Our former guest-blogger, the intrepid Claudia Bushman, has alerted me to the party of the year. It is (of course) the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the New York, New York stake. (What, didn’t you all know?) She writes:
A special commemorative meeting of music, talks, and film will celebrate the organization of the NY NY Stake which began in 1934, and will take place on Saturday, November 13th at 7:15 as part of the Stake Conference.
The new Stake history, produced by the NY NY History Committee, a 250 page volume, which tells the story of the Church’s early days in NYC as well as its present shape, and includes information for a lower Manhattan walking tour, will be introduced. Presently available at a prepublication price of $10. All present will learn the stake’s new song, “New York, We Love Thee,” and have a piece of birthday cake.
Books available from:
Mormon Pavilion, New York’s LDS Bookstore
560 West 180th Street, Suite 304
New York, NY 10033
800-706-9721
fax 212 568 0147Books are $10 plus $.87 tax if ordered in advance and picked up on Nov. 13th. An excellent gift for all your New York and former New York friends. The later price will be $19.95.
This sounds like a great event and an interesting book. I’ll try to be there, and I suspect that many other bloggernackers in the NY Metro area will try to do so as well.
And I also hadn’t been aware of the LDS bookstore on 180th — but now that I’ve heard of it, I’ll have to take a moment one of these days and check it out.
This is all fine and dandy, but let’s not forget that when the Wilshire Ward building here in Los Angeles was rededicated recently, not only did we also have a party (with cake), but President Hinkley showed up shortly thereafter to preside over one of our services. (Yes, California really is that much cooler than New York). So I say let the New Yorkers eat cake, but let them not forget where they stand in the bi-coastal Celestial Pecking Order.
Aaron B
I may be living in Utah, but I’m with the New Yorkers. This song by Billy Joel says it all:
Some folks like to get away
Take a holiday from the neighborhood
Hop a flight to Miami Beach
Or to Hollywood
But I’m talking a Greyhound
On the Hudson River Line
I’m in a New York state of mind
I’ve seen all the movie stars
In their fancy cars and their limousines
Been high in the Rockies under the evergreens
But I know what I’m needing
And I don’t want to waste more time
I’m in a New York state of mind
It was so easy living day by day
Out of touch with the rhythm and blues
But now I need a little give and take
The New York Times, The Daily News
It comes down to reality
And it’s fine with me ’cause I’ve let it slide
Don’t care if it’s Chinatown or on Riverside
I don’t have any reasons
I’ve left them all behind
I’m in a New York state of mind
I used to play “New York State of Mind” after final exams every semester at BYU.
Happy Birthday New York Stake! How about a temple for a birthday present? A true miracle if I ever saw one, and surely inspired.
Happy Birthday, NY Stake!!!!!
Though, I would like to see a history of the Saints in Michigan, right back from the days when some passed through after Kirtland
Thank you, Kaimi.
Indeed.
My family has been attending church in the New York NY Stake building for a quarter century now. My brothers and I progressed from Primary through Young Men and Seminary (and, in my case, the singles ward and Institute as well) in that building, for so long the only church facility on Manhattan Island. Certainly a temple was the last thing we ever imagined we’d have as a part of that wonderfully ugly building at the corner of 65th and Columbus.
I experienced Primary being consolidated into the Manhattan 2nd Ward because there weren’t enough children in the wards individually. (Although my family was technically part of the Korean Branch, our presence essentially doubled the youth population.) I remember watching the diorama immortalized in Angels in America and the films available in the visitors’ center on the 2nd floor. I remember figuring out how to defeat the safety interlocks on the elevator doors.
I remember the innumerable Primary lessons sitting in those tot-sized chairs that are still used to this day. Giving a talk in Stake Conference. Serving as the First Assistant to the Bishop. Wide-ranging and intense debates in Seminary and Sunday School that the bemused instructors let run rampant. Taking for granted the notion of going to church across the street from Lincoln Center. Stake dances. The annual DC Temple trip the day after Thanksgiving. Frost Valley. Camp Liahona. The end result of all these things, in at least one family, is four young men who each served missions and have always remained active in the church.
So, to the New York Stake, its members, and its beautiful new temple, I say “Happy birthday” . . . and “thanks.”
Dang! Is this a sign of advancing old age, or what??
I remember, just a blink of an eye ago, when Brooklyn was part of the New York Stake, and we had a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the stake’s creation. I can’t remember much about the celebration, except that we had a choir which sang (not very well in this tenor’s case) “How lovely is thy dwelling place” from Brahms German Requiem. (We sang it in English.) Maybe Frank Miller, who was the stake president then, has a better recollection.
To Aaron B:
LA had a big head start, with a lot of transplants (including my grandparents) from Utah. To paraphrase John the Baptist, New York must increase, but LA must decrease.
Yeechang Lee … thanks for mentioning Frost Valley. That brought back a lot of great memories. So did the mention of Camp Liahona (which I understand doesn’t exist anymore). Aw the good ol’ days, teaching canoeing at Whaley Lake.
Danithew,
The reports of Camp Liahona’s demise are premature. It’s still there, without all those ramshackle cabins, but with a new restroom/bathhouse.
You can camp there, but you had better bring a tent, and the lake is still wet.
Did the Church used to own Liahona and it is now owned by someone else? I’m trying to understand what the heck happened. Maybe there was just a bad storm that took out all the electricity … I have vague memories of something like that happening.
What a shame … those ramshackle cabins were great when we used to go down there for annual fathers-and-sons outings and Scout Camp every summer. But I’d love to go there with a tent anyway, just to sort of walk around and soak in the odd memory.