History
Early LDS Sunday Schools
Historical records indicate that some form of Sunday school was held by Latter Day Saints in Kirtland, Ohio, and Nauvoo, Illinois, in the 1830s and 1840s. However, the meetings were ad hoc and no formal organization endured the Mormon exodus from Nauvoo.
The first formal Sunday School in the LDS Church was held on December 9, 1849, in Salt Lake City under the direction of Richard Ballantyne, [1] a former Sunday school teacher in the Relief Presbyterian Church in Scotland. Lacking a suitable building to hold the meeting in, Ballantyne invited his students into his own home; approximately thirty Latter-day Saint children between the ages of 8 and 13 attended. The local congregation that Ballantyne belonged to—the Salt Lake City Fourteenth Ward—quickly adopted Ballantyne's Sunday school program and integrated it with regular Sunday meetings. Other LDS Church congregations followed the Fourteenth Ward's example and adopted Sunday school programs based on the Ballantyne model. At this stage, each Sunday school was completely autonomous and under the sole direction of the local bishop.
Deseret Sunday School Union
Anxious to bring a standard structure and organization to the over 200 independent Sunday schools that had been created, LDS Church president Brigham Young ordered that a union of the Sunday schools be carried out. On November 11, 1867, Young and church leaders Daniel H. Wells, George A. Smith, Wilford Woodruff, George Q. Cannon, and Brigham Young Jr. met and organized the Parent Sunday School Union. Young appointed Cannon as the first general superintendent of the Sunday School, a position he would hold until his death in 1901. In 1872, the Sunday School organization was renamed the Deseret Sunday School Union.
The organized Sunday School addressed lesson topics and source materials, grading, prizes and rewards, use of hymns and songs composed by members of the church, recording and increasing the attendance, developing an elementary catechism, and libraries. It also sponsored the publication of administrative guidelines and materials for classroom use, resulting in increased uniformity lesson content.
Until the turn of the century, only children were taught by the Sunday School. Eventually, classes were added for the youth of the church; in 1904, an adult Sunday School class was created.
Priesthood Correlation Program changes
The 1970s saw dramatic change within the Sunday School. In 1971, as part of the church Priesthood Correlation Program, the name of the Deseret Sunday School Union was changed to simply Sunday School, and the Sunday School general "superintendent" was renamed the general Sunday School "president". Additionally, curriculum planning and writing became more centralized and coordinated; for the first time, the Sunday School stopped providing unique lesson manuals each year, and the church began a four-year curriculum rotation pattern. In 1979, Hugh W. Pinnock became the general president of the Sunday School, the first church general authority to hold the position since apostle David O. McKay's tenure ended in 1934. In 1980, the church instructed the Sunday School to stop passing the sacrament during its classes, a practice that Brigham Young had begun in 1877.
Sunday School periodicals
In 1866, just prior to the formal organization of the Sunday School Union, Cannon had begun publishing the Juvenile Instructor magazine. Although the magazine was owned and edited solely by Cannon, it nevertheless became the de facto official publication of the Deseret Sunday School Union in the late 1860s. On January 1, 1901, the church purchased the magazine from the Cannon family and the Juvenile Instructor officially became an organ of the church's Sunday School. In 1930, it was replaced by The Instructor , which was published until 1970. The Sunday School currently does not have an official periodical, but information that may be used in Sunday School appears in the Ensign (now the Liahona) and the New Era (now the For the Strength of Youth) magazines.
Chronology of the general superintendency and presidency of the Sunday School
| No. | Dates | General President (General Superintendents in Italics) (Church general authorities in bold) | First Counselor (First Assistants in Italics) (Church general authorities in bold) | Second Counselor (Second Assistants in Italics) (Church general authorities in bold) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1867–1901 | George Q. Cannon | George Goddard (1872–99) Karl G. Maeser (1899–1901) | John Morgan (1883–94) Karl G. Maeser (1894–99) George Reynolds (1899–1901) |
| 2 | 1901 | Lorenzo Snow | George Reynolds | Joseph M. Tanner |
| 3 | 1901–18 | Joseph F. Smith | George Reynolds (1901–09) David O. McKay (1909–18) | Joseph M. Tanner (1901–06) David O. McKay (1907–09) Stephen L Richards (1909–18) |
| 4 | 1918–34 | David O. McKay | Stephen L Richards | George D. Pyper |
| 5 | 1934–43 | George D. Pyper | Milton Bennion | George R. Hill |
| 6 | 1943–49 | Milton Bennion | George R. Hill | A. Hamer Reiser |
| 7 | 1949–66 | George R. Hill | A. Hamer Reiser (1949–52) David Lawrence McKay (1952–66) | David Lawrence McKay (1949–52) Lynn S. Richards (1952–66) |
| 8 | 1966–71 | David Lawrence McKay | Lynn S. Richards | Royden G. Derrick |
| 9 | 1971–79 | Russell M. Nelson | Joseph B. Wirthlin (1971–75) B. Lloyd Poelman (1975–78) Joe J. Christensen (1978–79) William D. Oswald (1979) | Richard L. Warner (1971–75) Joe J. Christensen (1975–78) William D. Oswald (1978–79) J. Hugh Baird (1979) |
| 10 | 1979–86 | Hugh W. Pinnock | Ronald E. Poelman (1979–81) Robert D. Hales (1981–85) Adney Y. Komatsu (1985–86) | Jack H. Goaslind (1979–81) James M. Paramore (1981–83) Loren C. Dunn (1983–85) Ronald E. Poelman (1985–86) |
| 11 | 1986–89 | Robert L. Simpson | Adney Y. Komatsu (1986–87) Devere Harris (1987–89) | A. Theodore Tuttle (1986) Devere Harris (1987) Philip T. Sonntag (1987–88) Derek A. Cuthbert (1988–89) |
| 12 | 1989–92 | Hugh W. Pinnock | Derek A. Cuthbert (1989–91) H. Verlan Andersen (1991) Hartman Rector Jr. (1991–92) | Ted E. Brewerton (1989–90) H. Verlan Andersen (1990–91) Rulon G. Craven (1991) Clinton L. Cutler (1991–92) |
| 13 | 1992–94 | Merlin R. Lybbert | Clinton L. Cutler | Ronald E. Poelman |
| 14 | 1994–95 | Charles A. Didier | J Ballard Washburn | F. Burton Howard |
| 15 | 1995–2000 | Harold G. Hillam | F. Burton Howard (1995–97) Glenn L. Pace (1997–98) Neil L. Andersen (1998–2000) | Glenn L. Pace (1995–97) Neil L. Andersen (1997–98) John H. Groberg (1998–2000) |
| 16 | 2000–01 | Marlin K. Jensen | Neil L. Andersen | John H. Groberg |
| 17 | 2001–03 | Cecil O. Samuelson | John H. Groberg | Richard J. Maynes (2001–02) Val R. Christensen (2002–03) |
| 18 | 2003–04 | Merrill J. Bateman | John H. Groberg | Val R. Christensen |
| 19 | 2004–09 | A. Roger Merrill | Daniel K Judd | William D. Oswald |
| 20 | 2009–14 | Russell T. Osguthorpe | David M. McConkie | Matthew O. Richardson |
| 21 | 2014–19 | Tad R. Callister [2] | John S. Tanner (2014–15) Devin G. Durrant (2015–19) | Devin G. Durrant (2014–15) Brian K. Ashton (2015–19) |
| 22 | 2019–2024 | Mark L. Pace | Milton Camargo | Jan E. Newman |
| 23 | 2024- | Paul V. Johnson | Chad H Webb | Gabriel W. Reid |
