First Stake Created in African Country

The first Mormon stake (diocese) in the African country of Togo was organised in December by Elder Terence Vinson of the Seventy and first counsellor in the Presidency of the Africa West Area, according to a recent report in the Church News. 

He was assisted by Elder Norbert Ounleu, an Area Seventy from Cote d’Ivoire. Elder Vinson, a native of Australia, is on assignment in Africa as one of the Church’s General Authorities.  He is the first Australian resident to become a General Authority.  He has been in his present role in Africa for seven months. 

In the structure of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Seventy are regarded as travelling ministers who represent the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in administering the Church worldwide. 

Seventy who are “General Authorities” cease to have a country affiliation and may serve anywhere in the world.  Other Seventy, called “Area Seventy”, have local assignments solely associated with one of the Church’s geographic divisions, called “Areas”.  There are 13 Areas outside North America. 

Togo, one of 20 countries where the Church has a presence in the Africa West Area, is located on the Gulf of Guinea, between Ghana on the west and Benin on the east. Its national capital and main port is Lomé, nestled in the south western corner of this country of nearly 7 million residents.  It is a relatively peaceful African nation and has become a more stable democracy in the last decade.

Members from 12 branches of the Church in Lomé gathered in their recently dedicated Church building on Sunday, 8 December 2013, to witness the creation of the country’s first stake.

“The members of the Church in Lomé have shown wonderful love for the Lord and have demonstrated a marvellous commitment to living the gospel. They now have the privilege of being a stake,” Elder Vinson told the Church News.

“From the small district that was formed less than four years ago, there are now eight wards and four branches in the newly formed Lomé Togo Stake. This historic event took place because of significant and rapid growth. Where rapid growth sometimes comes at the cost of maturity and depth, that is not the case in Lomé,” said Elder Vinson.

“The mission president, Robert Weed, and the just-released district president, Komlan Amegandji, have led the Saints of Lomé by teaching them the principles of conversion and focusing on leading them to an increased understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ,” he said.

The beginning of the Church in Togo traces back to the late 1980s after several Togolese people, who had been baptised abroad, gradually returned to their homeland to find no established congregations in the country. One of these, Dieudonné Attiogbe, was baptised in London in 1989, he was unable to find other members of the Church in Togo.

In response to his letter to the Church’s African headquarters in Johannesburg, South Africa, the office sent Mr Attiogbe a list of several Togolese people who had been baptised abroad, along with their addresses. Mr Attiogbe, with Koffi Afangbedji and Agnon Didier, began meeting with a small group of members in Togo around 1996.

Elder James O. Mason, then of the Seventy and president of the Africa Area, officially organised the Lomé Togo group in July 1997. By this time about 25 Latter-day Saints were living there.

In February 1999, Togo came under the Ivory Coast Abidjan Mission. That same month, the first missionary couple, Dermoine and Joyce Findlay, began missionary work in Togo and the Lomé Branch was organised, with Dieudonné Attiogbe as its first president. Legal recognition of the Church was granted in July, 2000. The first district in Togo was created in 2009.

In 2011, to better align resources to changing needs, the Benin Cotonou Mission — comprised of Benin and Togo — was created from part of the former Ivory Coast Abidjan Mission. When President Robert Weed and his wife, Sister Rebecca Weed, arrived to lead the new mission in July of that year, there were just five branches of the Church in Lomé, Togo.

“Now there are 12 units in Lomé and there have been 310 baptisms in the last year alone,” Elder Vinson reports. “The future for the Church in Lomé is bright. The new stake president, Kcodgoh Edgeweblime, has a vision of continued growth for the Church in Togo.”

President Weed added, “The fruits of the hastening of the work of salvation are evident in the creation of the first stake in Togo.

“In a few short years the Church has grown from five branches to a stake of Zion. The maturity of leadership in such a new group of Latter-day Saints is a testament to their incredible faith, love and devotion,” said Elder Vinson.