''The Ensign of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints'', commonly shortened to ''Ensign'' ( ), was an official

periodical Periodical literature (singularly called a periodical publication or simply a periodical) consists of Publication, published works that appear in new releases on a regular schedule (''issues'' or ''numbers'', often numerically divided into annu ...

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, denomination and the ...

(LDS Church) from 1971 to 2020. The magazine was first issued in January 1971, along with the

correlated In statistics, correlation or dependence is any statistical relationship, whether causal or not, between two random variables or bivariate data. Although in the broadest sense, "correlation" may indicate any type of association, in statistic ...

'' New Era'' (for youth) and the ''

Friend Friendship is a relationship of mutual affection between people. It is a stronger form of interpersonal bond than an "acquaintance" or an "association", such as a classmate, neighbor, coworker, or colleague. Although there are many forms of f ...

'' (for children). Each of these magazines replaced the older church publications ''

The Improvement Era The ''Improvement Era'' (often shortened to ''The Era'') was an official magazine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) between 1897 and 1970. History The ''Improvement Era'' was first published in 1897 as a replacement ...

'', ''

Relief Society Magazine ''Relief Society Magazine'' was the official publication of the Relief Society of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1915 to 1970. It succeeded the earlier and privately owned ''Woman's Exponent'', which was begun i ...

'', ''

The Instructor ''Paedagogus'' (, "Pedagogue") is the second in the great trilogy of Clement of Alexandria. Having laid a foundation in the knowledge of divine truth in the first book, he goes on in the ''Paedagogus'' to develop a Christian ethic. His design ...

'', and the ''

Millennial Star ''The Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star'' (usually shortened to ''Millennial Star'') was the longest continuously published periodical of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), and was printed in England from 1840 unti ...

''. Unlike some of its predecessors, the ''Ensign'' contained no

advertisements Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to present a product or service in terms of utility, advantages, and qualities of interest to consumers. It is typically us ...

. As an official church publication, the ''Ensign'' contained faith-promoting and proselytizing information, stories, sermons, and writings of church leaders. For many years, the May and November editions of the ''Ensign'' provided reports of the proceedings of the church's annual and semi-annual general conferences. These issues contain the full sermons and business of the conferences, as well as a current photographic list of the church's general authorities and general officers. The text of every issue of the magazine is available on the church's web site. Each issue since January 2001 is also available in

PDF Portable document format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe Inc., Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, computer hardware, ...

format. In April 2018, the magazine discontinued its

First Presidency Among many churches in the Latter Day Saint movement, the First Presidency (also known as the Quorum of the Presidency of the Church) is the highest presiding or governing body. Present-day denominations of the movement led by a First Presidency ...

message, an article traditionally found at the front of the magazine written by a member of the church's First Presidency. This message was traditionally used by home teachers for a lesson as they visited their assigned families. This change coincided with the church's revamping of the home teaching program into ministering. In August 2020, the LDS Church announced that the ''Ensign'' would cease publication at the end of 2020 and would be replaced by the English-language version of '' Liahona''. The final issue was dated December 2020.

Editors

The magazine's editors included the following, with all those beginning with Dean L. Larsen being general authority seventies: * Doyle L. Green (1971–1975) * Dean L. Larsen (1977–1978) * James E. Faust (1979) *

M. Russell Ballard Melvin Russell Ballard Jr. (October 8, 1928 – November 12, 2023) was an American businessman and religious leader who served as the Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS ...

(1980–1984) * Carlos E. Asay (1985–1986) *

Joseph B. Wirthlin Joseph Bitner Wirthlin (June 11, 1917 – December 1, 2008) was an American businessman, religious leader and member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). He was sustained to th ...

(1986) * Hugh W. Pinnock (1987–1989) *Rex D. Pinegar (1990–1994) * Joe J. Christensen (1994–1995)Rex D. Pinegar and Joe J. Christensen were co-editors in 1994. * Jack H. Goaslind (1996–1998) * Marlin K. Jensen (1999–2000) *Dennis B. Neuenschwander (2001–2004) * Jay E. Jensen (2005–2008) * Spencer J. Condie (2008–2010) *Paul B. Pieper (2010–2012) *Craig A. Cardon (2012–2015) * Joseph W. Sitati (2015–2017) *Hugo E. Martinez (2017–2018) *Randy D. Funk (2018–2020)

References

External links

''Ensign'' Official site
{{LDSChurchpubs 1971 in Christianity 1971 establishments in Utah Monthly magazines published in the United States Defunct Christian magazines published in the United States The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints periodicals Magazines established in 1971 Magazines published in Utah Mass media in Salt Lake City 2020 disestablishments in Utah Magazines disestablished in 2020

Editors

See also

References

External links