The following is excerpted from the Church Newsroom. To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
The new handbook for leaders and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (first announced in January) is now available in English online and in the Gospel Library app. Nine of the 38 chapters have been completely rewritten, and one section of another chapter has been updated. See the summary of the changes below. Also see a list of frequently asked questions.
Titled General Handbook: Serving in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, this book replaces both Handbook 1 (for stake presidents and bishops) and Handbook 2 (for all other leaders). The new book (digital only, with a few exceptions for some areas) is accessible to anyone and will be updated regularly to give it requisite flexibility to help thousands of leaders around the world adapt the Church’s various programs, policies and procedures to their circumstances with loving, pastoral care.
In the version released today, nearly 80% of the content has been transferred from the old handbooks and reordered in a new organizing structure. Why have only nine chapters been rewritten? With changes to several important chapters completed in 2019 (see, for example, here and here), Church leaders decided to expedite the production of a new consolidated handbook instead of updating old resources.
“Our original plan was to completely rewrite the handbook and then translate that. That gave us a delivery date of probably 2022,” said Elder Anthony D. Perkins, executive director of the Church’s Correlation Department, which oversees the creation of the handbook. “But as those first chapters came out, the First Presidency and [Quorum of the] Twelve felt that the updates were important enough to release as soon as possible.” See a letter from the First Presidency about the new handbook.
The Church of Jesus Christ believes in ongoing revelation to prophets and apostles.
To read the full article, CLICK HERE.