LDS Scene

First Church Site in Italy

Property for the first Church meetinghouse in Italy has been purchased in Pisa, Italy. The new meetinghouse will serve as a chapel for the Saints in Pisa and as district center for the Tuscany District. It will serve such cities as Livorno, Pistoia, and Florence.

Negotiations for the property were completed on July 27, 1974, and local Saints are already at work on projects for the building fund.

Name Change

The name of the Genealogical Research Center at Brigham Young University has been changed to BYU Family History Services. The name change was made to better distinguish the BYU facility from the Genealogical Society of the Church.

Family History Services is a nonprofit organization that performs genealogical research for individuals on a fee basis.

Top Award

Brigham Young University psychologist Dr. D. Eugene Thorne has been awarded a diploma in clinical psychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology.

He is the third BYU faculty member to receive this distinctive recognition from the ABPP. The other two are Dr. Allen E. Bergin and Dr. Robert J. Howell.

Counsel Given Sunday School Workers

The First Presidency has issued a four-point charge to Sunday School workers in the Church.

It was presented recently when the Sunday School general presidency made its report to the First Presidency and advisers from the Council of the Twelve.

President Spencer W. Kimball urged Sunday School workers to teach the following four principles:

1. Parents should lead, not merely send, their families to Sunday School.

2. Church members should bring their scriptures to Sunday School.

3. Teachers should depend on the scriptures and teach correct doctrine, utilizing the approved teachers’ supplements and manuals, and taking care to avoid discussions of “mysteries” of the gospel.

4. Sunday School leaders must increase activation efforts so that all members of the Church may be edified and strengthened spiritually in Sunday School.

BYU Attracts Canadian Students

Among the many thousands of students currently enrolled at Brigham Young University, there are 441 from Canada, the largest Canadian contingent at any college or university in the United States.

Canadians also rank high in the total of international students at BYU. Altogether there are 1,057 students from 70 countries outside the United States enrolled at BYU.

Over half of the Canadians at BYU or Ricks College (Idaho) are from Alberta, where Latter-day Saint pioneers colonized almost 80 years ago.

The strength of the Canadian contingent at LDS colleges has been recognized in a survey conducted by the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C. A 1973 report showed that more than 9,600 Canadian citizens attended 700 United States universities and colleges, with 482 at BYU and 176 at Ricks in 1973.

The BYU figure was the highest by a large margin. The next highest number of Canadian student enrollment was 249 at the University of Washington.

Youth Symphony, Chorus Name New Officers

Salt Lake City’s Mormon Youth Symphony and Chorus recently named new officers and created a new position following the appointment of Brother Jay E. Welch as director of the Tabernacle Choir.

Ray Furgeson will fill the newly created post of president, and Robert C. Bowden will succeed Brother Welch as director.

Brother Bowden was originally named as associate director of the Tabernacle Choir, but has been released from that position so that he might devote his full attention to the Youth Symphony and Chorus. He has formerly been associated with the youth group as assistant conductor and recording director.

Brother Furgeson recently moved to Utah from California, where he was a founder of the Grand Land Singers, a group for which he was also general manager. The California group has gained nation-wide acclaim and has garnered four Freedoms Foundation medals for the patriotic emphasis of its programs.

Christmas on Temple Square

Christmas on Temple Square will begin on December 9 this year with the annual community youth songfest.

The songfest on Temple Square marks commencement of several Christmas-related programs which bring thousands to Temple Square each December.

Rev. William H. McDougall, pastor of Salt Lake City’s Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Madelaine, will be the featured speaker at the community program on December 9.

The Salt Lake Oratorio Society’s presentation of George Frederick Handel’s Messiah will be presented in the Tabernacle at 8 p.m. on Saturday, December 14, and at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, December 15.

The annual Christmas concert of the Mormon Youth Symphony and Chorus will be presented on December 17 and 18 at 8 p.m.

Last year’s concert, conducted by Jay E. Welch, was videotaped for national release this Christmas.

This year Dr. Welch, in his new role as conductor of the Tabernacle Choir, will lead the performance of the Choir’s annual Christmas offering on December 19 at 8 p.m. in the Tabernacle.

Salt Lake Valley’s Primary children will present their annual Christmas program December 20 and 21 at 8 p.m. in the Tabernacle. The Primary program, presented entirely by young children, will be directed at the interests of young children.

More than 100,000 visitors are expected to come to Temple Square to see the depiction of Christ’s birth and to listen to the sacred music of the Christmas season.

Temple Square nativity scene.

Christmas on Temple Square would not be complete without the Tabernacle Choir.

Mormon Youth Symphony and Chorus: a major attraction for Christmas on Temple Square.