644,000 attend seminary, institute in 144 countries
LDS Church News 23Jan99
By Sarah Jane Weaver: Church News staff writer

Seventy teenagers, all members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and students at Granite High School in Salt Lake City, could not have known that they were to be part of an historic movement. It would be the beginning of religious education that would, by the end of the century, reach l44 nations of the world. It was the fall of l9l2 and these teenage pioneers began gathering for daily religious instruction in a small red brick building located near their school.

The program was begun as an experiment. According to a History of the Granite Seminary, leaders worried that LDS youth would need religious instruction to make decisions that would affect their life. President Boyd K. Packer, acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve said, "In the history of the Church there is no better illustration of the prophetic preparation of this people than the beginnings of the seminary and institute program." "These programs were started when.....they were granted a season to flourish and to grow into a bulwark for the Church. They now became a godsend for the salvation of modern Israel in a most challenging hour."

Soon after "released time" to participate in seminary insturction was granted by local school authorities, leaders began to organize a course of study, locate a teacher and obtain funds to finance a building and a teacher's salary. Granite Stake President Frank Y. Taylor borrowed $2,500 from Zion's Bank to buy land and build a building that was opened for instruction in l9l2. Today, there are more than 2,000 institutes of religion worldwide.

Church Educational System administrator, Stanley A. Peterson, has said, "We have built many beautiful institutes and seminary buildings." He has called these buildings "a haven from the world" and "a gathering place" that helps those in "doing all in their power to fortify our young people against evil." In areas where you are not able to participate in released-time or early morning programs, classes are offered after school or on Saturdays. "We are not trying to take the place of the family, the priesthood or any of the other marvelous Church programs for our youth," Brother Peterson said. "There is a strength that comes to young people from being together."

An example of this success has been evident in newspaper articles and letters to the Church. Ariel Arce, a 16-year-old seminary student from Santa Rosa, Argentina, rode his bike to seminary each morning. When his bike was stolen, his fellow classmates held car washes and sold chickens in order to collect the money for a new bike. In the Odessa/Simferopol areas of Ukraine last year, seminary students excitedly waited 45 minutes outside a rented room in the cold for their religious instruction to begin.

Positive results were also reported in a l998 study that showed 96 percent of those who graduated received temple endowments, 98 percent were married in the temple and 96 percent served missions. President Gordon B. Hinckley has encouraged all young adults from ages l4 to 30 to participate in these Church educational programs. He said, "I am grateful for the seminary system in the Church and for the institute program of the Church. I want to urge every high school student here to take advantage of the seminary program. Your lives will be blessed the greater if you do. Every college and university student should take advantage of the institute program. It is the best place in the world to find your eternal mate, and you will be grateful all your lives if you do."

Many of the 70 students who participated in the Granite Seminary program, recorded in their journals the effect of their seminary experience. Stanley W. Bawden, a member of the first seminary class of l9l2 wrote, The Church means much to me...and that feeling was started in my teenage years when I attended seminary."