Church Welfare Agencies Brought Together as One

Full correlation of the Church’s three welfare functions has been announced by the First Presidency with the formation of the Welfare Services Department.

The department comprises the General Church Welfare Program, the Health Services Corporation, and Social Services. These three units, providing for the economic, health, and emotional needs of Church members worldwide, now come under the direction of the First Presidency.

Elder Marvin J. Ashton of the Council of the Twelve is adviser to the new department, with Presiding Bishop Victor L. Brown as chairman of the guiding committee.

Other committee members are Bishop H. Burke Peterson and Bishop Vaughn J. Featherstone, counselors in the Presiding Bishopric; Elder James E. Faust, Assistant to the Council of the Twelve; Neal A. Maxwell, Church commissioner of education; Roy W. Simmons, president of Zions First National Bank; J. Alan Blodgett, comptroller and director of the Church Financial Department; and Belle S. Spafford, general president of the Relief Society. Glen Van Wagenen serves as committee secretary. Junior Wright Child is managing director of Welfare Services.

The general correlation of the three welfare functions follows last fall’s correlation at the regional, stake, and ward levels under the Welfare Services Committee. In announcing formation of the Welfare Services Department, the First Presidency explained that “the Welfare Services will now reach out to touch the lives of every member of the Church by providing avenues for those who do not need assistance to aid and train others.”

Added Bishop Brown, “The basic responsibility of Welfare Services is to teach the people to be self-reliant and independent. The stake and ward welfare services committees are the training and teaching instruments in accomplishing this.”