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SALT LAKE CITY — Changes announced Friday by the First Presidency will unify when children in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints move from the Primary program into youth programs and attend the temple for the first time and could result in earlier ordination for some boys to the priesthood.

Beginning in January, children will complete Primary and begin attending Sunday School and Young Men and Young Women as age groups, not as individuals following their 12th birthdays.

In addition, young men will be eligible to be ordained to a priesthood office in January of the year they turn 12, 14 and 16, and youth will be eligible to obtain a limited-use temple recommend beginning in January of the year they turn 12 — based on their “individual worthiness, readiness, and personal circumstances,” wrote the First Presidency in a Dec. 14 letter to local priesthood leaders.

Read the full article at Church News.

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