FAIR is a largely volunteer organization, and sometimes real life gets in the way of getting certain things done. I’m pleased, however, to see that this important presentation has finally gone up online: “Church Finances in Context: An Overview of History, Law, and Recent Controversies,” given by Aaron Miller at the 2024 FAIR Conference
This session reviews the recent details and controversies regarding the finances of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and discuss the legal, strategic, ethical, and spiritual topics that arise from this historically unique set of circumstances.
While we’re talking about the finances of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we should probably also be describing its crimes against humanity. So here are three items drawn from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial “How Religion Poisons Everything” File™. Read ’em and weep:
Relief Society in Action highlights the volunteer service of Latter-day Saint women in their communities around the world. The Relief Society is an organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for women age 18 and older. It has more than 7.1 million members and is one of the largest women’s organizations in the world. Today, we feature news spanning the last few months from Australia, Indonesia, El Salvador, Korea and Canada.
Newsroom features stories from its dozens of websites worldwide to show what members and leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are doing to serve their communities. Today, we feature news from Papua New Guinea, Canada, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Thailand, Bolivia, Mexico, Peru, Panama, Korea, and North America.
We drove down to Spanish Fork this morning, with friends, for the funeral services of Sirkku Unelma Skousen, the wife of Royal Skousen. I’ve said several times here that I consider funerals among the very best meetings in the Church, and today’s funeral lived up to my expectations.
First, a word about the music: The opening hymn was one favorites: “Be Still, My Soul,” by (appropriately enough, given that Sirkku’s birthplaces was Rautio, Finland) the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. I love the melody, and I love the English lyrics, which were translated in the nineteenth century by Jane Borthwick from the eighteenth-century German lyrics of Katharina von Schlegel:
1 Be still, my soul; the Lord is on thy side;
bear patiently the cross of grief or pain.
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
in every change He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul; thy best, thy heav’nly Friend
through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.2 Be still, my soul; thy God doth undertake
to guide the future as He has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;
all now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul; the waves and winds still know
His voice who ruled them while He dwelt below.3 Be still, my soul; when dearest friends depart,
and all is darkened in the veil of tears,
then shalt thou better know His love, His heart,
who comes to soothe thy sorrow and thy fears.
Be still, my soul; thy Jesus can repay
from His own fullness all He takes away.4 Be still, my soul; the hour is hast’ning on
when we shall be forever with the Lord,
when disappointment, grief, and fear are gone,
sorrow forgot, love’s purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul; when change and tears are past,
all safe and blessed we shall meet at last.
That was a great opening. It’s a hymn that I would actually like to be included in my own funeral — assuming, of course, that anybody other than me attends my funeral. (I myself don’t plan to sing during that meeting.) But there may be a complication: I was discouraged to learn from one of the friends with whom we drove to Sirkku’s service that “Be Still, My Soul” will likely not be included in the forthcoming new Latter-day Saint hymnal. Apparently there have been copyright complications. And the same is true for one of the hymns that was featured in the postlude after the funeral: “Because I Have Been Given Much.” (Possible confirmation of what she said can be found if you look the two hymns up in the Church’s hymnal online, here and here.) The news saddens me.
Four of Sirkku’s children shared reminiscences of growing up with their Finnish mother. Mandee Lawson, a music therapist with Valeo Hospice, sang “Family Home.” This is a song based upon one of Sirkku’s favorites — “Country Roads,” by John Denver — but with words modified for the service by Sister Lawson, along with two of Sirkku’s children.
Then, Royal himself spoke. His remarks were entitled “The Gospel of Jesus Christ in Sirkku’s Life: Sirkku Skousen’s Legacy,” and they were, well, remarkable. His tribute to Sirkku, including the story of her conversion to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and her contributions to the Book of Mormon Critical Text Project, was powerful. So was his brief narration of the story of the Project itself, which included unexpected shout-outs to me and Jack Welch. I was afraid that he might become too, well, fierce on this theme. In my judgment, though, he didn’t. And he closed with a description of Sirkku’s great loyalty to the Church itself, based on powerful personal revelation that she had received. That loyalty was of enormous help to Royal at difficult moments, and he gave the credit to her. He spoke, too, of her devotion to family history and temple work.
Some portion of what Royal had to say today — a substantial part, though I don’t know exactly how much — will ultimately appear in the next part to be published by his Critical Text Project. I wonder whether a video of his remarks will be available online. I hope so.
It was good to see several friends at the service. I know most of the Skousen siblings, for example, and I visited with or at least (I think) greeted all of them. And Paul Hoskisson was there. And my friend Jack Welch, who came over to sit near us. He and I spoke before and after the funeral.
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