Friday, October 27, 2017
Church Announces Changes to General Conference
Hello, everyone! Big news from the Church today. There are major changes coming to General Conference starting in April. The priesthood and women's sessions will now be held annually, with a priesthood session every April, and a women's session in October, both to be held at 6:00 pm MT on general conference Saturday. It is anticipated that this will help streamline these meetings, and that will eliminate the need to have any sessions the week before General Conference weekend every six months. It will be amazing to see how all of that comes together. I will also have to figure out how this might change my semiannual predictions. It will be interesting to see this process unfold. For more details, click here. Any comments are welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time, and may the Lord bless you all in all that you do.
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I always thought it would be better to move the women's session to the same weekend, maybe Friday evening or Sunday night. But I also thought that would make it an exhausting weekend for some people. Making them the same weekend but alternate the men's and women's meetings every school six months sounds inspired. It's better with technology, but for those who travel for conference, having it all in one weekend is a good thing. We men could still have a guys night out that is both spiritual and recreational. I understand that the women may have done the same thing during the men's session.
ReplyDeleteHey, Chris! Thank you for always making such thoughtful comments. I remember many fond experiences going to the priesthood session with my dad, and later my brother, and I remember we would often go out for ice cream afterwards. But then we collectively decided to purchase ice cream after the session and bring it home to my sisters and mom for all of us.
DeleteI may be one of the weird ones, but for most of my life, I would often watch whatever women's session was on the Saturday before General Conference. I figured it would help me keep track of what my mom and sisters (and by the same token, my future wife) were being counseled to do. When they started airing the priesthood session on BYU TV, because of my dad's health issues (and also my brother's inactivity and eventual complete separation from the Church), I got into the habit of just staying at home for all General Conference sessions. My wife and I watch all the sessions together. And that works best for us.
But in terms of this news, since there will need to be an adjustment to which speakers are called on, I imagine the format of both the Priesthood and General Women's sessions may need to be tweaked somewhat, in addition to tweaks to the four other general sessions. Particularly, will a member of the Quorum of the Twelve speak in the Women's session in October, or how might the traditional order of things change with this news? If the formats of both sessions do not change, then there will need to be more adjustment in the general sessions. It will be interesting to see. Thanks again, Chris!