how to assign a less active Priest as Elders Quorum Secratary in MLS

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williamjackson
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Re: how to assign a less active Priest as Elders Quorum Secr

#11

Post by williamjackson »

mlh78 wrote:Ordain him an elder. Problem solved.
This is an excellent idea, and my bishop and elders quorum president are already working on it!
rpyne
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Re: how to assign a less active Priest as Elders Quorum Secr

#12

Post by rpyne »

We have a similar issue trying to assign an Elder as an instructor in our High Priests Group. More than half of the active participants in our high Priest Group are either elders or prospective elders. So far, the only way I have been able to record the calling is to create a custom position.
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aebrown
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Re: how to assign a less active Priest as Elders Quorum Secr

#13

Post by aebrown »

rpyne wrote:We have a similar issue trying to assign an Elder as an instructor in our High Priests Group. More than half of the active participants in our high Priest Group are either elders or prospective elders. So far, the only way I have been able to record the calling is to create a custom position.
That's actually a different situation, since MLS is designed to enforce Handbook rules, and Handbook 2, Section 7.3.4 says "...the high priests group leader or one of his assistants calls and sets apart one or more high priests to serve as high priests group instructors."

Since the Handbook says that only high priests can serve as instructors, I'm guessing that MLS won't be changed to allow anything else.
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Re: how to assign a less active Priest as Elders Quorum Secr

#14

Post by rpyne »

aebrown wrote:
rpyne wrote:We have a similar issue trying to assign an Elder as an instructor in our High Priests Group. More than half of the active participants in our high Priest Group are either elders or prospective elders. So far, the only way I have been able to record the calling is to create a custom position.
That's actually a different situation, since MLS is designed to enforce Handbook rules, and Handbook 2, Section 7.3.4 says "...the high priests group leader or one of his assistants calls and sets apart one or more high priests to serve as high priests group instructors."

Since the Handbook says that only high priests can serve as instructors, I'm guessing that MLS won't be changed to allow anything else.
There is a big difference between saying that "the high priest group leader calls one or more high priests to serve as high priests group instructors" and saying "only high priests are permitted to instruct a high priest group" just as there is a difference between doctrine, policy, and procedure. These differences were explained in considerable detail in the World Wide Training that accompanied the release of the latest edition of the handbook. That training also clearly instructed that as long as they didn't violate doctrine, policies and procedures should be adapted to fit local needs.

There are many places where there simply are not enough high priests who can attend a group to staff the group with only ordained high priests. Before you start in with telling us to simply ordain more high priests, that is a decision left to the presiding high priest of the stake, not the group leadership or even the bishop. In this case, that presiding authority has made the decision that high priests be called and ordained only when also being called to leadership positions requiring such ordination. MLS itself indicates that an instructor is not a leadership position.
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aebrown
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Re: how to assign a less active Priest as Elders Quorum Secr

#15

Post by aebrown »

rpyne wrote:Before you start in with telling us to simply ordain more high priests, that is a decision left to the presiding high priest of the stake, not the group leadership or even the bishop. In this case, that presiding authority has made the decision that high priests be called and ordained only when also being called to leadership positions requiring such ordination. MLS itself indicates that an instructor is not a leadership position.
I would never tell anyone "to simply ordain more high priests." I completely agree with the rest of what you said in this paragraph.
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Re: how to assign a less active Priest as Elders Quorum Secr

#16

Post by russellhltn »

Given the wording of the Handbook, I think you're stuck creating a custom calling for the elder.
Have you searched the Help Center? Try doing a Google search and adding "site:churchofjesuschrist.org/help" to the search criteria.

So we can better help you, please edit your Profile to include your general location.
scgallafent
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Re: how to assign a less active Priest as Elders Quorum Secr

#17

Post by scgallafent »

aebrown wrote:Since the Handbook says that only high priests can serve as instructors, I'm guessing that MLS won't be changed to allow anything else.
That is a correct assessment. This was discussed internally a few months ago when modifying the way that rules for calling assignments are stored in MLS and the current implementation reflects that discussion.
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