Hello again, everyone! I wanted to post again now with my observations about the historic General Conference that concluded nearly three hours after this post is published. It has been historic fo the following reasons:
1. For the first time ever, the Solemn Assembly and the Sustaining of other Church officers were held in two separate sessions, with each of President Nelson's counselors having a role in one part of that.
2. We have seen President Nelson fulfilling his own prophetic statement that someday there would be "more flavors in the mix" with the announced calling of the first Latin American and Asian American apostles, which opens the possibility that we will continue to see that prophetic promise filled in the future.
3. We have seen the Church disclose, for the first time, all of the countries from which current Church leadership has been taken.
4. We have seen more diversity among the selected speakers during this General Conference than we have in quite a while. Of the 35 addresses given (note that I am not counting the Solemn Assembly, Sustaining of Church Officers, or Church Auditing Department Report in that count), 9 (which is roughly 25% of all addresses) were given by a internationally-born leader.
2. During President Hinckley's prophetic administration (and before that during the administration of President Kimball), there were times when the Church president would speak briefly to introduce new doctrines and policies, but this was the first General Conference in a while (if it has ever happened at all) that a Church president gave two shorter address to introduce new doctrines, policies, or practices, invited a couple of speakers to add context to the reasoning behind such decisions, and then went on to give two full-length addresses to close out those sessions.
3. Off the top of my head, I can remember at least 4 General Conferences during President Hinckley's presidency (April & October 1995; October 2000; and April 2007) in which, for a variety of reasons, the entire First Presidency spoke back-to-back in a session other than the Priesthood Session. This General Conference, because it was Easter Sunday, we saw that occur again.
4. With two major changes in the interpretation and practice of the doctrine of the Church and several new temples announced, this General Conference was jam-packed with breaking news.
5. For the first time in recent years (if it has ever happened before), we saw almost a full half of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (a total of 5) speak in a single session of General Conference. The most we have seen prior to that is 4 (25%) Quorum members speak in a single session.
6. This General Conference marked the first time that the President of the Church gave more than two addresses (with those addresses being a typical length) since President Monson in April 2015 gave addresses longer that just a few minutes.
7. Even with the major announcements and Church leadership changes, President Nelson was still able to announce 7 new temples.
8. As I have mentioned previously, Elder Larry Y. Wilson, who serves as the Executive Director of the Church's Temple Department, noted last April following President Monson's announcement of the last 5 temple locations during his presidency that the Church had a list of at least 80 potential locations that were being actively considered for an announcement within the 15 years following that statement. If we take his statement literally, then by the end of this month, the Church will have 14 years in which to announce those 80. If we also assume that all 7 that were announced today were on that list, then there are roughly 73 others that will need to be announced within those 14 years, which works out to just over 5 temples per year, which could, as previously noted, be done by announcing at least a few during each General Conference, with a few being announced between each April, October, and subsequent April.
8. With a very healthy Church president directing such efforts, I would anticipate that substantial progress will be made towards getting the 12 temples that were in the announced temples section at the time he was ordained further towards their construction, and that the 7 temples announced today will be the first of many temples President Nelson will announce.
That wraps up my list of observations during this General Conference, but I did have an additional observation unrelated to General Conference which I wanted to pass along. Apparently, a report has come in from members in Kenya and Zimbabwe that suggest that, by the time of President Nelson's trip, the temples in that area may be ready to have a groundbreaking that could occur for the temples in Nairobi and Harare. With the additional fact that the artist's rendering has been released for the Bangkok Thailand Temple, it would be awesome if President Nelson is able to break ground for all three temples during his visit there.
Whatever temple or Church news might be released, you can continue to count on my report and analysis of such developments. That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post, I wish each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.
Sunday, April 1, 2018
Some Observations About the Historic General Conference Weekend
I have had a lifelong love for Church history, which has extended to ongoing reports of the ministry of our apostles and prophets, General Conference, and all temple developments. This blog enables me to share that love with all who read my thoughts on these developments, which are sometimes reported multiple times per day as needed.
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I should have included this on the list above: This is the first time that I know of in which the Church also presented future changes in Church leadership for sustaining vote by Church membership. As some of you might remember, in addition to Elders Carl B. Cook and Robert C. Gay being called to the Presidency as a result of the calls of Elders Gerrit W. Gong and Ulisses Soares to the Quorum of the Twelve, President Oaks also noted that, effective August 1, 2018, Elders Craig C. Christensen, Lynn G. Robbins, and Juan A. Uceda would be released from the Presidency of the Seventy, which means Elder Uceda will have only served in that Presidency for a single year (between August 1, 2017 and August 1, 2018), which is also unusual. But the three will be replaced by Elders Terence M. Vinson, Jose A. Teixeira, and Carlos A. Godoy, which means that more than half of the Presidency (4 out of the 7) will be comprised of men born outside the US. So that is amazing as well.
ReplyDeleteI should also perhaps have mentioned that Elders Vinson, Teixiera, and Godoy are currently serving as the presidents of the Africa West, South America South and South America Northwest Areas respectively, while Elder Gay has been overseeing the Perpetual Education Fund, and Elder Cook has been filling undisclosed assignments at Church headquarters. So there will be a lot of shuffling to do in light of all of these changes. Additionally, it may interest some of you to know that Elder Gong had been the member of the Presidency of the Seventy assigned to the Church Board of Education, and obviously, the calls of Elders Gong and Soares mean they can no longer fill their area assignments, which were the North America Northeast Area for Elder Gong, and the Idaho and North America Central Areas for Elder Soares. With those two moving to the apostleship, and with the other three that will be released, the area leadership changes that will be effective on August 1 of this year will probably involve a great shuffling of assignments. For now, until we know otherwise, I don't know how safe it would be to assume that Elders Cook and Gay will (at least for the next four months) be taking the assignments held by Elders Gong and Soares respectively. Either way, any changes in area assignments that may compensate for the changes in the Presidency of the Seventy that occurred this weekend will almost surely be identified in the May 2018 Ensign, if not before. I will be watching for news in this regard and will post as soon as I know anything.
ReplyDeleteThis past weekend was filled with an overload of church policy changes and temple announcements! Historic to say the least. Thanks for your insights and analysis!
ReplyDeleteI have been looking for video of a press conference regarding the naming of the two new apostles. As I remember, the church has generally hosted a press conference with the media when new apostles are named. So far, I have not been able to find any evidence that one was held. I can only speculate that no press conference was held due to there being so many other news media items to cover!
Hello, Nate, and I thank you for your thanks. I was lucky enough to be in a position where I could blog about all of these developments as they occurred over the weekend, and I have been surprised and pleased to see how quickly the views and comments on my posts about those developments have rapidly increased since they have been put up. It means a lot to me to know that my analysis of all of these developments has impacted so many.
ReplyDeleteRegarding what you said about not finding a press conference in which the new apostles took media questions, you would be correct on both points: The Church has traditionally invited new apostles to address the media and take questions from them, and that does not appear to have occurred during this General Conference.
But perhaps President Nelson, who has proven quite abundantly this weekend that he is willing to take a new approach in leading the Church, has determined that such press conferences should no longer be held. That said, if such a press conference occurs later this week, that would also resolve the issue. It could simply be that with everything that went into preparing for General Conference (including making the changes in Church leadership, preparing to announce the new practices of the Church, and determining the seven new temple locations), President Nelson may not have been able to make time to approve such a press conference being held. It will be interesting to see what happens in that regard, and as soon as I learn anything about whether or not such a press conference will occur, I will pass that along here. Thank you, Nate, for taking time to comment.