Sunday - Busy Day (both good and not so good)

Not many people at church this Sunday - lots of illness and two of the sisters in hospital. We seemed very thin on the ground.

The day started beautifully with the Relief Society based on the life of President Hinckley. It was made rather special and personal with a few of us being able to share our own personal memories of him along with some details and information provided by our Relief Society President. As much as we are saddened by his death and will miss him as much as if he were a dear close relative we were also able to have a laugh at some of the amusing memories and it was a beautiful spirit filled lesson, much like the man himself.

I recalled our meeting with him in Avenham Park where he expressed his love for Lancashire and made such a point of finding a beautiful location down by the river where I could photograph him and sister Hinckley. A copy of that photograph has been on the wall here ever since. I think it's becoming a little faded over the years.

Sunday School was excellent - Nephi: "I will go and DO the thing which the Lord commandeth." Lots of positive input and discussion again with such a good spiritual feeling.

Then came Sacrament Meeting and Testimonies. Although there were not many of us there, several including missionaries bore their testimony. Some referred to President Hinckley, others referred to personal things in their lives, some gave mini talks (despite the fact that we have been told so many times that a testimony is not a lecture.) Bro Morgan said that we would finish testimonies at 1:15 when Bishop would speak as he had been asked by the Stake President to say something specific regarding President Hinckley. Sister Alty bore her testimony last, and it was a beautiful spiritual testimony clearly from the heart. She over ran by a couple of minutes to almost 1:17.

Bishop did not immediately rise. He seemed to be reluctant to do so. He seemed to be conferring with Bro Morgan. Then finally he walked to the stand and said that he did not now have time to give us the message about President Hinckley. Suddenly I felt cold, as if the Spirit walked out of that chapel. Why would the Bishop choose not to give us a message the Stake President had specifically asked him to give? Would he really not have been able to fit it in? Sister Alty hadn't overrun by much more than a minute or so. We've quite often ended Sacrament meeting slightly after 1:30 and sometimes even more than slightly. I was puzzled.

Bishop then went on to speak about how his wife was ill but that despite being ill they had had a long lunch date together the previous day. Yet she was too ill to be at church. Was I being uncharitable for thinking the things I was thinking? He went on to say that instead of going to Chorley or even watching President Hinckley's funeral on BYU TV he had chosen to visit a sister who is terminally ill. Was I wrong again to think that he could have chosen to visit her instead of the two and a half hour lunch date with his wife and then he could have gone to Chorley to the funeral or even watched it live on his computer. I didn't feel happy at feeling so critical of the Bishop.

Then he went on to speak about this sister, who we know and love, and say that no-one else in the Ward has problems. Because this sister is dying, in his opinion no-one else in the Ward has problems. This sister is sealed to her husband in the temple. She will be with him in eternity. Yet according to Bishop no-one else in the Ward has problems. In our Ward we have a sister who has only recently lost her husband, who herself is ill and whose mother is in hospital but according to our Bishop she does not have problems because no-one else in the Ward has problems. We have a sister who is fighting a custody battle for a child she brought up and knows that if she loses then that child will be taken away from the church and lose the opportunity for baptism, and yet according to Bishop this sister does not have a problem because no-one else in the Ward has problems. What about the young woman who is suffering from depression and has felt suicidal? Her family doesn't have a problem because no-one else in the Ward has problems. What about the family who cannot be sealed because the husband is not a member of the church so they face eternity without each other? They do not have a problem because according to Bishop no-one else in the Ward has problems.

I find I cannot share Bishop's view on this because as far as I can see this dying sister who has been through a great deal of suffering is the one with the least problems because she us faithful, she knows where she is going. She is sealed to her husband and children and will be with them again in eternity. I just cannot see that she is the only one in the Ward who has problems.

I am at a loss to know why he chose to say such cruel things instead of following the council of our Stake President and say the things he had been asked to say.

Church ended for me on a very low note devoid of the Spirit.

However! The evening brightened up considerably as I went to Chorley with the girls to a Young Women's Fireside. Wow! What a message with a punch. Standing steadfast an immovable, How often are those words spoken and how often are people so sure that of course they can do that no matter what? How often do people fall? It came as a bit of a shock to me to realise that it is more than 'quite often'. Our Stake apparently has a better than average track record for teenage pregnancies in unmarried mothers, 'only' 16 all the while President Beverley has been Stake President. Yes I have been one of those naive mothers who think it can never happen to my girls because they've been brought up in the Gospel.

I also had the naive idea that the Church's position regarding adoption was old fashioned and that a child belonged with the natural mother and she having made her bed should then lie in it and take the consequences, with the help of family around her. It wasn't until this fireside when it was shown how much better it is for the child to be adopted by an active temple worthy LDS couple and receive all the blessings of being sealed to an eternal family that I realised I'd been wrong. President Beverley gave an excellent presentation on the subject and pulled no punches. The ideal of course is to be steadfast and immovable when it comes to chastity and morality and not create that dilemma in the first place.

I came away from that fireside having felt the Spirit once more and uplifted again despite the serious and sombre content of a lot of the meeting.