Last night at the Saturday Evening of our Stake Conference a person asked, when we go to the two hour block, if are going to carrying on with the first Sunday of each month having the Priesthood Council meeting in Priesthood and Relief Society,

The Seveny we had in attendance said "no." He said the "saints did not understand the program and got things all messed up. It did not work like it was suppose to." Gee if I go back and check my notes this was a divine program, the way to create and solve problems in the ward. It was taught as a new program that God approved. Did not last a year.

The followup question was more interesting. "What is the Elders feel they need to have a Priesthhood Council, what should they do?" The answer was in two parts. Part one. "Under the new ministering program probably no need if people are doing their ministering." Part Two was more interesting. "If the Elders or Relief Society feel they need to have a council meeting they can hold one at the end of the 2 hour block."

I am not making this up. I am glad I went to hear a 70 address this stuff.

...like a spinning top, careening, ready to topple.

Did the seventies get promoted or something ? When I was a teenager the seventies were one rank below high priest.

They are General Authorities now

There are several quorums of 70 now. I think the 1st ann 2nd quorums have General Authority status and get paid modestly or handsomely, depending on your standrds. The 3rd thru ??th quorums I believe are area authorities, called for a fixed period of time, and don't receive any pay. All quorums are higher than stake presidents.

They're like the farm league for General Authorities. Well, maybe a bit more prestigious than that. They get stipends and benefits, but they rank below the Apostles in authority.

Then there was the little people seventies. They just existed at the ward level in between the "Elders" and the "High Priests". IIRC, they no longer exist. They used to be tasked with ward-level missionary programs and coordinating with the full-time missionaries to fellowship investigators and things like that.

Back in my TBM days, 1988ish, for sure pre-1996 which is when those days ended, there was a new bishop, a convert of 15+ years who had moved from NYC or somewhere sinful like that.

He was in Elder's quorum meeting one Sunday and asked IIRC 5-6 of us to come join him in another room. We did and the gist was that he was going to see that all of us in the group would be called as (little people) 70's before the end of the year.

There were at least 2 of us (not me) who moved from the ward not long after that and one guy was in a nasty wreck with his wife and she was badly injured and it took all of his time and resources to care for her.

And aside from that meeting with the bishop, that's the ONLY time I'd heard I might be a 70. Didn't care one way or another and before long, had made my exit.

Wally Prince Wrote:
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> They're like the farm league for General
> Authorities.

Heh!

And like the baseball farm league, where the hopefuls toil away in relative obscurity hoping some day to make the big leagues, most of them never will.

Some years ago the church discontinued 70s in the ward and made all the misc admin people like assistants to the 12, area presidents etc. 70s. I believe there are now 7 quorums of seventies. Each quorum has responsibility for different parts of the world. I think only the first quorum of the seventy have general authority statis.

But as usual with mormons that can change hourly.

You are thinking of the Stake Quorum of the 70 whose primary focus was Stake missionary work. Stake Quorums were discontinued back in the 1980's and those who were ordained as 70's in the Stake were returned to Elders Quorum membership or ordained HP's.
The General Authorities level of "70's" continued on. The First Quorum of 70 was originally Assistants to the Q 12. Additional Quorums of 70 have been created as the church grew to help direct the affairs of the church administratively worldwide. While the First Q of 70 are considered "General Authorities, additional Quorums are considered "Area Authorities".
Basically it is all corporation management. Executive, senior, general, middle, supervisors.

Wow. You haven't been to Church in awhile have you?

On my mission the Seventies were a PAIN in the ARSE!!! They thought THEY ran the missionaries. The Mission President would tell us "Zig" and the Seventies would tell us "no, Zag". They got rid of the Stake Seventies when I was on my mission. I thought it was an answer to my prayers.

Dave the Atheist Wrote:
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> Did the seventies get promoted or something ? When
> I was a teenager the seventies were one rank below
> high priest.

What Seventies? Those were discontinued many years ago. They all became High Priests.
They will go on with the new program, trying to figure out what they are supposed to do.

Why have two conversations/ threads on the same topic [to our blockheads]?

People will never understand. This is/ was mormonism.

Elders:

still head honchos of the packing & moving detail, Right?

I’m surprised. Usually, changing the flavor of poop on the sandwich works wonders.

Anyone with half a brain saw that the council thing was a stupid idea. But does Mo central admit that? No, they blame the members: "saints did not understand the program and got things all messed up." Yeah, that's it, its the members fault. Good job for ending the mistake Mo central, and a big up yours for blaming the members for your stupidity.

Of course they blame members. They're just like a service oriented company that creates a wacky, poorly thought out offer that the customers do not find appealing.

Then the company proudly states, "It's too bad that the customers refused a great offer. If only they weren't so picky."

Man, God in action. If only St. Paul had been as efficient!

"Brothers, I wrote to you a few months ago concerning the nature of baptism. Some time has passed and you still don't seem to get it. We shall move on and focus on other things."