The same weekend we left Spanish Fork (June 30), our bishopric was released and a new bishopric was put in—which is really quite an upheaval for a ward. The bishop is "the presiding high priest for a ward, or congregation. He has overall responsibility for ministering the temporal and spiritual affairs of the congregation," and he really kind of sets the tone of the ward. Like, a new bishopric can really change the dynamic of a ward—most often in a good shake-things-up kind of a way, from my experience.
We were a little sad to miss the shake up, especially when we found out who had been called as bishop (we think he'll serve wonderfully).
Anyway, we thought it was funny that we were in our ward here for such a short time before hearing rumblings of a big shake-up coming down the pike, especially since the change ended up being announced today (and we missed it because we were visiting our old ward in Durham).
I know Susanne had asked this awhile ago and I don't know if I ever really answered, but, yes—wards are assigned geographically, so we don't really get a choice on which congregation we'll attend. We just move somewhere and find out what ward our house is in and that's that.
We were in the John's Creek ward, but it was getting far too big (the "ideal" population cap for a ward is around 400 people), which was getting unsustainable. Further, a new building was being completed just north of our ward boundaries (so it was much closer to the people at the north end of our boundaries, some of whom had to drive a considerable distance to get to our building).
Anyway, they announced the changes today and our ward has been dissolved and split (along we a few other wards) and we're now a different ward entirely, which we might have been more emotional about if we'd really known anyone at all...but we don't really know anyone so I think we'll be just fine getting to know the people assigned to be in our new ward with us without really knowing how things would have been otherwise.
Just funny that we managed to miss both big announcements!
We were a little sad to miss the shake up, especially when we found out who had been called as bishop (we think he'll serve wonderfully).
Anyway, we thought it was funny that we were in our ward here for such a short time before hearing rumblings of a big shake-up coming down the pike, especially since the change ended up being announced today (and we missed it because we were visiting our old ward in Durham).
I know Susanne had asked this awhile ago and I don't know if I ever really answered, but, yes—wards are assigned geographically, so we don't really get a choice on which congregation we'll attend. We just move somewhere and find out what ward our house is in and that's that.
We were in the John's Creek ward, but it was getting far too big (the "ideal" population cap for a ward is around 400 people), which was getting unsustainable. Further, a new building was being completed just north of our ward boundaries (so it was much closer to the people at the north end of our boundaries, some of whom had to drive a considerable distance to get to our building).
Anyway, they announced the changes today and our ward has been dissolved and split (along we a few other wards) and we're now a different ward entirely, which we might have been more emotional about if we'd really known anyone at all...but we don't really know anyone so I think we'll be just fine getting to know the people assigned to be in our new ward with us without really knowing how things would have been otherwise.
Just funny that we managed to miss both big announcements!
Thanks for explaining. I hope you enjoy your new ward!
ReplyDeleteMaybe new ward boundaries will work in your favor, since everyone will be feeling new and out of place?? I hope it goes well in your new ward!
ReplyDeleteOh, I'm not really worried about it at all. :) In fact, it made our geographic area smaller so that's a huge plus in my book! Hahaha!
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