We’re just back from participating in the Interpreter Foundation’s fifth birthday party. About 85-90 volunteers, authors, donors, and members of our board gathered for a wonderful barbecue dinner created by board member Bruce Webster, who is a barbecue master. Our neighbor Margaret Dayton did much of the rest of the food preparation. Lots of people came beforehand to help with set-up, and many hands made light work of clean-up afterwards.
Our speaker for the evening, on Mormonism and the Maori, was Professor Robert Joseph of New Zealand’s University of Waikato. He’s in the United States with his wife and family for five months on a Fulbright fellowship. His remarks were videotaped, and I expect that they’ll be available on the Interpreter website within a fairly reasonable time. (Thanks to Russ Ritchins and Tom Pittman for their excellent work in that regard.)
This is the only substantial “reward” that we give to those who provide so much support to help the Interpreter Foundation succeed. Unfortunately, since our board, our volunteers, our authors, and our volunteers are scattered so widely across the United States and beyond — of even our four vice presidents, for instance, one is off with his family in his native Switzerland right now and another is serving with his wife in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Kinshasa Mission — many of them were unable to make it.
***
I want to alert you to a change in venue for the academic conference that’s being held in conjunction with this month’s Chiasmus Jubilee. It was to have taken place in the auditorium of the Harold B. Lee Library, but the public response has been so enthusiastic that it’s now been moved into the much larger Joseph Smith Auditorium, on the southern end of campus:
http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/chiasmus-jubilee-conference-announcement/#more-10630
You can read about the conference, the participants, and their subjects here:
https://bookofmormoncentral.org/events/chiasmus-day-2017
***
I’m pleased to read about things like this:
“African youth talk ‘Face to Face’ with Elder Dale G. Renlund and Sister Ruth L. Renlund”
This isn’t the Renlunds’ first experience in Africa. Prior to his call to the Council of the Twelve, Elder Renlund served as a counselor in the presidency of the Africa Southeast Area of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 2009 to 2011, and then he served as president of that area from 2011 to 2014.
***
A very curious development. And no, they’re not Latter-day Saints:
“The ‘Prophets’ and ‘Apostles’ Leading the Quiet Revolution in American Religion”
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In