Members of some BYU wards are finding new incentives for attending church meetings each week. If they don't, they could lose their ecclesiastical endorsements and be kicked out of BYU.

"The Honor Code requires that you're supposed to go to the ward where your membership is," said Ben Shippen, president of the BYU 15th Stake.

Shippen recently implemented a new rule that limits the number of Sunday meetings a student can miss to three per semester.

This new regulation is related to the council system of organization that is being implemented in several BYU stakes, said Jessie Hartvigsen, 21, a junior from Austin, Texas, majoring in elementary education.

Under the council system, each ward member is given a calling and individual responsibilities. Most serve as chairs, co-chairs, or members of various committees that focus on the welfare and needs of the ward.

"The vision behind the councils is kind of based on the idea that two heads are better than one," Hartvigsen said. "You can get more done and be more effective if you're using everyone's ideas and getting input from everyone rather than the leader telling everyone what to do."

Since so many ward members are needed for the ward to function properly under the council system, attendance at church each Sunday is imperative, said Hartvigsen, who chairs the service and enrichment council for the BYU 101st Ward.

Not only is it the right thing to do, it is something that BYU students have already committed to, she said.

"We signed the Honor Code when we came to BYU and one of the questions they ask you in your endorsement interview is whether or not you're fulfilling your church callings and attending your meetings," Hartvigsen said. "In order to receive your ecclesiastical endorsement you have to attend eighty percent of your regular church meetings each semester."

Shippen said that although it is crucial to the ward that everyone attends church where they are supposed to each week, there are still times when church can be missed.

"I think that everyone should know that there are times when family should have precedence, or if they need to go to a farewell then that's okay," he said. "But they need to be here most of the time."

The rule not only affects BYU students who need their ecclesiastical endorsements signed each year in order to stay in school, but others who do not attend BYU.

"Even though (non-BYU students) don't need to have that endorsement to go to school, they still need to abide by it in order to live in BYU housing," said Spencer Curran, 22, a freshman from Ione, Calif., majoring in business at UVSC.

Curran, who is the elders' quorum president in the BYU 101st Ward, said there have been very few complaints in his ward about the new attendance policy.

While complaints are few, they are not nonexistent.

Lindsay Flaherty, 19, a sophomore from Great Falls, Va., majoring in pre-communications, said she believes the rule is more a hindrance than help.

"People have kind of been concerned because if someone wants to go home for a farewell, and then a baptism, and then if they're sick or something then that counts as their three absences and they're stuck if something else happens," she said.

Flaherty said she feels ward members would still attend their meetings even without the new rule. She said she worries it may cause more problems than it is trying to solve.

"It's like holding quicksilver in your hand," she said. "If you keep your hand open you can hold it just fine, but if you close your hand then it goes all over the place."

Hartvigsen said the point most emphasized in her ward is that members must be responsible and make sure their duties are attended to even if they are not going to be at church on Sunday.

"There will always be exceptions, but (leaders) have been very insistent that we plan ahead," Hartvigsen said.

While an eighty percent attendance policy may sound somewhat stringent to some, it really is not, Hartvigsen said.

"I understand that people want to go to farewells or weddings or whatever, but you can miss three Sundays," she said. "When you think about it this is actually a lot. You need to be going to your own ward ... We need the support of everyone there."



Copyright Brigham Young University 7 Feb 2002