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New Revision of Church Handbook??

Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2010 1:26 pm
by lorraine1950
I did a search, found nothing.
Rumors fly continuously about a new revision of the Church Handbook of Instructions (CHI) being issued soon, or already has been. Yet, no one know specifics, and we've heard nothing official at the Stake level one way or the other.
We keep telling people to use the current CHI until they receive a revised one. But some auxiliary leaders say they attended conferences or other meetings in which visiting general officers gave them verbal instructions that differ from the CHI.
Does anyone know positively and with references if/when a new CHI is coming out, or if it's not, is there anything from CHQ to put these rumors to rest for once and for all??

Worldwide Training - Nov 2010

Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2010 1:46 pm
by nmecantwin73
We will all receive instruction regarding the new CHI at the November 13, 2010 Worldwide Leadership Training broadcast.

See details here.

Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2010 1:51 pm
by dannykos
there will be a Worldwide Leadership Training Broadcast in November which will address updating the handbooks to include "Caring for the Poor and Needy" as a 4th mission of the church.

Existing handbooks are still the current position of the church in all cases until notified otherwise as far as I believe.

Interesting Note

Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2010 4:14 pm
by jeromer7
Our presiding authority at stake conference last November was Elder Oakes. He told us in his meeting with the stake presidency, clerk and executive secretary, that CHI Books 1 and 2 had just recently completed the review process and training would be provided in the Worldwide Leadership Training in November 2010 (as indicated above). He said the reason it would be a year from completion to publication was due to the massive translation effort required. The CHI is used worldwide and all units will get the new books at the same time.

Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2010 9:05 pm
by lajackson
E&LDow wrote:We keep telling people to use the current CHI until they receive a revised one. But some auxiliary leaders say they attended conferences or other meetings in which visiting general officers gave them verbal instructions that differ from the CHI.
There have been some updates to the current Handbook, and these instructions should be followed. The Serving in the Church pages at the Church web site, lds.org , also contain some newer information than is in the current Handbook. And there have been letters from Church Headquarters to priesthood leaders that outline official changes to the current Handbook.

Other than that, the current Handbook is still the current Handbook and should be used, just as you have stated.
dannykos wrote:there will be a Worldwide Leadership Training Broadcast in November which will address updating the handbooks to include . . .
While several newspaper and other articles have mentioned a change in the number of "missions" of the Church, these are unofficial statements and do not conform to information priesthood leaders have received in recent training.

We will find out what the new Handbook contains when we receive it later this year. And we will receive training on the new Handbook as has already been mentioned, just as training was provided when the last Handbook was released.

Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 10:59 am
by greggo
Will someone please tell me when the current CHI was published?

I haven't had a calling since 2004 which provided me with access, but assume there has been no revision since then?

Just curious.

Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 11:24 am
by JamesAnderson
In 1998 the old 'General Handbook of Instructions' was replaced by Book 1 of the Church Handbook of Instructions, the one we know now. Book 2 was seen as a way to consolidate all of the old separate handbooks for various priesthood and auxiliary leaders that were out and circulating, and provide those who are considered part of a typical PEC meeting along with the auxiliary heads to give them a broad overview of everything else so that things could be better coordinated in meetings like ward council and ward welfare, and presidency meetings.

Book 1 was revised in 2006, as was mentioned a few months ago, a training DVD was published at that time, a Church News article mentioned that on the very day President Hinckley became the oldest person to serve as President of the Church, he taped his segment for that, the article referred to the presentation as being used for a satellite broadcast, the post inquiring about the DVD here indicates that may have also gone onto the DVD too.

Book 2 has seen no revision in 12 years except for Section 7, Stake and Ward Missionary Work, being superceded entirely by letters in 2002 and a four-page document in 2004 or so about 'Missionary Work in the Ward'.

In July 2006 Section 9 of Book 2 was revised, and since I'm presently in family history, I've found that almost all the changes were on page 265. That revised section has '2006' under the title on the cover. Another document about administration of family history programs was released later, but was kept separate from the handbook at that time.

The news articles mentioned regarding a revision only indicated Book 2, but the information about a revised Book 1 is significant, as the news article last December indicated a fourth purpose of the Church, the term 'Threefold Mission of the Church' was indicated as being superceded by the 'four purposes of the Church', and indications of such may have been in the Leadership Training Emphasis published about that time, which was what the newspaper story may have been about.

Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 12:26 pm
by dannykos
when we had Stake Priesthood Leadership earlier this year - one of the Area Presidency presided, and he explicitly referred to the 4 fold mission of the church superceding the 3 fold… hmmm…

probably a case of jumping the gun – or 2+2=5??

although there is this:
"Caring for the poor and needy has always been a basic tenet of the Church," said LDS Church spokesman Scott Trotter. "The language reference is simply a description of the purposes of the church to be included in the next edition of the Church Handbook."

Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 10:04 pm
by lajackson
dannykos wrote:although there is this:
"Caring for the poor and needy has always been a basic tenet of the Church," said LDS Church spokesman Scott Trotter. "The language reference is simply a description of the purposes of the church to be included in the next edition of the Church Handbook."
I would hang my hat on that one. And I would not be too disappointed if they all showed up in one sentence.

Personally, I think we sometimes get too hung up on formality and forget to just go out and do the work. Just my opinion. There is a place for definition.