The Ensign of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly shortened to Ensign (icon), is an official periodical of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). The magazine was first issued in January 1971 along with the correlated

Priesthood Correlation Program

In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Priesthood Correlation Program is a program designed to provide a systematic approach to maintain consistency in its ordinances, doctrines, organizations, meetings, materials, and other programs and activities...

 New Era

New Era (magazine)

New Era is an official magazine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. First published in January 1971 along with the Ensign and the Friend, the New Era's intended audience has always been the youth of the Church...

(for youth) and the Friend

The Friend (Mormon magazine)

The Friend is the monthly English language children's magazine published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . It is aimed at those of Primary age , approximately ages 3 through 12...

(for children), all of which replaced the older church publications Improvement Era

Improvement Era

The Improvement Era was an official magazine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints between 1897 and 1970....

, Relief Society Magazine

Relief Society Magazine

Relief Society Magazine was the official publication of the Relief Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1915 to 1970. It succeeded the earlier Woman's Exponent, which was begun in 1872. The magazine was an important publishing outlet for Utah women, and was run by women...

, The Instructor

The Instructor

The Instructor was an official periodical of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints between 1930 and 1970, during which It was the official organ of the LDS Church's Sunday School auxiliary....

, and the Millennial Star

Millennial Star

The Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star was the longest continuously published periodical of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, being printed from 1840 until 1970....

. Unlike some of its predecessors, the Ensign contains no advertisements

Advertising

Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...

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As an official church publication, the Ensign contains faith-promoting and proselytizing information, stories, sermons, and often apostolic scholarship.

Semiannually, the Ensign gives a full report of the proceedings of the annual and semi-annual general conferences of the church. These issues contain the full sermons and business of the conferences, as well as a current photographic list of the highest officers of the LDS Church, referred to as the general authorities

General authority

In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , a general authority is a member of certain leadership organizations who are given administrative and ecclesiastical authority over the church...

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The full text and page layout of every issue of the magazine is available on the church's web site. Each issue since January 2001 is also available in PDF format.

External links

• Ensign official homepage
• Ensign archive (HTML text from 1971 to present)]
• Ensign in PDF format (from January 2001)