LDS Scene

Jeffrey R. Holland became BYU’s ninth president in November ceremonies that also included an academic procession, a reception, a luncheon, and a ball.

In giving the formal charge to the new president, President Spencer W. Kimball, also president of the Board of Trustees, stressed his theme that education for eternity is what counts and urged BYU to “hold fast to those basic principles which have proved true and right and have guided good men and women and good universities over the centuries.”

He also promised the new president: “By drawing close to our Heavenly Father you will be guided. This is His work. This is his university. You are his servant. You are on his errand.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell of the Presidency of the First Quorum of the Seventy, in delivering the inaugural address, reviewed the great number of universities that began as religiously affiliated institutions. Brigham Young University, he said, will never stop being a religious school, and charged it to continue its dual concerns “with both knowledge and godliness.”

BYU will increase tuition beginning fall semester of the 1981–82 school year, from $485 to $545 per semester for undergraduates; from $540 to $605 for graduate and advance standing students; $890 to $1,000 for law students; and $695 to $780 for Graduate School of Management students. Tuition for spring and summer terms will be one-half the semester rate.

Students who are not members of the Church will pay one and a half times the regular rate.

Having a hard time keeping Nehemiah, Proverbs, and Deuteronomy in order? More Songs for Children, a Church activity songbook for youngsters, contains all of the Old Testament books set to music, an easy way to memorize the names of the books quickly. The songbook is available at the Salt Lake City Distribution Center, 1999 W. 1700 S., Salt Lake City, Utah 84104, for seventy cents, order number PBMU0392.

The recently published LDS edition of the Old and New Testament are available at the Salt Lake City Distribution Center. This edition comes in a variety of styles:

—large-print brown leather covers (PBCS0029), $22.50.

—large-print black leather covers (PBCS0018), $22.50.

—small-print black leather covers (PBCS003A), $16.75.

—small-print brown leather covers (PSCS0040), $16.75.

—large-print black vinyl covers (PBSC0051), $10.50.

—large-print brown vinyl covers (PBCS0062), $10.50.

—small-print black vinyl covers (PBCS0073), $7.00.

—small-print brown vinyl covers (PBCS0084), $7.00.

The Distribution Center’s address is 1999 W. 1700 S., Salt Lake City, Utah 84104.

Among other activities marking National Family Week in November were Church ceremonies honoring one nonmember “model family” in Columbia, Ohio, and another in Savannah, Georgia. Church public communications officials and stake leaders arranged the events to pay tribute to the family of Edsel and Shirley Cotter, members of the Presbyterian Church, and the James and Virginia DeLoach family, United Methodist, in Georgia.

New stakes in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, and Paisley, Scotland, join those in Dundee and Glasgow to make the blessings of stakehood available for all of the country’s 10,000 members. Missionaries first arrived in 1839; but until about 1950, many converts emigrated. In the past thirty years, however, the Church population has soared and more than thirty chapels have been built.

President John A. Davis has been called to preside over a newly created mission in the Dominican Republic, accompanied by his wife, Ada Whitten Davis. It will be headquartered in Santo Domingo. Missionaries first entered the country in 1977 and since then have baptized about 2,500 members in twenty branches. The main language is Spanish, although English is also widely spoken.

A four-day family reunion, the sixth for several thousand descendants of Lucy Mack and Joseph Smith, Sr., is scheduled for August 6–9 at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. It follows those held in Nauvoo (1972 and 1979), Independence (1973), Salt Lake City (1975), and Kirtland, Ohio (1977).

All descendants are invited whether they have attended a previous reunion or not, according to Buddy Youngreen, executive secretary for the family reunion. Further information and registration forms are available by writing Buddy Youngreen, 1564 N. Moonriver Drive #9, Provo, Utah 84601, and enclosing a self-addressed stamped envelope.

Dallin H. Oaks, former BYU president, was appointed to the Utah Supreme Court by Governor Scott Matheson on 21 November 1980. Former dean of the University of Chicago College of Law, Justice Oaks will serve two years, then, if elected, will be on the bench for an eight year term.

This year’s Miss New Zealand, Vickie Lee Hemi, is a Latter-day Saint from Hamilton, New Zealand. She recently placed fifth in the Miss World competition in London. A graduate of the Church College of New Zealand and an education-English student at the University of Waikato, the eighteen-year-old Miss New Zealand attributes her poise before the judges to her experience with Church speaking.

Proceedings of the August World Conference on Records will soon be available in print and tapes. Order forms have been sent to all English-speaking wards, stakes, and missions; but the forms are also available from the Genealogical Department, 50 East North Temple, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150; and from the Salt Lake Distribution Center, 1999 W. 1700 S., Salt Lake City 84104.

The Southern California Mormon Choir recently completed a two-week tour of Israel. Singing before enthusiastic audiences, the sixty-three choir members, under the direction of their conductor, Frederick Davis, performed a program that included religious, classical, and folk songs, with two concluding numbers in Hebrew. A twenty-five minute Schubert section of each concert was conducted by Maestro Amos Meller of Tel Aviv, the general music director of six choirs in Israel.

Each of Israel’s two national radios recorded a concert for later replay. Each concert was preceded by a ten-minute talk on the history of the Church, including Orson Hyde’s dedication of Israel for the return of the Jews, by Dr. Joseph Ginot, professor at Haifa University and friend of the Church.