Talk:Bishop (Latter Day Saints)
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[edit] Wards
Were wards first invented at Winter Quarters? If so does the concept of a bishop of a ward pre-date the death of Joseph Smith and the subsequent leadership crisis? Bottom line, is the LDS Church concept of a bishop the same as the other groups that arose at the death of Joseph Smith? Tom - Talk 08:21, Dec 7, 2004 (UTC)
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- Wards and Stakes existed since the early days of the Church. If you look at the latest copy of the Deseret Morning News Church Almanac, in the back it gives a listing of statistical summaries from the beginning of the tenure of a Church President until his death. When the Church was organized, there were initially no wards or stakes, but by the death of Joseph Smith, there were a few of each. Hope that helps, and sorry no one answered your question earlier. --Jgstokes-We can disagree without being disagreeable (talk) 20:31, 2 May 2008 (UTC)
[edit] High Priests and Bishops
The Priesthood article implies that (non-Levite?) Bishops must be High Priests; this article implies this is merely usual. Can anyone clarify? Alai 19:45, 5 Feb 2005 (UTC)
- To expand on my confusion: "serve as the presiding High Priest of the ward". But High Priest is a separate office, and furthermore of the 'other' branch of the priesthood. Or am I confusing the leadership calling and the Melchizedek priesthood office, if those are distinct? Is it usual, or indeed mandatory, to be ordained as high priest before becoming bishop? (Twin track approach, as it were?) Alai 03:16, 15 Feb 2005 (UTC)
- The Priesthood article is correct - non-Levite Bishops must hold the Melchizedek Priesthood and hold the office of High Priest (which they are ordained to before being set-apart as the Bishop if they are not already a High Priest). I will try to think of a better way to word it. This is one of the confusing things about the calling of Bishop because it really is like two roles in the same person - the "presiding officer" of the ward - requiring to be a high priest, and the office in the Aaronic Priesthood (which only a levite or a High Priest can be called to). Correct me if I am wrong here. Trödel|talk 13:02, 15 Feb 2005 (UTC)
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- Your wording seems fine; perfectly clear now. The Levitical exception makes it seem less odd in historical terms -- I was wondering about that. Alai 15:57, 15 Feb 2005 (UTC)
- Basically, the office of Bishop is made out of the old Aaronic Priesthood, which the Levites held. If someone who is not a descendant of Aaron is to hold the office of Bishop, he must ordained a High Priest. If someone claims to be a descendant of Aaron, that claim must be substantiated by the President of The Church for him to become a Bishop without being ordained a high priest. It is not likely that that has ever happened since the church was organized.Isaac Crumm 05:45, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Changes
I left out of my "overhaul" a sction on Relationships which I envision as explaining the relationship to to stake presidents, EQ presidents, HP group leaders, auxillary presidencies, PEC, etc. Although the EQ Pres and HQ Group Leader are not "called" by the Bishop most Stake Pres honor the recommendations made by the Bishop and the Bishop manages the resources of the EQ Pres and the HP Group Leader in PEC an other council meetings. Etc. Trödel|talk 02:43, 15 Feb 2005 (UTC)
- Trödel --- This is beautiful work. An excellent and extremely helpful expansion of the article. (Now all we need is bishops in other Latter Day Saint movement denominations.) --John Hamer 15:01, 25 Feb 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Father of the ward
The article says the bishop is often called the "father of the ward" ... As an active Latter-day Saint, I've NEVER heard this before. If others agree, I would suggest dropping this verbage and retaining the following information because it is accurate. Particularly, the change would be "The Bishop is the priesthood leader that is most intimately involved ...." 209.40.69.13 20:57, 24 May 2006 (UTC)
- I removed this at this suggestion since it is disputed and has no cites; however, in just a few moments on google I found a few:
- with the last two references being talks by the prophet (in 1999 and 2003) in which he refers to the bishop as the father of the ward - so I am going to revert myself. Trödel 22:46, 24 May 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Merge proposal
The material at Bishopric (LDS Church) seems like it could fairly easily be merged into the section about bishops in the LDS Church. If the bishopric is the bishop plus his counselors and the counselors pretty much do what the bishop asks them to do, then would probably be helpful to have all the information together. Good Ol’factory (talk) 01:33, 15 May 2008 (UTC)
- This wasn't attracting any discussion, so I went ahead and performed the merge, which really only resulted in redirecting Bishopric (LDS Church) to this article. If anyone else disagrees and wants to reopen this issue, feel free as I don't intend my opinion only to be the "final word" on the issue. Good Ol’factory (talk) 06:27, 2 June 2008 (UTC)
