Around 150 singles from across Sydney, aged 30 and over, attended a devotional meeting on Sunday (26 July).
The meeting took place at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Parramatta meetinghouse.
Senior regional Latter-day Saint leader, Elder Jeffrey D. Cummings, was the main speaker at the devotional.
| Temple Square is always beautiful in the springtime. Gardeners work to prepare the ground for General Conference. © 2012 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. | 1 / 2 |
Other speakers included Elder Cummings' wife, Evelyn Cummings, and Solange Wood.
Robyn Jarman, coordinator for the evening, said the theme was "The Wizard of Oz."
“We wanted to instil in the group the love to rescue the one who may not feel welcome at church and the courage to stand up for their own beliefs," she said.
Solange Wood spoke to the group about charity being the pure love of Christ.
"We are a church that does believe in service," she said. “It does not matter whether we are single or married, old or young, we can all serve others, we can all have the Holy Ghost with us.”
Evelyn Cummings spoke about having the courage and determination to live your life in accordance with the teachings of Jesus Christ.
"With courage," she said, "we can not only be on the Lord’s side of the line but even move a little farther from the line so we can feel comfortable, so we can feel the Holy Ghost with us.”
“It takes courage to accept an assignment (in the Church) and it takes courage to serve others. The more we do it, the better we’ll become at it.”
Elder Cummings—as part of his Church assignment—travels often to Papua New Guinea. He talked about how he witnesses parents and families taking three hours – canoeing on rivers full of crocodiles and piranhas – and then walking long distances, just to get to worship services.
“Through our efforts, our love, our courage,” he said, “many will come to hear the truths of the gospel.”
He told the single adults that we have much in agreement with other faiths. “We have family, faith and freedom in common. We need to look for those commonalities rather than looking at our differences.”
Jessica Kuru and her husband Alma are advisors to the singles group.
Jessica says their church assignment serving single members "has been specifically designed to help raise awareness and strengthen the single adult program in our stakes.
"Alma and I feel very passionate about single adults because we were both in the program less than a year ago (they were married 9 months ago) and so we have both been immensely blessed by it. Both of us have made wonderful eternal friendships and learned about the true heart of service.”
The group shared a light supper and conversed together.
There is a regional convention for singles scheduled for 16-18 October. Visit their convention page for more details.