Ward
From The Encyclopedia of Mormonism
See this page in the original 1992 publication.
Author: Alder, Douglas D.
The ward is the basic ecclesiastical unit in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is comparable to a Protestant congregation or a Roman Catholic parish. Normally, its membership ranges between 300 and 600 people. A ward is part of a larger unit called a stake, which usually includes between five and ten wards. When a ward or stake grows beyond the usual size in membership and in number of active Melchizedek Priesthood holders, it is divided, creating a new ward or a new stake, usually determined by geographical boundaries.
The ward is presided over by a bishop and his two counselors. Assisted by several clerks, these men comprise the bishopric. All are laymen and serve without monetary compensation. Bishops of wards extend callings to men and women in the ward so that each may serve in one of numerous offices or teaching positions in the ward.
The first wards were organized early in the History of the Church in the 1840s in Nauvoo, illinois. By 1844 the city was divided into ten wards, with three more in the surrounding rural neighborhood. The name "ward" was borrowed from the term for political districts of the frontier municipality. Joseph Smith, who was simultaneously mayor of the city and President of the Church, assigned a bishop to preside over each ward. The bishop's chief responsibility to begin with was temporal rather than spiritual leadership. To prevent hunger, he surveyed the physical needs of the members living within his ward boundaries. Second, the bishop organized his members for Church work assignments, particularly to serve one day in ten as laborers on the Nauvoo Temple. This was a form of paying tithing.
Many of the Saints who fled Nauvoo under persecution in 1846 gathered at winter quarters, located near present-day Florence, Nebraska. There Brigham Young and other leaders again set up ward organizations. Their function was similar-to look after the temporal Welfare of the people.
Soon after the first group of pioneer immigrants arrived in the valley of the Great Salt Lake, Brigham Young divided the area into several wards and called a bishop to preside over each. The temporal well-being of the people was still the bishop's chief concern. Soon bishops were assigned to collect tithes from the members and deliver them to the central tithing office. At this time, most of the tithes were paid in produce and livestock because of a lack of circulating currency.
Initially, worship meetings in the Salt Lake Valley were held in the Bowery, erected in the block now occupied by Temple Square. But soon the population increased until the various wards started building their own meetinghouses and holding separate worship services.
Brigham Young determined quickly to move the immigrants beyond the limits of Salt Lake City. Thus, he established small agricultural settlements throughout the Rocky Mountain valleys in the Great Basin. Through this colonization effort nearly four hundred Mormon villages were founded during his lifetime, built on nearly every available water source. Each village was eventually organized into a ward, and several wards into a stake. The bishop of each village ward was essentially the community leader, serving as the judge and mayor as well as the bishop. In the villages the bishops out of necessity became the temporal as well as ecclesiastical leader. Each ward also tried to support an elementary school.
Gradually, the activities and programs of several organizations were added to the normal weekly worship meetings. Sunday Schools, priesthood quorums, the Relief Society, and youth groups emerged in the rural areas as well as in the cities. All were nominally guided by the bishopric, but each received some encouragement from stake and central Church leaders.
In 1890 the manifesto was published, which ended Church support for the performance of plural marriages and the Manifesto was also an important landmark in the separation of the church and state in Utah. Gradually the wards and the villages turned many secular functions over to non-religious leaders. Bishops withdrew from being mayors and judges. Ward schools gave way to public schools. Water companies took over the administration of pioneer irrigation systems. Church-run cooperative stores were gradually replaced by private commercial enterprises. As this separation occurred, the ward became more and more an exclusively ecclesiastical organization rather than both a religious and political-economic one. Nonetheless, the resulting ward was more than just a congregation; it still retained much of the spirit of a close-knit community that it had so long been.
In the nineteenth century, wards and stakes were organized mainly in the intermountain United States, in Alberta, canada, and in northern Mexico. Most members outside these regions were organized into missions and branches, the name given to small dependent units within the mission. By the outbreak of World War II, a few wards and stakes were organized in states beyond the intermountain region, particularly California and Hawaii. Then following the war, as the Church became established all over the United States, wards and stakes were organized throughout the country. By the 1960s, wards and stakes were organized in Europe and the Pacific. Asian and Latin American wards soon followed. In 1991 wards exist in many parts of the world. This means that these units are essentially able to provide their own leadership. On January 1, 1991, the Church had a total of 18,090 wards and branches in 1,784 stakes, and 497 districts.
Today LDS wards continue many of the community functions of pioneer times. The Sunday meetings are just an outer evidence of the unit. Social life and friendship among members are largely developed within the ward. Youth programs bind teenagers and their parents to the ward. Education of children is supplemented by teachers of the youth and primary programs. Family education is furthered through training parents in the ward programs. Sports and other activities are promoted in the ward.
Great diversity exists among wards. Many are located in Mormon communities. Others are in areas where Mormons are a distinct minority. Some have an overabundance of leadership and talent. Others suffer from lack of leadership or lack of youth involvement. Some cover a small neighborhood; others, a widespread area. But wherever located, wards have much similarity, following the same curriculum, working under equitable budget allocations, and adhering closely to central authority from Church headquarters. Increasingly, materials such as videotapes or satellite broadcasts from the General Authorities in Salt Lake City are received in all wards, promoting uniformity and commitment.
As Latter-day Saints move throughout the world, they typically transfer from one ward to another with ease, finding acceptance, responsibility, and similarity of doctrine and practice everywhere. The ward system is successful partly because wards are kept small and because, ideally, everyone in them is needed and asked to accept a calling. Serving one another, bearing each other's burdens, is the norm. Socializing the young is everywhere a mainstream activity, and the youth also contribute much to the dynamics of the ward.
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