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The following is excerpted from the Deseret News. To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
The new initiative to replace the Boy Scouts and Personal Progress programs of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is called “Children and Youth” and will be rolled out in September in a special worldwide satellite broadcast.
The church is exiting its century-old relationship with Scouting and retiring some of its other core activities for teenagers, like Personal Progress in its Young Women program.
President M. Russell Ballard, the acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, will lay out the new initiative to replace those programs in a broadcast on Sept. 29, according to a letter sent Monday to general authorities and officers of the church and local leaders around the world. Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will host a Face to Face broadcast about “Children and Youth” on Nov. 17.
“The principles taught in this effort for children and youth represent a higher, holier way to encourage the rising generation to follow Jesus Christ and apply his gospel in all areas of their lives,” the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles say in a statement in a guidebook to the program. “This major effort will include gospel learning, the privilege of service, personal development, and exciting activities.”
The Young Women program will move forward without Personal Progress and Faith in God for Girls. Boys will no longer have Scouting, Duty to God or Faith in God for Boys.
Amy Rogers Douglass, a mother in Rancho Cucamonga, California, earned her Young Womanhood Recognition through the Personal Progress program as a girl. Now her 15-year-old daughter is doing Personal Progress.
“I have helped my daughter work her way through up to this point, and it has been a strength for her,” Douglass said. “It has been a blessing in bringing the spirit and helping her grow as she works on it each Sabbath day.”
Douglass said she recognized the need for an update.
“Because my daughter is growing up in a situation different than mine was, I know that the new programs will be even more beneficial to her personally,” she said.
To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
