Mormon president makes return visit to Chch

Press, 6 March 1985, Page 6

Mormon president makes return visit to Chch

Almost 46 years after teaching young people in Christchurch to play basketball and softball while serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints, President Glen Rudd returned to Christchurch recently. He came as the president of the New Zealand Temple of the church to attend the church’s Christchurch State Conference. President Rudd and two other missionaries came to Christchurch in 1939. They had all played basketball since their early childhood in the United States. By New Zealand standards, where the game was in its infancy, they were considered “fairly good” players. They were consequently asked to teach basketball at the Y.M.C.A. two or three nights a week. About 150 boys were taught by the three missionaries during the seven months they spent in Christchurch.

Elder Rudd, as he was then, became the captain, coach and selector of the Canterbury team which

went to the national basketball championships in Wellington. When President Rudd first came to Christchurch in the winter of 1939, there was only one other member of the church in the city. The mission had been closed about 20 years after mob violence had led to the death of a missionary. He was drowned in the Avon River. “But when we came in 1939 it was a lovely place and the people were very friendly. Christchurch was a real plum place to come to on your mission.” He placed a small advertisement in “The Press” each week while on his mission, telling people the Mormons would be preaching in the Veterans’ Hall by the Avon River. Another seven people joined the church during his stay in Christchurch.

His appointment as Temple President brought about President Rudd’s twelfth visit to New Zealand as a representative of the church. He particularly re-

members a visit in 1964 as a Bishop when he was interviewed by a reporter from “The Press.” “He treated me so nice. I have treasured the clipping of that interview ever since,” he said. The New Zealand Temple was the first Temple of the church to be built in the southern hemisphere. “The Temple is the centre of the church in New Zealand. Active and faithful members of the church are able to go there to receive special and sacred ordinances.

“It is a basic belief of Latter-day Saints that the Lord intends families to be united for ever. In the Temple, with the proper priesthood authority, husbands and wives can be joined not only for this time but for the rest of eternity,” said President Rudd.

Although only active, faithful members of the church could enter the Temple, all people were welcome to visit the Temple grounds and the visitors’ centre there, he said.