A Plea to Church Authorities

Dear Authorities:

(Concerning ward realignments in long-established rural areas*)

Perhaps you have never considered that all things,¹ even geophysical locations (like villages, towns, cities), might have been divinely appointed with one or more angels / spirits / servants having stewardship over “place” as invisible, spiritual interiorities as real as the visible, exterior features and infrastructures of those villages, towns, and cities.²

Perhaps you have never thought about the unique spirit of community — of place — of belonging — of destiny — that permeates every hamlet, village, town, city, or metropolis that exists.
,
Perhaps you have never considered that realigning rural ward boundaries³ might not always parallel urban realignments in that one can divide a town or city into multiple ward configurations without fracturing a member's sense of civic belonging to their town or city.

Perhaps you have never lived in a long-established RURAL ward long enough to appreciate:

● how often the ward is the community and the community is the ward⁴;
● how fractured from community and place many long-term historical ward members feel when they are aligned out of their rural  community to another distant community for statistical purposes;
● how almost immediately non-members of a realigned ward are viewed as guests when attending their community (home) ward;
● how busy one can become in serving in a realigned ward outside one's home community such that one has little time or energy left for home community;
● how often realigned- and home-ward events conflict so that one cannot attend or participate in both;
● how rural community events (above and beyond ward events) seem to fall to the ward for organization and funding — events that become known to non-ward members only through special invitation;
● how intrusive one feels to attend a “home-ward” function without invitation (like a form of ward double-dipping?);
● how artificial it feels to pretend one “belongs to” and must be committed to a distant community / ward where one has no history or heritage.

Of course, this appeal (and decade-old 15+ year-old complaint) will anger some. “Just do what you're told,” they say. “The authorities have their reasons. It is a test of faith and obedience. There are thousands of saints who have far greater trials and problems than yours, so get over it. And anyway, the idea of 'spirit' of place is not important, even questionable.”

To those persons, I say: We do not ask you to agree with those of us who feel alienated and fractured by being aligned out of our home community. We just ask you to hear us without scorning our right to think and feel as we do. We know that not everyone feels as strongly about place and belonging as we do. Some never question authority, but some of us have too much experience and knowledge about how easy it is for men and women to be persuaded by the doctrines / philosophies / ideas / agendas of the social sciences and the natural man,⁵ even when sincerely trying to do what's “right and best”; or even more common, to be caught in the grip of the spirit of power.⁶

So this is the plea. Please, remember:

▪ we are more than statistics.
▪ we are more than members of wards.
▪ we are members of heritage communities who feel alienated by insensitive or artificial alignments.
▪ the spirit of communities can differ greatly, as much as the spirit of nations do.
▪ the spirit of a community can be  wounded by domination.
▪ many of us need a sense of community that feels authentic, not artificial, not mandated by another's design ideas.

So please, align us back to our community ward. We are now 15+ years in mis-alignment (i.e., in missing our community ward). What a more appropriate year than 2020 to recognize how important the spirit of community, place, and belonging is in each and every life.

-------------------------/
* Two local examples that I personally know that happened over a decade ago and are still impacting lives, involving:
a) the engineered mixing of rural and urban wards where a small, vibrant historical community ward was divided into parts and realigned with other distant wards in a town site. The idea seemed to be to mix the best of both worlds: “the spirit of the urban” with “the spirit of the rural.” The result has been devastating to the spirit of the rural community. It was as if the supposed “sword of Solomon” had no one to question or prevent the severing of the spirit of that unique historical place – that no one had the strength to question the “wisdom” of what was done without open consultation of those effected. A decade plus has passed and the spirit of the community remains fractured.
b) the engineered realignment of 30+ members of a long-established hamlet / village from their home community ward to another long-established, rural community ward (requiring 11X the travel distance on winter roads for now 15+ years).
The question is: How frequent is and has this been throughout the Church where the powers-that-be (in local, stake, or general leadership) have been persuaded to ignore or discount the spirit of belonging and place in order to achieve what they believed to be good or reasonable ends? (Though in one instance, the leader seemed, in his remarks, to take pride in breaking the community bond and compelling obedience.)

1. New Testament | Colossians 1:15-17 ~ For by him [the firstborn of every creature] were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. (Bold emphasis added.)
2. Walter Wink: “In Naming the Powers I developed the thesis that undergirds all three volumes of this work: that the New Testament’s “principalities and powers” is a generic category referring to the determining forces of physical, psychic, and social existence. These powers usually consist of an outer manifestation and an inner spirituality or interiority. Power must become incarnate, institutionalized or systemic in order to be effective. It has a dual aspect, possessing both an outer, visible form (constitutions, judges, police, leaders, office complexes), and an inner, invisible spirit that provides it legitimacy, compliance, credibility, and clout.” Wink, Walter; Collected Readings (p. 67). Fortress Press. Kindle Edition. (bold emphasis added.) See also footnote 4 herein.
3. Except in the case where realigning an existing rural community into two wards because of growth while respecting its community boundaries. Of course the realignment requires adjustment, but still leaves members with a sense of belonging to their hamlet / village.
4. Consider: Apostle John's detailing of the unique essence for each of the seven churches named by location in New Testament Revelation chapters 2 and 3: “[John, in addressing the seven churches] assumes always that the Church is, in a sense, the city. The local Church does not live apart from the locality and the population, amid which it has a mere temporary abode. The Church is all that is real in the city [town, village]: the rest of the city has failed to reach its true self, and has been arrested in its development. Similarly, the local Church in its turn has not all attained to its own perfect development: the “angel” is the truth, the reality, the idea (in Platonic sense) [the potentiality] of the Church. Thus in that quaint symbolism the city bears to its Church the same relation that the Church bears to its angel. But here we are led into subjects that will be more fully discussed in chapters 6 and 16. For the present we shall only review in brief the varied characters of the Seven Churches and the Seven Cities, constituting among them an epitome of the Universal Church and of the whole range of human life.” Ramsay, W. M.. The Letters to the Seven Churches: A History of the Early Church (Kindle Locations 688-694). Endeavour Compass. Kindle Edition.
5. Doctrine and Covenants | Section 46:7 ~ But ye are commanded in all things to ask of God, who giveth liberally; and that which the Spirit testifies unto you even so I would that ye should do in all holiness of heart, walking uprightly before me, considering the end of your salvation, doing all things with prayer and thanksgiving, that ye may not be seduced by evil spirits, or doctrines of devils, or the commandments of men; for some are of men, and others of devils. (Bold emphasis added.)
6. Doctrine and Covenants | Section 121:39–42 ~ We have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion. Hence many are called, but few are chosen. No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned; By kindness, and pure knowledge, which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy, and without guile—