In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, individual congregations are referred to as “wards.” Wards, in turn, are organized into groups called Stakes that are roughly equivalent to a Catholic diocese. The name Stake refers to the imagery used by Isaiah in reference to Zion, or the Kingdom of God, comparing it to a tent that is supported and fixed to the ground by stakes.
Watch this interesting 3 minute video that shows the growth of LDS Stakes throughout the world from the year 1847 through 2004. The video moves quickly through each year displaying a flash of light on the world map as each stake is established and then leaves a tiny red dot at the location. The presentation is set to the LDS hymn “The Spirit of God.”
See it embeded here on the blog, or on Google Video .
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I love this video: I find it completely inspiring. I just did a rough calculation and found that, it’s nice to see, Church members as a proportion of the world population are rising swiftly, from 4 in 100,000 in 1850 to 2 in 10,000 in 1900 to 2 in 1,000 in 2004. Movin’ on up!