SHARON, Vt. — President Gordon B. Hinckley says the first time he came to southern Vermont, he came to visit. Thursday was different.
"Today, I've come to celebrate," he said at a press conference inside the visitors center at the Joseph Smith Birthplace Memorial.
President Hinckley of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Elder M. Russell Ballard of the church's Quorum of the Twelve were in Vermont on a clear, cold day Thursday as part of the worldwide observance of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Joseph Smith. The LDS prophet and church founder was born Dec. 23, 1805.
The two church leaders will speak tonight in a satellite broadcast from the the site. President Thomas S. Monson, first counselor in the First Presidency, and President James E. Faust, second counselor, will speak from the Conference Center in Salt Lake City.
Proceedings will be carried to meetinghouses throughout the world via satellite and will be broadcast locally.
"This is a very significant event. It happens only every 100 years," President Hinckley said in reference to another church president, Joseph F. Smith, who came here on Dec. 23, 1905, to dedicate a monument that stands in honor of Joseph Smith.
"I'm within five years of being a part of that 100 years. I'm 95 years old and am glad I made it today," President Hinckley said.
"This is a very significant occasion," he said. "The boy who was born here became the prophet of the church and today that church has a membership of approximately 12 million in 160 nations. The growth of this work is an absolute miracle and to think it all came through a little boy who had a very common name and lived in a very remote area, and had very little education but his name has become known for good all over this world. It is for this reason that we're here to celebrate the 200th anniversary of his birth."
President Hinckley said the monument erected 100 years ago "is a tremendous thing in and of itself. Junius Wells was the man who engineered all of it. It was a tremendous thing to get it up here."
The monument is 38 1/2 feet tall, a foot for each year of Joseph Smith's life. "It is a beautiful and magnificent thing. The task getting it in place was tremendous. As we came up the road, I marveled at the ingenuity, the work, the faith of Junius Wells, who got it here and had it ready in time for the dedication by President Joseph F. Smith. It was a wonderful occasion."
Asked what the people of Vermont, most of whom are not Latter-day Saints, can gain from being near and seeing the monument, President Hinckley said that they can "come here and discover the roots of the church. That is the significance of it. The prophet was born here. This becomes, therefore, the roots of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which has grown and moved across the world and will continue to do so. It has become, without any question the largest church ever organized on the American continent. There have been other churches organized on this continent but none, I think, equal anywhere near the membership of this church as it has grown far and wide. Its work is carried on in many languages.
"The Book of Mormon, which is memorialized here in a sense, has been translated into 77 languages, and 130 million copies published. That's a very significant thing."
To a question regarding how much emphasis is being placed upon Joseph Smith, and during the Christmas season, President Hinckley said, "He was born on the 23rd of December and we celebrate the birth of the Savior on the 25th. I say this, that there has been no greater testator concerning the divinity and the reality of Jesus Christ than Joseph Smith, the prophet."
Asked what would be the message he will deliver today, President Hinckley said, "I'm going to talk about Joseph Smith, his birth here, about the Mack farm (owned by Solomon Mack, Joseph Smith's maternal grandfather) where his father tried to make a go of it, and about the erection of the monument, getting the stone up the hill, the whole story."
Elder Ballard expressed some tenderness in being present at the site of the birth of Joseph Smith. Elder Ballard is a great-great-grandson of Hyrum Smith, an elder brother to Joseph Smith.
Scheduled broadcasts of birthday celebration
Live broadcast 6-8 p.m. KSL-TV, Channel 5; KBYU-TV, Channel 11; BYU Television on the Dish Network and DirecTV; KBYU-FM 89.1.
Rebroadcast 9:30 p.m. today on BYU Television and 10 a.m. Sunday on KBYU-TV
E-mail: gerry@desnews.com