Latter-day Saint and Catholic Young Adults Serve and Worship Together

A group of young members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and The Catholic Church gathered in Wellington today to begin a two-day interfaith activity.

After an orientation session at the Latter-day Saints’ Hataitai meetinghouse, the young people did a tour of New Zealand’s Parliament Building to prepare for their return visit tomorrow when they will meet with Members of Parliament.

This afternoon they travelled to the headquarters of community organisation, “Compass Health,” in Porirua, where they assembled 5,000 personal care packs for young New Zealanders. 

Taila Burton, 19, a Catholic from Tauranga travelled to Wellington for the activity.

“I’ve really enjoyed it,” she said. “It’s been eye-opening to see how alike we as Catholics and Mormons are.”

She added, “I totally enjoyed the service project. We all bonded really quickly. It’s been so cool.”

This evening the group met at the Latter-day Saints’ Porirua meetinghouse for dinner and a devotional.

Speakers included two of the young adults, Cesar McQueen and Felicity Jansonius, as well as Sr Catherine Jones, Chair of the New Zealand Catholic Bishops' Committee for Interfaith Relations, and Elder David J. Thomson, Area Seventy in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The theme for the devotional was “Living my faith in today’s world.”

Summing up the day, Elder Thomson said, “It was wonderful to see these young people, who didn’t know each other until today, coming together to serve and have fun together. Even if we are strangers at first, if we have faith in God, we can find common ground and become friends who can make a positive difference in the world together.”

Photos by Barry Preator.