Dear Elder Stapleton,
Good morning...and good news! As you probably know, the First Presidency has approved our recommendation for a YSA branch in our stake. Thank you for your mentoring on the application. We have already begun making preparations, meeting tonight with the bishops of the meetinghouse where the new branch will be located to discuss logistics. Our goal is to have the first block meeting on January 3.
I am writing, however, on another matter.
We have in our area a young single man (returned missionary) by the name of Christopher Bentley, who is extremely engaged in the Church and community. He’s a former White House fellow and is now working in the Public Affairs office for the US Forest Service here. In the Church he has always been very involved in missionary work (ward mission leader multiple times, I’m sure) and in the bishopric. I believe he also chairs a citizen committee for the City of Gresham, where we both live. I know Chris well as he was in our ward when I served as bishop of a YSA ward.
In short, Chris is a do-er!
Well, as happens to all of us, Chris grew up! :) Now in his early 30s, Chris has outgrown the YSA wards, where he has served faithfully. Because of our friendship, he has approached me about the need for a mid-singles unit in the Portland metro area.
Below is the recommendation by Chris, excerpted from an email he sent me, with links to websites that discuss the continuing growth of mid-singles wards throughout the Church, including some mid-singles magnet wards, which I thought were not allowed (magnet wards). You will see the list of mid-singles units on the following website that was updated this month.
I was surprised to see how extensive is the list and how broad the reach. They’re not just in Utah! It appears there are mid-singles units in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Washington D.C., where apparently the first mid-singles unit was created years ago.
You can readily see why Chris would feel there is a need for the same in a city the size of Portland.
I recognize the handbook doesn’t encourage or even address the mid-singles age group (31 to 45). But I can understand why they would like to be their own group. I remember, when I was a young man, the cut-off for YSA in the Church was 26 years of age. I was one of those “slow moving” young men, who didn’t get married until I was 26 years old. I still remember how odd it felt when I turned 26 that I was suddenly lumped into the Church's Single Adult program that included my 95-year-old widow grandmother! :)
I’m not sure how a request like this even gets consideration or moves forwards, but I assume, if you are open to the idea, that this could be discussed briefly in our CCM to see if the other stake presidents would consider supporting the creation of such a unit. As more and more of our young people are delaying marriage (much to our disappointment), I do feel there is merit in trying to bring together as often as possible those “graduating” from our YSA wards.
Thank you for giving this your consideration. My apology for raising this request so close to our next CCM.
Please know I have not tried to illicit support from other stake presidents. I will leave this with you and await any guidance you want to give me, if I can be of help.
I look forward to meeting with you this Sunday and express my personal appreciation for the many ways you make our meetings both informative and inspiring.
Gratefully,
Crismon Lewis
President, Mount Hood Oregon Stake
503-667-5843
Here is the recommendation from Chris Bentley excerpted from an October 6 email:
I did a little bit of research on the mid-single's wards in Utah. I found out that recently the Riverdale Ward was setup to be a Mid-Singles ward. The new ward was established about 6 months ago. There are now dozens of Mid-Single's traditional or magnet wards throughout the country.
I understand the difficulty with stewardship issues with magnet wards. Who has authority when members are being fed from lots of different wards and even possibly different stakes and missions? Having gone through the transitions that took place over a year ago with the Portland and Vancouver missions, I know first hand how sticky this can be.
However, I think having a traditional Mid-Singles ward housed somewhere central to the major hubs for mid-singles would serve a huge need right now. I've attached a few resources that might be useful in showing the importance of and the growing number of Mid-Singles wards:
As these resources clearly show, the Riverdale Ward being a clear and obvious example as well, Mid-Singles wards are not only allowed as ward units but are encouraged in areas where they make sense. Now that's the real crux of the matter: does it make sense for one to be established in the Portland Metro area? Portland is about half the size of Seattle, so maybe there isn't a sufficient number of mid-singles to make a ward work. Or perhaps the thinking is that the drive time to make a ward like this feasible would make it too burdensome on members although I know that a lot of people in Ogden drive to a Mid-Single's ward in Bountiful where they are welcomed despite the fact that the drive is usually about a half hour.
Bottom line, there may be some legitimate reasons why a ward doesn't make sense but the "We're not allowed to establish a Mid-Singles ward," or the "These wards are unofficial and are being phased out," reasoning simply isn't true. These wards are being established officially and are doing incredibly well.
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