This year, as Relief Society and priesthood leaders and members study Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Harold B. Lee, they are encouraged to use it as a "resource book" for class, family and individual study, according to representatives of the Church's Curriculum Department.
The book will be used as a course of study for one year only, as opposed to the past two books — containing the teachings of President Brigham Young and then of President Joseph Fielding Smith — which were used for two years each.
As stated in the introduction to the book, Relief Society and priesthood teachers should encourage class discussion and should encourage class members to read the chapters before they are discussed. "The goal is to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ using Teachings of Presidents of the Church," said Richard M. Romney, director of the curriculum planning and editorial division of the Curriculum Department.
"If you have had a quality discussion in priesthood and in Relief Society — the sharing of gospel principles, personal examples that teach these principles, and testimonies of the truth — then later the husband and wife can sit down, discuss their different perspectives and share their classroom experiences," he said. "They can also build a sense of unity in the home by studying together and teaching their children."
The Church News met with Brother Romney; Josiah W. Douglas, manager of core curriculum; and R. Val Johnson, an instructional designer for the Curriculum Department, to discuss Teachings of Presidents of the Church and the use and benefit of this series in classroom, home and personal study.
When the First Presidency introduced the series four years ago, Brother Douglas explained, the purpose was to facilitate personal study and family discussion. "A couple who reads a chapter together prior to Sunday really benefits. You feel prepared," he said.
That benefit is only enhanced, Brother Johnson added, when a couple then discusses the lesson later after priesthood and Relief Society meetings. "One of the real strengths in this approach is that we all have different experiences and different perspectives. Though the lessons are based on the same material, the perspective given in Relief Society is not the same perspective given in priesthood."
More insight is shared this way, he said. "When it's done right, it's a rich doctrinal experience for people."
As explained in Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Harold B. Lee, "This book is intended to enhance each member's understanding of gospel principles taught powerfully by President Harold B. Lee. By prayerful reading and thoughtful study, each member may receive a personal witness of these truths. This volume will also add to each member's gospel library and will serve as an important resource for family instruction and for study in the home."
Instructions for Sunday meetings in the book includes the reminder: "It is not necessary or recommended that members purchase additional commentaries or reference texts to support the material in the text. Members are encouraged to turn to the scriptures that have been suggested for further study of the doctrine.
"Since this text is designed for personal study and gospel reference, many chapters contain more material than can be fully addressed in Sunday meetings. Therefore, study at home becomes essential to receiving the fulness of President Lee's teachings."
President Lee, as related in the book, was born March 28, 1899, to Samuel Marion and Louisa Emeline Bingham Lee, in Clifton, Idaho. He married Fern Lucinda Tanner in the Salt Lake Temple on Nov. 14, 1923. In 1930, he was set apart at the age of 31 as president of the Pioneer Stake in Salt Lake City. In the midst of the Great Depression, he was assigned by the First Presidency to work out a program of relief for the needy — the precursor to today's Church Welfare Services.
On April 6, 1941, he was sustained to the Quorum of the Twelve. After the death of his first wife in 1962, he married Freda Joan Jensen in the Salt Lake Temple. On July 7, 1972, he was ordained and set apart as president of the Church. During his presidency, he organized the Jerusalem Branch at the Garden Tomb in 1972, directed the announcement of the worldwide welfare services program and organized the first stake on the Asian mainland at Seoul, Korea, that same year. He died Dec. 26, 1973, at the age of 74.
Included in Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Harold B. Lee is an account of the ministry of President Lee, as published in the November 1972 Ensign. It was written by Elder Gordon B. Hinckley, then of the Quorum of the Twelve and now president of the Church.
A portion states: "There has been nothing uncertain about the message of Harold B. Lee. Without equivocation, and with that certainty which comes of a sure conviction, he has borne testimony to the high and the low of the earth. . . . He has never blanched from his responsibility as a servant of God in bearing testimony of the truth."
E-mail: julied@desnews.com
