I see today one of the main London wards Wandsworth common ward has closed today! This must be a body blow to the church as members seem to be leaving in droves! I think there may be many more closures in Britain soon!

How big was that ward back in it's hey day? And when you say closed, do you mean the building is closed and up for sale?

Great news.

They'll probably have combined two wards (or re-arranged the ward boundaries at least).

I assume that they've merged it with one of the other wards that meets in the building? It's quite a big deal though, seeing as their building is right on the corner of Wandsworth Common...

So it is a multi-ward building. Like you said, ward has probably been split between the remaining wards, and the building is still open. that make sense since I thought that building was quite a big one in a prominent place.

I just took a look on Google maps. That is some valuable real estate. Large completely empty parking lot.
The property is fenced with closed gates all round. Is this usual for LDS properties in the UK?

Yes, a lot of UK chapels have those fences and locked gates now.

My 'girlfriend' has moved to a house about 200 yrds away from a Morg chapel. It isnt a stake centre and it seems to be constantly locked up, I have only ever seen the gates open on a sunday.

It is very close to the town centre and parking is a real pain.

I would consider joining again if they gave me keys to the large, unused, carpark :-)
(Hmmm 10% versus parking meter charges? probably not)

So...gone are the days when Britain provided loads of converts dying (often literally) to head to Zion, and let the women be polygamist wives to the church hierarchy?

That's what my mormon ancestors did...

:)

ificouldhietokolob Wrote:
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> So...gone are the days when Britain provided loads
> of converts dying (often literally) to head to
> Zion, and let the women be polygamist wives to the
> church hierarchy?
>
That's the reason I left Britain and moved to the US. It's all gone to shit since they stopped sending over folks to get tricked into polygamous relationships.

Mine, too.

Mine too, half my ancestry. They had to give up tea. Oh, the humanity!

Nice going, Brits. If it wasn't for youse guys, the Church would

have died on the vine back in the 1850's. But nooooooo, you had to

join the Church, emigrate to the U.S. looking for better a life,

survive the arduous trek to the wasteland that was Utah, and make

the "deseret" bloom. At least now it appears that you're making the

right moves by paring down the UK LDS presence. Good for ye all.

O/T: And thanks for Peaky Blinders...it has eased my sense of loss

over the end of Boardwalk Empire.

Peaky Blinders is top dog !!!

Wandsworth is one of the oldest units in the church, it used to be the South London Branch. It housed the British Mission HQ during the war.

In the 80s it split into two units, which met in the same building.

So have they re-amalgamated them again? This would be huge news if true.

Clapham common ward and Wandsworth common ward met in the same building but the announcement on the lds temple site just said, 30 June Wandsworth common ward dis continued! Yes in Britain all LDS chapels have fences and looked gates! I presume the people in the closed ward will just be told to attend clapham common ward in the same building!

Have you got a link, thanks!

The page was last updated on 30th June which was when the ward was discontinued.

http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/statistics/unit/london-england-wandsworth-stake/

Wandsworth Common Ward and Clapham Common Ward both met in the Stake Centre building (which also houses the Stake Family History Centre). I guess there became insufficient active members to justify two wards with duplicated programmes etc. and so they amalgamated them both into the Clapham Common Ward. Odd choice as to which one they closed considering the stake is called Wandsworth Stake.

I guess the stone that rolls forth also rolls backwards...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/03/2015 06:48AM by pettigrew.

pettigrew Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Wandsworth Common Ward and Clapham Common Ward
> both met in the Stake Centre building (which also
> houses the Stake Family History Centre). I guess
> there became insufficient active members to
> justify two wards with duplicated programmes etc.
> and so they amalgamated them both into the Clapham
> Common Ward. Odd choice as to which one they
> closed considering the stake is called Wandsworth
> Stake.
>
> I guess the stone that rolls forth also rolls
> backwards...

odd choice too as the ward called Clapham Common Ward will now meet at Wandsworth Common. So we're back to what, 1988, where we were when the original Wandsworth Ward was divided into two wards. (I can't remember when Peckham was established, and which ward it grew out of).

That doesn't seem like a lot of wards in a huge country. How many missionaries are assigned to UK?

As i said in a previous post, there is about one ward in London for about every 300,000 people! In fact the stake i was in when i left the church 30 years ago (Romford England Stake) now has three less units then i had when i left! So things are definitely going backwards!

This is what i said on another page, of course its one less ward now!
I was recently reading about the population growth in Greater London. This is now thought to be 8.6 million. So i wondered after the Church has been here 175 years how successful it has been ? I looked up LDS.UK and within the Greater London Boundary there are 26 Wards and Branches. That means for each Church unit they have about 330,000 people living there! Not exactly a ringing sucess story. Also most Wards in the UK are between 70 to 100 active members ( I am being generous!) So that means about 2,600 members among 8.6 Million! Only two of those wards being non English speaking. One Spanish, One Portuguese. This is one of the most culturally diverse Cities in the world! Take a D- Mormon Church!

30 years ago I was in Romford Stake.......just to mention

Which Ward ? I was in Grays!

Harlow!

I spoke in Harlow a few times when i was a stake seventy! My ex wife had some friends in Harlow called Caroline. They used to know each other in Margate branch . She married a guy in Harlow ward!

Iam pretty sure I knew the caroline you mean. It was such a smalll ward.
Its a tiny exmormon world

http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/statistics/unit/london-england-wandsworth-stake/

London England Wandsworth Stake

Address 149 Nightingale Lane, Balham, London, England
Region United Kingdom
Assigned Temple London England Temple
Unit Creation Date May 28, 1978
Number of Congregations 6 Wards

Congregations

Catford Ward
Clapham Common Ward
Crystal Palace Ward
Kennington Ward (Spanish)
Mitcham Ward
Peckham Ward

In London Brigham's falling down, falling down...

Not just London but across Europe!

I think about a year or so ago! So you may be right! Lol

Feb 2013 show opened in the West End. Talked about a long time before this, in my previous ward in Northampton Stake. I was TBM then. I remember the bishopric saying that despite the apparent mockery etc, that people would come to know the church was true through watching it.

I think there is much more deception involved with English people who convert. I mean I was horrified and stunned to learn about the other groups using the BoM and the polygamous groups etc in Utah and other places in the States, when I eventually started to research for myself.

If I had been American, I like to think I might have had this cultural knowledge and it might have helped prevent me from joining. The missionaries certainly exploited my naivety here.

Many of the people I knew have resigned too but they extended the Ward building because of all the Americans coming in from local bases and I suppose the growth through child birth.

The SP was a great man, I hope he will resign one day too.

Northampton 2 nd Ward closed this year, just one ward for Northampton now!