June 7, 2020
Dear 5th Ward Members,
Another Sunday is upon us and we continue to hear how we, as a province, are doing so well
in our attempt to flatten the curve, yet we are still encouraged to maintain our social distance
from others and to not let our guard’s down in anticipation of further spikes in this insidious
pandemic. One wonders how a viral attack that has taken the lives of over 300,000 world wide
in such a short period of time could get pushed from the front pages of our newspapers and from the lead stories of our network news while no vaccine has yet been developed and new cases still arise daily, yet, this past week we saw exactly that occur. This is no place for me, or anyone in my position, to become political, so I will not, however, the words of President Nelson are worth repeating as I believe they are both inspired and profound:
We join with many throughout this nation and around the world who are deeply
saddened at recent evidences of racism and a blatant disregard for human life. We
abhor the reality that some would deny others respect and the most basic of freedoms
because of the color of his or her skin.
We are also saddened when these assaults on human dignity lead to escalating violence
and unrest.
The Creator of us all calls on each of us to abandon attitudes of prejudice against any
group of God’s children. Any of us who has prejudice toward another race needs to
repent!
During the Savior’s earthly mission, He constantly ministered to those who were
excluded, marginalized, judged, overlooked, abused, and discounted. As His followers,
can we do anything less? The answer is no! We believe in freedom, kindness, and
fairness for all of God’s children!
Let us be clear. We are brothers and sisters, each of us the child of a loving Father in
Heaven. His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, invites all to come unto Him—“black and white,
bond and free, male and female,” (2 Nephi 26:33). It behooves each of us to do
whatever we can in our spheres of influence to preserve the dignity and respect every
son and daughter of God deserves.
Any nation can only be as great as its people. That requires citizens to cultivate a moral
compass that helps them distinguish between right and wrong.
Illegal acts such as looting, defacing, or destroying public or private property cannot be
tolerated. Never has one wrong been corrected by a second wrong. Evil has never been
resolved by more evil.
We need to foster our faith in the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man.
We need to foster a fundamental respect for the human dignity of every human soul,
regardless of their color, creed, or cause.
And we need to work tirelessly to build bridges of understanding rather than creating
walls of segregation.
I plead with us to work together for peace, for mutual respect, and for an outpouring of
love for all of God’s children.
These are the words of a living prophet of God and are not to be ignored or downplayed. To do
so would potentially be to our eternal detriment. I would encourage us to each examine our
attitudes and actions to determine how we can apply this prophetic admonition in our own lives.
Another prophet, President Gordon B. Hinckley, urged us to, among other things, “be kind”.
At no time in our history has that counsel been more applicable. I am so proud of our ward and its members for the acts of kindness meted out by you. I have been the recipient of one such act this week as Brother T Sloan saw me struggling with some rather heavy fence posts and offered his help. Tyler stayed with me for several hours. I so appreciate that. I know we havemany Tylers in our ward. These grass-roots actions of compassion and caring truly exemplifyChrist-like love in a time when Satan would have us divide asunder based on color and beliefs. Pray for your families, your ward members, as well as the members of your community, province, nation and world. And pray especially for the leaders who so desperately need help in these troubled times.
President Nelson, in 2014 said, “Faith is the antidote for fear”.
Whether these times are a test or a result of a secular world further withdrawing from a living
and loving God, never before have the prayers and actions of the faithful been more important.
And yet, among all the fighting and chaos, we trudge on along a correct path that, to paraphrase President Eyring, is always uphill.
We have made some changes in the Relief Society, releasing Sister D Leavitt as 2nd
Counsellor and Sister B Johnson as Secretary, and calling Sister Johnson as the 2nd
Counsellor and Sister K Bridge as the new Secretary. We have also released Sister K
Ridley as the Compassionate Service Committee Chairperson and called Sister M
Coleman to that position while releasing her from her position in the library. In addition, we have called Sister J Findlay as a RS instructor and Sister D Cameron to work in the library.
We thank those whom we have released for their devoted service and look forward to working
with those who have been called.
We realize that as we continue to worship in our homes that it has been difficult for some of you to make your usual offerings. The direction we received from the Area Presidency was that we should encourage the members to pay online, which many of you are doing and I commend you for that. However, I also know that some of you are reluctant to use that technology and that as time passes, the idea of holding on to your donations may be somewhat difficult. So, with the blessing of the Stake President, if you wish to provide a donation, you can contact me, or either Brother Schaffer or Brother McMurray and we will come to your home to collect it. If you don’t have a donation slip or envelope, we can arrange to have some brought to you. As I said above, we don’t know when we will be returning to our regular meeting schedule. There has been some discussion of sometime in the fall, but that could change depending on the directions put in place by our Provincial government. Please remember that more than 50% of our adult ward members fit into the “at risk” category and should be extremely cautious about church attendance even when the restrictions are eased.
A reminder to our youth and their parents of the Stake Fireside tomorrow night. I’m looking
In the meantime, worship at home, pray always, provide service and stay safe. We will get
through this.
I love you all.
Bishop Brooks