In the late fall of 2010 as Richard and Pam Christensen completed their three-year term as president and matron of the Columbus Ohio Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, speculation grew as to who might fill their shoes in November. If precedent held, the new couple would exhibit strong Ohio ties. That had been the case with the first three presidents and their wives.
The Martins were Ohio natives and converts to the Church in central Ohio. The Toblers had been Akron area residents since the early 1980s except for a five-year stretch when Lee Tobler served as a general authority. The Christensens had lived in Columbus since the late 1970s. There seemed to be an unspoken qualification to serve as a temple president here – there had to be some of “The Ohio” in the blood!
Instead, Edward Brandt, a recently retired 46-year employee of the Church and his wife, Carol, were called by the First Presidency to oversee the temple and no one in Columbus knew them. How could this be? Easy, really, when one considers the vast experience Edward and Carol Brandt were bringing to the position. It soon became apparent the Brandts would add in their own unique way to the rich heritage of leadership with which the Columbus Temple had been blessed since its dedication in 1999.
Jerry Martin served for nearly five years as the temple’s first president borrowing from his natural spirituality and his organizational skills setting the temple on a proper course. Lee Tobler applied knowledge and understanding gained through nine years as a stake president and five years as a member of the Seventy leading the Church in Western and Eastern Europe in the 1990s and early 2000s. He led the temple until 2007. Richard Christensen had shouldered heavy Church duties for most of his adult life serving in two stake presidencies and fulfilling a call to serve as a mission president in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Edward Brandt, however, brought a different set of skills and perspectives garnered from nearly half a century of gospel scholarship and leading the Church’s Correlation Department for the better part of two decades.
Edward Brandt commenced his Church service as a seminary teacher in Brigham City, Utah in 1964. Four years later, he moved to Southern California, providing gospel instruction at the Glendale Institute building, the Van Eyes Valley Community College, the Burbank Stake center, the Glendale Stake center, Oxnard College, Cal Tech, and in Palmdale near Edwards Air Force Base. After two years of non-stop driving and many evenings away from home, the Brandts returned to Utah for a Sabbatical of sorts so Brother Brandt could complete his doctorate while teaching at Brigham Young University. Then, a year later, Edward was assigned to the Institute of Religion at the University of Utah where he also served as the associate director for 16 years.
During his 18 years at the University of Utah, the Brandts began leading tours of the Middle East focusing on the traditional Bible lands of the New Testament. In 1978, Brother Brandt was invited to be the director of the tours which allowed him to bring his 14 years of gospel study and instruction to bear on student and adult forays into Greece, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, and, of course, Israel. Several of these tours included BYU Travel Studies groups.
“There is a special spirit in Israel,” Brother Brandt shared. “It’s the spirit of the land and the most remarkable thing is that it opens up a view and understanding of the scriptures like nothing else. For instance, most people don’t realize how close Bethlehem is to Jerusalem. You can stand in Manger Square and see the Dome of the Temple Mount.”
On these tours, Brother Brandt was careful to point out that many of the experiences of the early Apostles in the New Testament occurred outside Palestine.
“We would take tours to the Maritime Prison in Rome where Paul was held and his writings take on a new meaning as he addressed those early Saints while in prison and while the Church was being persecuted so heavily.”
During summers when the U of U campus was quiet and activity at the Institute minimal, Edward would frequently go to Church headquarters and work on curriculum. His abilities then led to an invitation in 1989 to join the Church permanently working in the Evaluation Division of the Correlation Committee – a committee consisting of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve. This new assignment put “In the Evaluation Division, our responsibility was to evaluate all the materials produced by the Church for distribution: manuals, handbooks, posters, student manuals, forms, labels for Deseret Industries products, magazines, and everything posted online,” Brandt said.
With a staff of only six individuals, the division literally touched every item produced by the Church for public consumption. Their task was to ensure that everything was doctrinally correct and in harmony with policies and procedures of the Church. This is no small task given the Church’s global footprint and the fact that the vast majority of its leadership in nations worldwide serve voluntarily. This magnifies the challenge to keep the Church as doctrinally and procedurally correct in the meetinghouse just blocks from Temple Square to the struggling branch meeting in a rented building in the interior of Nigeria.
In his role at Church headquarters, Brandt served as secretary to two general authority committees. The Communications Correlations Committee reviews all correspondence going out to stakes and districts throughout the world. Before the letters leave Salt Lake City, they are reviewed by the committee to ensure gospel harmony and confirm they measure up to current Church policy. The Correlation Executive Committee that fulfills the nuts and bolts of the work, as Brandt described it, is led by two members of the Twelve. For instance, when new general handbooks have been updated or created as with the most recent versions, this committee guided the overall effort with Elder Dallin H. Oaks as chairman and President Thomas S. Monson as the final reviewer.
Comments