https://www.athoughtfulfaith.org/the-church-as-a-c
> ultural-misfit-the-scottish-case/

Check this comment out -

Quentin
August 15, 2016 at 7:31 am

I was a missionary in the former Soviet Union. Over time I came to be aware just how many bits of church terminology had very specific Communist party connotations when translated into Russian: “high council” (the word Soviet literally means council), “executive committee”, “meeting”, even the very formal usage of middle initials to refer to leaders was a habit of the Soviet leadership. Given how church leaders felt about Communism during the cold war, I find the parallels quite hilarious.

Competing organizations tend to converge and closely resemble each other. Look at automobile design today. Vehicles have to meet crashworthiness standards and flow through air with minimal drag, so they all converge on designs that meet those goals. If there were no name badges slapped on the front of vehicles, it would be very tough to tell them apart.

Which leads to what has been described as "the narcissism of small differences" - the more closely organizations resemble each other, the more loudly they proclaim that they are not at all alike.

LDS Inc is a top-down authoritarian organization, and its most authoritarian leaders (ETB, JFS, McConkie, Mark Peterson (he perhaps more racist than authoritarian) ) were the most rabidly anti-Communist. They resented/feared the competition. The Soviets returned the favor.

I've watched this a thousand times between Christians at the gym. They meet, start trotting out their beliefs to identify where they differ and start arguing about it.

Nice description!

Church claims approx 26,000 members in Scotland.
Self identifying members as per most recent national census = 4651
??

All part of the Master Plan!

21,349 mormons are working, undetected, behind the scenes! Soon the trap will be sprung!

All while drinking beer at the Pub so they stay incognito.

The Thinker Wrote:
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> Church claims approx 26,000 members in Scotland.
> Self identifying members as per most recent
> national census = 4651
> ??

Most people do not feel comfortable identifying their religion or lack thereof to the government. And given what has happened in the 20th Century they are wise to be.

"Most people do not feel comfortable identifying their religion or lack thereof to the government."

Do you have any statistics to back up your claim about "most people", other than your own anti-government paranoia? I know in the last Canadian census that asked about religious affiliation (2011 census) the church members were strongly encouraged over the pulpit to be sure and identify themselves as LDS.

If there are 37 wards in Scotland, then 4,651 self-identified Mormons sounds about right. I could believe an average of 125 active members per ward.

OTOH, the LDS figure of 26,000 members in 37 wards is ridiculous.

Jordan Wrote:
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>
> Most people do not feel
> comfortable identifying
> their religion or lack
> thereof to the government.
> And given what has happened
> in the 20th Century they
> are wise to be.


"Most people..."

"the government..."

"given what has happened in the 20th Century."


It must be exciting to be in possession of so much knowledge and wisdom.

I simply don't understand my reluctance to worship the keyboard on which you type!

"It must be exciting to be in possession of so much knowledge and wisdom."

Is this an attempt at sarcasm? If so, you betray your personal anti-intellectualism.

Maybe instead of sneering at "knowledge and wisdom", you could apend a little time at the library reading up on various viewpoints, Mrs Lot.

Socialism in all its forms, both onternational and national has used censuses as a means to track down religious groups it wishes to persecute or murder. National Socialists were greatly aided in the pursuit of who was a Jew simply by artless Jews declaring that they were Kews on earlier censuses.

p.s. As usual, there are some typos in the message above. Apologies.

Jordan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> Maybe instead of sneering at "knowledge and
> wisdom", you could apend a little time at the
> library reading up on various viewpoints, Mrs Lot.


I'm glad you sussed out the truth of the matter. No doubt figuring it out when all others failed provides added luster to your already ’interesting’ status here.

But which is it, Brown or White; which ”race” am we/are I?

Sarcasm doesn't work for you.

I don't care which race you are in.

> Sarcasm doesn't work for you.


It's not like you're my target audience.

Or have you decided to speak for others?

LOL.


=) HH

Actually my reaction to your speaking for most people was the same as elderolddog's. My response started "oh, baloney" and sparked along from there for a while. I dialed it back a bit as a gesture of board comity, but eod did speak for me.

I think he's funny, but then I probably am part of the target audience. ;)