NEWSROOM: Official resource for news media, opinion leaders and the public
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Top Story
Beloved Church President, Gordon B. Hinckley, Dies at 97
27 January 2008 President Gordon B. Hinckley, who led The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints through twelve years of global expansion, has died at the age of 97.
President Hinckley was the 15th president in the 177-year history of the Church and had served as its president since 12 March 1995.
The Church president died at his apartment in downtown Salt Lake City at 7:00 p.m. Sunday night from causes incident to age. Members of his family were at his bedside. A successor is not expected to be formally chosen by the Church’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles until after President Hinckley’s funeral within the next few days.
Full StoryDescription
President Gordon B. Hinckley
© 2007 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved
Download
For Screen (61K)For Print (124K)
In order to function properly, this content requires the Adobe Flash© Player.
Click here to download Flash™
Latest News Releases, Stories & Other Links
Mormon Missions Have Lifelong Impact - News Release
25 January 2008 Instantly recognizable and seemingly ubiquitous, Mormon missionaries are hard to miss. In their neat business attire with name tags and enthusiastic smiles, they are seen in neighborhoods around the world. Full Story
Media Lessons From Slovenia - News Release
22 January 2008 Twenty-year-old Reggie Cavalier nervously adjusts his tie as he prepares to be interviewed for the Slovenian television network Pop TV. Cavalier, from Pennsylvania, is in the middle of a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His interview for the news program 24 Hours aired nationally last week. Full Story
Utah Membership - News Release
The net growth in Utah among members of the Church is growing steadily, approaching 1.8 million or 72 percent of the population according to end-of-year 2006 statistics. Full Story
Official Numbers Attract Media Interest - News Release
16 January 2008 New official membership numbers will surge past 13 million for the first time when they are announced at the general conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in April. The numbers reflect steady growth for the Church both nationally and internationally. According to recent trends, the Church is growing by about a million people every three years worldwide. Full Story
Church Aid Program Saves Over 400,000 Lives - News Release
10 January 2008 One of the central pillars of the humanitarian aid program of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — training medical staff and birth attendants how to resuscitate oxygen-deprived babies at birth — has saved the lives of more than 400,000 infants in developing countries. Full Story
Video Challenges Public Misperceptions,
Explains Myths vs. Reality - News Release
4 January 2008 A 10-minute video originally produced for the large number of journalists visiting Salt Lake City for the 2002 Winter Olympics has been updated and posted on Newsroom today to help counter persistent myths about the Church. Full Story
Mormon Media Monitor: Time to Grade LDS Coverage - Deseret Morning News - News Story
2 January 2008 Joel Campbell, an assistant professor teaching journalism at Brigham Young University and a former reporter, has blogged on the latest news reports and editorials about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, issuing grades to specific articles for their research, accuracy and relevance. Full Story
Church Finds Ways to Help
Members with Disabilities - News Release
2 January 2008 In a Mormon congregation, a wheelchair equipped with a special tray allows a young man with a disability to participate with his peers to pass the sacrament, similar to communion, during Sunday worship services. Full Story
Mormon Christmas Traditions
Reflect Family, Service and Spirit - News Release
20 December 2007 Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are ready to welcome the Christmas season, just as other Christians do, as a time to reflect on the birth of the Child who would provide the foundation of all Christian faiths. Full Story
New Temple Reflects Biblical Parallels - News Release
26 December 2007 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints prepares to welcome thousands of members of the public inside its newly completed Rexburg Idaho Temple from 29 December 2007 to 26 January 2008. Full Story
Apostle Urges Students to Use New Media - News Release
15 December 2007 Two hundred graduating students at Brigham Young University-Hawaii were urged today to use the Internet — including blogs and other forms of “new media” — to contribute to a national conversation about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Full Story
New Study Shows Health Benefit of Fasting - News Release
13 December 2007 A study presented to the American Heart Association indicates that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who regularly fast are less likely to have coronary heart disease. Full Story
Mormon Volunteers Distribute 10,000 Cleaning Kits to Flood Victims - News Release
10 December 2007 Thousands of volunteers from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints put on waterproof boots, heavy gloves and yellow “Mormon Helping Hands” shirts this weekend to clean up homes and farms in Lewis County devastated by floods. Full Story
Choir Nominated for Two Grammy Awards - News Release
7 December 2007 The Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s latest CD, which has spent the last five weeks in the number one position on the Billboard Classical Album list, has been nominated for two Grammy awards by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Full Story
Church Reemphasizes Political Neutrality - News Release
6 December 2007 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints today re-emphasized its long-standing position of party political neutrality in response to a large number of calls from the news media over the past few days. The statement of political neutrality has been posted on the Church’s Newsroom web site for the past year and has been widely disseminated to journalists. Full Story
Missionaries Found Unharmed in Martinique - News Release
6 December 2007 Two Mormon missionaries missing since Monday on the Island of Martinique have been found unharmed. The two missionaries, Elder Thomas Levi Swain, from Hamilton, New Zealand, and Elder Tyson Delmar Gray from Taylorsville, Utah were reported missing on Monday night following an excursion on their day off. Full Story
Church Organization for Children Serves as Support for Parents - News Release
5 December 2007 Parents everywhere are competing for the attention of their children with an avalanche of information on television, the Internet and cell phones, sometimes making it even more difficult to teach values, morals and traditions in the home. Full Story
LDS Church Provides Emergency Relief to Northwest Flood Victims - News Release
5 December 2007 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is providing immediate emergency aid to victims of the recent flooding across western Washington and Oregon. Local church leaders are working and coordinating closely with county and state disaster response agencies and with the American Red Cross. Three church buildings in the Centralia, Washington, area are being temporarily used as Red Cross shelters. Full Story
First Presidency Sends Christmas Message - News Release
3 December 2007 The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — the Church’s highest governing body — delivered its traditional Christmas message last night to over 21,000 people at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City and to millions across the globe watching via satellite or on BYU Television. Full Story
Brazilian Senate Honors Church and Its Members - News Release
30 November 2007 At a time when The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the United States faces heightened interest from American media and public forums about its history, beliefs and practices, the Brazilian Senate has just held a special session to honor the 80-year presence of the Church in Brazil. Full Story
Commentary
Reverence for the Bible
25 January 2008
During the past several years, scholars, religious leaders, journalists and the general public have steadily shown an increased interest in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Much of this attention has been focused on the question of whether it is a Christian faith. Central to this inquiry is the Church’s relationship with the Bible. Many have wondered whether Latter-day Saints believe in the Bible at all. Still others have supposed that the Church uses the Bible only when convenient, while shrugging it off as an inessential part of scriptural canon. With so many conflicting voices participating in this discussion, it may seem difficult to know where the Church stands on this issue. Full Story
Looking Beyond Statistics: The Souls Behind the Numbers
16 January 2008
In an age when so many aspects of life are measured by statistical formulas and metrics, the incalculable value of the human dimension — devotion, dedication, compassion — is often overlooked and underappreciated. How does this relate to statistics gathered by churches? It is impossible to fully measure the faith and commitment of any person of faith by statistics. Likewise, a complex set of beliefs can never translate into a number. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints takes its statistics seriously but does not treat them as an end in themselves. Rather, keeping a record of Church members is a spiritual injunction enshrined in scripture, the main purpose of which is to make sure that they are “remembered and nourished by the good word of God” (Moroni 6:4). Thus, the main purpose of statistics is to help the Church help its members. Full Story
Did You Know?
Mormon Panelist Discusses Christianity
Responding to the heightened attention and ongoing discussion of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Washington Post-Newsweek "On Faith" blog is featuring a guest panelist to discuss the definitions of "Mormon" and "Christian." Full Story
Initiative in Africa Leads to 91% Drop in Measles Deaths
The American Red Cross announced that through the combined efforts of many organizations, including The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, measles deaths in Africa have dropped 91 percent. Measles kills more children every year than any other vaccine-preventable disease. The Church first participated in the program in 2003 by donating $3 million to the cause. Since then the Church has added the eradication of measles to its major humanitarian initiatives. Full Story
New Temple in El Salvador
A temple has been announced for San Salvador, El Salvador. Currently, the closest temple for the 96,000 El Salvadorian Latter-day Saints is in Guatemala City. The temple in San Salvador is the Church's 137th temple announced, under construction or in operation. Full Story
Newsroom Podcasts
Selected Newsroom content is now available through an audio podcast and can be subscribed to with RSS. Click here to subscribe. Full Story
- Glossary
- Feedback
- RSS
- Rights & Usage Information
- Privacy Policy
- Style Guide
- Newsroom.lds.org Mormon.org Lds.org JosephSmith.net
Official Web site of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
© 2008 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.
