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New Strides in Church Activity 1928-1941

The second decade of Heber J. Grant's administration not only brought the formation of the Church's welfare plan but also witnessed a series of rather extensive restructurings of other basic program and activity patterns. Church leaders were seeking the optimum method of accomplishing the weighty assignment of perfecting the Saints and sharing the gospel with the world.

The Priesthood-Auxiliary Movement 1928-1937

Efforts to enhance the effectiveness of Church programs by consolidating activities sponsored by the priesthood quorums and auxiliary organizations came to be known as the Priesthood-Auxiliary Movement. There were two important guiding principles:

(1) The priesthood was to assume its proper place at the center and core of all Church activity. Declared the Presiding Bishopric: "The priesthood is the very foundation upon which the Church is built, as also the framework which supports the structure. It is the most potent means of real service. Unless the quorums of the Priesthood generally are trained and active in the performance of their duties, there cannot be the progress that there should be." 1 Official publications made frequent reference to President Joseph F. Smith's 1906 prophecy of a time "... when every council of the Priesthood... will understand its duty; will assume its own responsibility, will magnify its calling, and fill its place in the Church .... When that time shall come, there will not be so much necessity for work that is now being done by the auxiliary organizations, because it will be done by the regular quorums of the Priesthood." 2

(2) Church programs needed to be simplified. Because all Church organizations served the same group of members, Elder Melvin J. Ballard asserted that "There must be one unified, simplified program for this work. No one organization in the Church can do everything for the entire group. There has been delegated to each organization its specific field." He was concerned about the frequent duplication in the lessons and activities of the priesthood quorums and auxiliary organizations and explained that the priesthood-auxiliary plan should remedy "this competition and rivalry and multiplicity of meetings." 3 These same two objectives would also be at the heart of the priesthood correlation developments of the 1960s.