Moroni Painting

Myrna wrote: Brother Justensen, the assistant recorder, went upstairs, as he does to check on "things" as part of his job, into a storage area by the Priesthood Room and said that he had seen the painting was still in the temple.

Sister Grimshaw said that she understood that it had been commissioned for the temple. Do you know if that is true? Your relative, the sealer (whose name escapes me at the moment), might have been the one she mentioned. Is it Christopherson? I said that the painting had been in the temple since I first attended in 1960 to receive my own endowments.

I was worried about where it might have gone to as Sister Grimshaw said she did not know.

At any rate, Brother Justensen said that the painting, by Harold I Hopkinson (the same painter who painted the one that hangs in the St. George Temple featuring the signers of the Declaration), was based on a statement by Warren S. Snow. Was Snow the man who was with President Brigham Young at the site dedication? Hopkinson, whose son, Glen, is also a painter, was born in 1918 and died in 2000 according to a web bio.

Can you remember that the painting was taken down once before? Someone reported the painting missing to President Hinckley (story one) and he called and told them to put it back. Or he was visiting and saw that it was missing (story two) and said he wanted the painting hung back up again.

Brother Justensen also said that when the park at the foot of the temple was dedicated and the Mormon Tab came to sing that one of the speakers was also a church historian. The church historian did not believe the story about Moroni and the temple site dedication was true and thought that it was legend. He said that there had been a problem with a statue of Moroni also and that it had been removed.

Also, he said, that at a recent stake conference in Manti (Is there more than one stake?), the president of the stake went into some detail about the history of Moroni and the story by Snow. Brother Justensen was a busy man and Brother Hagemeister (sp) was waiting to record some information so that was all the time we had.

President and Sister Grimshaw came into the office about then and I said that Brother Justensen could tell them about the painting. He replied, "Yes, I know who painted it." He then told them the name of the painter and they left and so did I.

One of the sisters at the clothing desk, from the Saturday evening shift, told me when I went to return my Eve vest, that she knew the President had received a letter from the First Presidency telling him to take the painting down. However, in pre-preparation meeting, Sister Grimshaw said that it was done while they were not at the temple. Rumors abound, do they not?


Merilyn Jorgensen wrote: Yep—rumors are wonderful.  Many problems for many years about this—and many of us are VERY upset about the Mortal Moroni statue not being put back up.  And the MM Pageant has had ‘grief’ for eons about the ‘tradition’ mentioned in the Pageant—and that part may be removed this year, if the ‘powers that be’ have their way.  My son, Michael is pageant pres. And is looking for documentation to prove the story, but so far all we have is a quote in “The Life of Heber C. Kimball”, about Warren Snow, etc. But that book is well documented, and claims to have had some general authorities double-checking for authenticity of the book’s contents.  Plus, Pres. SW Kimball was the editor of the 2nd printing in 1945.  He reportedly removed the things at that time that he did not think were authentic.

The book was originally printed in 1888, so only eleven years after the Moroni ‘story’ had been first told.

I really do not know, of myself, the story of the painting—only what I’ve ‘heard’ J  The sealer who is related to me is Elder Gillespie.  I’ll speak to him about it, but I do know his wife (who is my cousin) has said she had a dream/vision about it, and claims the story is true.  Since she died last fall, I’ll need to ask her husband for confirmation when he gets back in town.

Bureaucracy in government is deplorable, but I’m sorry to say that I don’t care for it in the Church either.  ‘Committee’ is somewhat of a ‘nasty’ word in my book.

Merilyn


Myrna wrote: I just hope the painting stays put in the storage area until the "committees," "boards," "departments," and "others" make certain that the painting has a right to hang somewhere important. The painter's son, an artist in his own right, is the person that I contacted.

Let me tell you about the "Ghost of Crede," painted by Dean Fausett. It hung, proudly, at Juab High School until it "disappeared" and an investigation has not uncovered it in the past six or so years. His family, after his death, wanted to buy it back at a rather nice sum. The school board said they wanted to keep it. Someone knows where it is but not anyone in the family or in the school district (who will admit it).