Life in the Church

The Mormons Take Manhattan

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The New York Daily News discusses the recent influx of Mormons into New York City. (Via my colleague Wendy Cassity). The numbers are interesting — up from 1700 to 4000 members over the past 10 years alone. And there are apparently 25,000 members in the five boroughs. (Though as a member of a Bronx ward, I have to wonder what percent of the 25,000 are actually active).

The article also discusses the new buildings, which have to be an exciting development for Manhattan members. (See Claudia’s earlier post mentioning the choreography of multi-multi-ward buildings in Manhattan).

4 comments for “The Mormons Take Manhattan”

  1. Kaimi, thanks for the link. I was in the Manhattan 8th ward 10 years ago. After I returned from my mission, the ward had split twice! Brent Belnap was my bishop then, and I can’t help but think that the stake’s growth is largely due to his leadership.

  2. Given the population of the city that seems an amazingly low number. As an original east coaster I recognize the church isn’t anywhere near as strong out there as here in the west. But still, 20,000 out of several million seems surprising.

  3. Clark, just to add some more perspective, the borough of Brooklyn (which is part of NYC but would be the fourth largest city in the US by itself) has about 2.5 million people. And just one (admittedly wonderful) stake. And really only about two strong wards. The meteoric growth described in the article is centered in Manhattan, and is greatly attributable to students and young professionals who will be looking to move out of the city around the time their kids reach school age.

    Speaking of Brooklyn, anyone in or around New York really should go visit the old chapel/mission home mentioned in the article. They are in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. (The chapel is now a Baptist church.) When they were built in 1918, they were the first buildings erected by the Church east of the Mississippi since the Nauvoo era. BH Roberts presided over the Eastern States mission from that home and actually wrote much of his Book of Mormon Studies there.

  4. Greg,

    Not a bad idea. I’ll have to visit those (when I get a break from Cravath — hah!).

    It’s surely a sign that I don’t go to Brooklyn often enough, but I can’t read “Bedford-Stuyvesant” without starting to hum “You May Be Right” by Billy Joel . . .

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