Irvine, California Stake shrivels from 9 to 6 wards.
The Irvine Stake (Orange County) was just reorganized, going from 9 units down to 6 (five wards and one branch). Of the 6, four are the geographic areas shown on the map; the other two (one ward, one branch) are language-specific units from the stake boundaries. From the stake realignment email:
"As our stake continues to grow and change, new ward boundaries have been approved to
strengthen our congregations, improve ministering opportunities, and better serve members. The stake will be realigned from 9 units to 6 units, creating larger, stronger congregations while
continuing to support language-specific units and groups."
The illusion of growth continues in the language, but it's just wild to imagine how a 33% reduction can be seen by any member as progress and strength. Prior to this realignment, our ward has hovered around 100-110 people in attendance for maybe 3-4 years (whenever I began counting and reporting to Return & Report, don't recall the year). I don't attend much but noticed in the past year or two that our ward was including a foreign language branch in more activities and sacrament meetings, and that merger seemed official maybe last year. Even with the addition of that branch to our ward, we're currently still at those same attendance numbers. I'll return and report the new ward attendance numbers whenever I am next obliged to attend.
The shrivel is well.