Ghana Latter-day Saints open stake center to more than 1,000 Muslims celebrating end of Ramadan

[smac97]

Cool:

Quote

When members of the Takoradi Ghana Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints found out that the Muslims in their area did not have a facility large enough to gather at the end of Ramadan, the stake presidency offered the grounds of the stake center.

The Muslim leaders in Sekondi-Takoradi gratefully accepted, reported the Church’s Africa Newsroom, and on April 22, more than 1,000 Muslims gathered at the stake center for this year’s Eid Mubarak Festival.

The festival celebrates Eid ul Fitr, the end of the holy month of Ramadan and the breaking of the fast. Muslims throughout the world consider this an important religious event and join in celebration.

At the gathering, Chief Imam Alhaji Umar Sabutey prayed for peace and prosperity for all in the nation and expressed his appreciation to the Church for making the stake center facilities available to the Muslim celebrants.     

Also attending the festival was the Regional Minister and member of Parliament for Takoradi, the Honorable Kwabena Okyere Darko Mensah. Mensah noted the close bond between the Muslims and their Christian neighbors represented by the historic gathering.

The Church’s communication director for Ghana, Emmanuel Botwe, helped welcome the worshippers that day. 

“This is the culmination of many years of working with our Muslim friends,” Botwe said. “We attend each other’s meetings, our youth groups work together, and we partner together for the betterment of our community. When they needed us for the festival, we were there.”

I am happy to see the Church building bridges like this.

Thanks,

-Smac

[pogi]

22 minutes ago, smac97 said:

Cool:

I am happy to see the Church building bridges like this.

Thanks,

-Smac

This part was interesting:

Quote

“We attend each other’s meetings, our youth groups work together...

It would be cool if more stuff like this happened here in Utah. 

[Calm]

1 hour ago, pogi said:

This part was interesting:

It would be cool if more stuff like this happened here in Utah. 

Back in 2004 I believe, I attended a presentation at UVU that included the top Muslim leader in SLC and he said that Utah was the best place for Muslims in the US in his opinion.  Things may have changed for the worse given some of the polarization of politics, but hopefully not too much if it has.

[pogi]

19 minutes ago, Calm said:

Back in 2004 I believe, I attended a presentation at UVU that included the top Muslim leader in SLC and he said that Utah was the best place for Muslims in the US in his opinion.  Things may have changed for the worse given some of the polarization of politics, but hopefully not too much if it has.

I’m guessing we are relatively pretty friendly here to other religions.  I thought it was cool that beyond being friendly they participate in each others meetings and have youth groups that work with other religious youth groups.   It would be good to see more active interfaith intercourse like this.

Edited May 3, 2023 by pogi

[Amulek]

On 5/2/2023 at 7:07 PM, pogi said:

I thought it was cool that beyond being friendly they participate in each others meetings and have youth groups that work with other religious youth groups.   It would be good to see more active interfaith intercourse like this.

Guess I missed this thread when it popped up originally, but I figured I would make a quick drive-by post to say that this happens in my stake. The Imam who leads the Muslim community here in our town regularly (though not always) attends our Stake Conferences, and our Stake Presidency / HC reciprocates. We also get together somewhat regularly to engage in joint community service activities, and there's usually at least one social activity a year too. Not sure about the youth doing anything separate from that, but it's not a bad idea (and it certainly sounds like something we would be open to doing).

 

[pogi]

57 minutes ago, Amulek said:

Guess I missed this thread when it popped up originally, but I figured I would make a quick drive-by post to say that this happens in my stake. The Imam who leads the Muslim community here in our town regularly (though not always) attends our Stake Conferences, and our Stake Presidency / HC reciprocates. We also get together somewhat regularly to engage in joint community service activities, and there's usually at least one social activity a year too. Not sure about the youth doing anything separate from that, but it's not a bad idea (and it certainly sounds like something we would be open to doing).

 

Very cool!  Where do you live?

[2BizE]

This is really a great thing for the church to do. I hope they only were reheating the Eid-ul-Fitr celebration meal rather than cooking it from scratch in the church kitchen…..because of rules..:) 

[Kenngo1969]

10 hours ago, 2BizE said:

This is really a great thing for the church to do. I hope they only were reheating the Eid-ul-Fitr celebration meal rather than cooking it from scratch in the church kitchen…..because of rules..:) 

I know, right?  Why should anyone be worried about the prospect that someone could weaponize the local health department to come after local units of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?   

[Rain]

19 minutes ago, Kenngo1969 said:

I know, right?  Why should anyone be worried about the prospect that someone could weaponize the local health department to come after local units of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?   

It may have changed, but back in the 2000s when I was ward activities chairman in Salt Lake County I got told over and over it was a health department thing.  I researched and called health dept people trying to verify this and it was only a health department problem if things were being sold.  Food brought in as donations and not sold could be made in the home or at the organizations.  The rules about what could be brought and where they could be cooked if not sold were up to the church, school/school district etc not the health dept. (Incidentally, I was on the board for Festival of Trees in the next decade and had to get permits for the donations of food because it was being sold and we had to have those donations be made in health dept approved kitchens.)

After this I combed through the handbook and could find nowhere that said food couldn't be cooked in the church kitchen.  (Like I said that may have changed). At that time I think that either people kept verbally passing around rules that didn't exist or that there was a letter sent out at sometime that no one seemed to have anymore. 

Edited May 7, 2023 by Rain

[Tacenda]

41 minutes ago, Rain said:

It may have changed, but back in the 2000s when I was ward activities chairman in Salt Lake County I got told over and over it was a health department thing.  I researched and called health dept people trying to verify this and it was only a health department problem if things were being sold.  Food brought in as donations and not sold could be made in the home or at the organizations.  The rules about what could be brought and where they could be cooked if not sold were up to the church, school/school district etc not the health dept. (Incidentally, I was on the board for Festival of Trees in the next decade and had to get permits for the donations of food because it was being sold and we had to have those donations be made in health dept approved kitchens.)

After this I combed through the handbook and could find nowhere that said food couldn't be cooked in the church kitchen.  (Like I said that may have changed). At that time I think that either people kept verbally passing around rules that didn't exist or that there was a letter sent out at sometime that no one seemed to have anymore. 

Wow, it'd be good to get to the bottom of this!

[RAD DAD]

1 hour ago, Rain said:

It may have changed, but back in the 2000s when I was ward activities chairman in Salt Lake County I got told over and over it was a health department thing.  I researched and called health dept people trying to verify this and it was only a health department problem if things were being sold.  Food brought in as donations and not sold could be made in the home or at the organizations.  The rules about what could be brought and where they could be cooked if not sold were up to the church, school/school district etc not the health dept. (Incidentally, I was on the board for Festival of Trees in the next decade and had to get permits for the donations of food because it was being sold and we had to have those donations be made in health dept approved kitchens.)

After this I combed through the handbook and could find nowhere that said food couldn't be cooked in the church kitchen.  (Like I said that may have changed). At that time I think that either people kept verbally passing around rules that didn't exist or that there was a letter sent out at sometime that no one seemed to have anymore. 

Only thirty-five years ago, we were able to provide full-fledged meals in the kitchen of the church for various gatherings such as Christmas parties, weddings, and other events. Not only the members of the church, but also many children and teenagers from the surrounding community would congregate in the kitchen of the church to socialise before or after they used the gymnasium. Those times appear to be a distant memory, and in my opinion, we should be moving in the complete other direction. When compared to just a few decades before, church structures are now locked off to both members and nonmembers. However, certain churches will be opened up to members of other faiths in order to win brownie points and appear to be more "inclusive." The reasoning behind this decision is unclear.

[MustardSeed]

50 minutes ago, RAD DAD said:

The reasoning behind this decision is unclear.

Let’s see.  When did we stop paying professionals to clean the buildings? Do these time periods correlate? 

[Stargazer]

1 hour ago, RAD DAD said:

Only thirty-five years ago, we were able to provide full-fledged meals in the kitchen of the church for various gatherings such as Christmas parties, weddings, and other events. Not only the members of the church, but also many children and teenagers from the surrounding community would congregate in the kitchen of the church to socialise before or after they used the gymnasium. Those times appear to be a distant memory, and in my opinion, we should be moving in the complete other direction. When compared to just a few decades before, church structures are now locked off to both members and nonmembers. However, certain churches will be opened up to members of other faiths in order to win brownie points and appear to be more "inclusive." The reasoning behind this decision is unclear.

Most Church policy can be found in the General Handbook, which is available online. The use of meetinghouse kitchens is covered in section 35.5.12, Serving Areas:

"Meals and refreshments can be served in meetinghouses. However, food should not be prepared or cooked in meetinghouse kitchens and serving areas. Instead, food should be prepared elsewhere and brought to the meetinghouse. The kitchen and serving areas can be used to keep food warm or cold. These guidelines reduce risk of fires and help comply with food-handling policies. For more information, see safety.ChurchofJesusChrist.org.

"Food preparation demonstrations are the only exception to the guidelines about preparing and cooking food in meetinghouse kitchens and serving areas." [emphasis added]

The purpose of the guideline is given in the part that I've italicized. And before you go on about how public health laws only pertain to sale of food to consumers, remember that this is a world-wide church, and the policies apply generally to the whole world. Laws are different in different countries. 

 

[Calm]

My memory is we had a health code law plaque on the wall in the kitchen in our Canadian ward, that was about the prep of food.  This was in the 90s and iirc the first time I registered the no cooking, only warming rule.  My guess is Alberta was stricter than some parts of the US. I would not be surprised if Utah had looser laws than say California, but the leadership decided to create a standard policy that would work everywhere to avoid violations by those assuming what was okay in one state/province/ country was okay in another when it wasn’t.

[Rain]

58 minutes ago, Stargazer said:

Most Church policy can be found in the General Handbook, which is available online. The use of meetinghouse kitchens is covered in section 35.5.12, Serving Areas:

"Meals and refreshments can be served in meetinghouses. However, food should not be prepared or cooked in meetinghouse kitchens and serving areas. Instead, food should be prepared elsewhere and brought to the meetinghouse. The kitchen and serving areas can be used to keep food warm or cold. These guidelines reduce risk of fires

This I can understand.

58 minutes ago, Stargazer said:

and help comply with food-handling policies.

I can understand the policy thing as well, but at different times I have heard people talk about food safety. As someone in charge of those meals on occasion I can say I was far more confident with the food prepared in front of my eyes than in the various kitchen of many ward members.

58 minutes ago, Stargazer said:

For more information, see safety.ChurchofJesusChrist.org.

"Food preparation demonstrations are the only exception to the guidelines about preparing and cooking food in meetinghouse kitchens and serving areas." [emphasis added]

The purpose of the guideline is given in the part that I've italicized. And before you go on about how public health laws only pertain to sale of food to consumers, remember that this is a world-wide church, and the policies apply generally to the whole world. Laws are different in different countries. 

 

Since I was the one talking about food being sold I totally get that laws are different.  They are different just from Utah to Arizona.  What I was trying to say was at the time I could find nothing from the government or the church that disallowed food being cooked there and I spent hours trying to find the info. I understand that has changed.

[Rain]

2 hours ago, RAD DAD said:

Only thirty-five years ago, we were able to provide full-fledged meals in the kitchen of the church for various gatherings such as Christmas parties, weddings, and other events. Not only the members of the church, but also many children and teenagers from the surrounding community would congregate in the kitchen of the church to socialise before or after they used the gymnasium. Those times appear to be a distant memory, and in my opinion, we should be moving in the complete other direction. When compared to just a few decades before, church structures are now locked off to both members and nonmembers. However, certain churches will be opened up to members of other faiths in order to win brownie points and appear to be more "inclusive." The reasoning behind this decision is unclear.

I'm not understanding how you view this.  Do you feel churches should be more open or more closed?

[Kenngo1969]

5 hours ago, Rain said:

It may have changed, but back in the 2000s when I was ward activities chairman in Salt Lake County I got told over and over it was a health department thing.  I researched and called health dept people trying to verify this and it was only a health department problem if things were being sold.  Food brought in as donations and not sold could be made in the home or at the organizations.  The rules about what could be brought and where they could be cooked if not sold were up to the church, school/school district etc not the health dept. (Incidentally, I was on the board for Festival of Trees in the next decade and had to get permits for the donations of food because it was being sold and we had to have those donations be made in health dept approved kitchens.)

After this I combed through the handbook and could find nowhere that said food couldn't be cooked in the church kitchen.  (Like I said that may have changed). At that time I think that either people kept verbally passing around rules that didn't exist or that there was a letter sent out at sometime that no one seemed to have anymore. 

Fair enough.  Certainly, I will defer to your exhaustive research into the matter.  However, whether or not a regulation actually does exist that prevents full-fledged meals from being cooked in facilities of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints doesn't necessarily have a bearing on whether someone who bears ill will toward the Church might sic the local health department on a local unit.  (I'll grant you, wise health officials won't take the bait, but that doesn't mean that none of them ever will.)  Meanwhile people who simply are looking for any brickbat to beat up the Church of Jesus Christ are sure to find one.  (As perhaps some posts on this thread demonstrate to an extent.)

[Rain]

3 hours ago, Kenngo1969 said:

Fair enough.  Certainly, I will defer to your exhaustive research into the matter.  However, whether or not a regulation actually does exist that prevents full-fledged meals from being cooked in facilities of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints doesn't necessarily have a bearing on whether someone who bears ill will toward the Church might sic the local health department on a local unit.  (I'll grant you, wise health officials won't take the bait, but that doesn't mean that none of them ever will.) 

That is true, but personally I can't live my life with the possibility that someone will report on me or look for ways to hurt me because they don't like me.  Take reasonable precautions yes, and maybe this is reasonable for the church, but overall it's just on my radar.

3 hours ago, Kenngo1969 said:

Meanwhile people who simply are looking for any brickbat to beat up the Church of Jesus Christ are sure to find one.  (As perhaps some posts on this thread demonstrate to an extent.)

 

[Amulek]

On 5/5/2023 at 2:49 PM, pogi said:

Very cool!  Where do you live?

Zion.

And by Zion I mean Texas, obviously.

DFW area in particular. Okay, I know that doesn't narrow it down dramatically, but that's about as specific as I get online.