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bold opening musical chords will announce the 2002 Winter Olympics
in Salt Lake City, Utah, according to composer John Williams, who
aims to underscore the main themes of these games—"faster,
higher, stronger." Williams composed the musical themes for
the 1984, 1988, and 1996 games, according to Church News,
the weekly news supplement of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints. |
| Williams, and opening ceremony producer
David Goldberg, plan to incorporate both the Utah Symphony Orchestra
and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in this year's opening ceremony.
Goldberg helped produce the 1996 Centennial Games in Atlanta. Their
collaboration in the opening program is designed to bring the flavor
of the region's unique Mormon culture to bear upon the games, which
may be seen on television via satellite by upwards of 3.5 billion
people. The main themes clearly resonate with the church's culture. |
| Headquarters of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints |
| Salt Lake City is headquarters for
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the largest group
of those known as "Mormons," who trace their heritage
to the 19th century prophet, Joseph Smith, Jr. The city is the center
place of the 120 mile-long Wasatch mountain front, home to most
of Utah's 2.2 million residents, 75% of whom are members of the
church. And Temple Square is the center place of the city of the
Saints. |
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Lighted trees and temple on Temple
Square.
Credit:
Melvyn Hammarberg |
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| Mormon pioneers settled Utah's Great
Basin region under Smith's successor, Brigham Young, beginning in
1847. The doctrine of plural marriage, anathema to the rest of America,
characterized the LDS church until 1890, when it was reluctantly
ended. |
| In the twentieth century, the church
entered the American mainstream as a distinctive force within Christianity.
Its iconic scripture, the Book of Mormon, is now distributed around
the world and bears the subtitle: "Another Testament of Jesus
Christ." Marshalling a missionary force now numbering about
60,000 young people annually, the church has found converts and
built ward chapels on every continent. Today, it is a world-wide
religious movement. More than half of the church's 12 million members
are now born outside of the United States. |
| Mormon Organizational Know-How
and the Olympics |
| A striking feature of Utah's Church
of Jesus Christ (a term of reference requested by church leaders)
is its lay priesthood organization, which reaches from the office
of current President Gordon B. Hinckley to the home of every member
through a well-articulated lay leadership. This lay network includes
all worthy boys and adult men as members of Aaronic and Melchizedek
priesthoods, which schools them in leadership, program coordination
and active participation. Because the church's culture values and
teaches group organization and structure, this Olympics will be
one of the best organized ever. |
| The city and state have also planned
extensively for these Olympics. The main north-south highway, Interstate
15, underwent a major renovation and expansion during the past five
years and was completed two months ahead of schedule. Further, a
light rail system also links the southern suburbs to Salt Lake City.
During the Olympics, city, state, and church offices will follow
a work schedule from 6am to 2pm to open parking lots and avoid major
traffic tie-ups during the afternoons and evenings, when the medal
ceremonies will occur. Since 9/11, Mitt Romney, now head of the
Salt Lake City Olympic Organizing Committee, and also a member of
the church, has worked with federal, state and local officials to
enhance and tighten security. Even security will benefit from Latter-day
Saints' organizational know-how. |
| Internationalism, Mormon-Style |
| Within the last month, calls for
volunteer media hosts were issued by the church to assist the expected
8,000 or so foreign and domestic journalists. Due to missionary
training in foreign languages, Utah boasts a population that speaks
more of the world's languages than any other state, underscoring
a theme of recent Pioneer Day parades-that "the world is welcome
here." The media hosts will help arrange interviews, escort
journalists to church sites, and provide information at the church's
resource center in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building on Temple
Square. Temple Square itself will be flooded with lights just as
it was for the Christmas holidays, and is now doubled in size to
two full city blocks. |
| Volunteers aged 18 to 90 are also
being recruited for the church's production, "Light of the
World," to be offered in 14 performances in the church's new
21,000 seat Conference Center, adjacent to Temple Square. These
volunteers will be dressed in the native costumes of more than 50
different countries, represented by hosts who live along the Wasatch
front. These hosts will be greeters in one of the 16 lobbies for
entering the Conference Center. Native musical and dance groups
will also perform during the two hours preceding each performance,
representing the church as a world-wide institution and of all ages. |
| Utah's Latter-day Saints are ready
for the Olympics. Their church's culture will share some of the
spotlight and glow of the games and have an impact on their organization,
even as Salt Lake City serves as the official host. Now is the time.
Let the winter games begin. |
Melvyn Hammarberg, Consulting
Curator, American Section, University of Pennsylvania Museum, and
Associate Professor, Anthropology Department, University of Pennsylvania,
has been conducting anthropological research among the members of
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since the 1970s.
He is currently writing a book on the church's culture with the
working title, Quest for Glory.
posted:
February, 2002
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