Seminary Buildings
AgentX1976-ING
Posts: 520 ✭✭✭✭✭
Out here in the west many high schools have a Latter Day Saints Seminary Building accross from local High Schools.
While not on School property thier primary function is to educate high school students and they conduct classes. As far as I know they don't conduct religious services there.
I would consider them a private school since education is thier main goal. And since thier sultudents are high school aged they should not become points of interest.
I've always 1* them but I have seen a few get through recently. I don't think all of them are going live but with the recent influx of submissions of them with a few that state "not part of the school" I'm thinking some get rejected and re submitted over and over till they go through.
What do you all think?
What does @NianticCasey-ING think?
Comments
I think you are making the right choice. Their purpose is to give religious education for the grade 9-12 crowd. Similar features like scout huts, dance studios and karate dojos focused on children and youth are also considered to be poor candidates from what I remember. Maybe somebody will post the actual verbiage because I couldn't find it on IngressAMA.com or the Wayfarer help pages.
Ah that's sneaky, I can see how that would get through, unless I Googled or there were clues on map views I might think its a normal Church (I'm not sure we have many of these in the UK).
From what you've described I'd class them as K12. For me that encompasses anywhere that could be seen as a form of school or childcare, e.g. they are not looked after by their parents/carers, but are under the supervision of other adults who may have had to have official checks done on them (such as DBS in the UK) and are ultimately responsible for their care whilst the children are there.
From my time as an LDS, I don't recall there being any mention of these private school-like buildings. Our additional lessons were always with missionaries (if we were a nee convert/member) and on a Sunday after the main service.
From what @Agentx1976 has described, these buildings definitely fall under Niantic's definition of K12 and as such are rightfully rejected.
Seen as my comment disappeared again after editing a spelling mistake:
As far as I know, from my time in the LDS Church, we definitely don't have seminary buildings over here. LDS do have a Sunday school of sorts, with different classes for differing age groups, after the main service on a Sunday and missionaries are always giving lessons to new members, but to my knowledge there isn't an LDS seminary building in the UK.
These buildings, as @Agentx1976 has described them, definitely fall under Niantic's definition of K12 and should be rightfully rejected.
Thanks for the answers, I do hope Niantic will give us an official answer but at least for now I'll continue flagging them as K-12
No problem! Glad we could be of some assistance!
That's interesting. I would typically associate a seminary with university-age people. For example, they would produce students with masters and doctorates of divinity. It seems like the LDS seminary is the exception to this. I'd typically continue to rate other seminaries highly.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints operates seminaries for grades 9-12 (13-18 year olds) and Institutes of Religions for colleges and universities (18+). Seminaries and institutes are more like daily Sunday school. Institutes are not operated to give degrees of divinity or other credentials to become a minister or priest. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints relies on a lay ministry.
Can confirm this to be true.
Additionally, all males within the LDS that are 12 years of age and above are required to receive "priesthood", to make them eligible for any potential roles within the church in the future, be it as a branch president/bishop, missionary, or so on.
The seminaries, as @JSteve0-ING pointed out, are more like Sunday schools, to ensure members are taught more of the church's beliefs, stories, and so forth, or something to that effect. When I was a member, our "seminary" was the church building itself since I don't think there are any seminaries in the UK. I could be wrong though. I wasn't a member long enough to find out.