Hello again, everyone! Elder Quentin L. Cook, acting under the direction and invitation of President Nelson, just announced a 2-hour Church block, which will be home-centered and Church supported. This will be done by having a 60-minute Sacrament Meeting every Sunday. Following a 10-minute transition to classes, there will be a 50-minute second hour, where Primary will be held each week, but Sunday School and Priesthood/Relief Society will be held alternately, with Sunday School on the first and third Sundays, and Priesthood, Relief Society, and Young Men/Young Women on the second and fourth Sundays. Meetings on the fifth Sunday will be held under the direction of the bishop in each ward. effective January 1, 2019.
To that end, the home curriculum was released to place greater responsibility on each of us for what we get out of Church each week. I have to admit, while I did not see that coming, and while I once dismissed it as an impossibility, the minute Elder Cook announced it, I felt the confirmation I had been seeking that what was being announced is in harmony with the Lord's will.To paraphrase a scripture, "If ye are prepared, ye shall not [be surprised]." More details can be found on the Newsroom.
Let me be clear: These changes do not in any way mean any of us should feel comfortable with doing any less than being well prepared for Church each week. To the contrary, this places more of an onus on each of us to personally be responsible for what we get out of the 2-hour block each week. And this comes, according to President Nelson, because of the way the Church embraced the changes that were made in General Conference last April.
This demonstrates to me that the Lord wants to reveal more to his people, but that this will only be allowed to occur as each of us follow the prophet's counsel. We will learn much more about all of this in the days ahead, and I continue to monitor other developments of this General Conference weekend as they occur and will do my best to pass those along to you all as they occur.
That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time. Thank you for the privilege of your time. If you enjoyed what you read here and would like to stay informed of newly-added content, please feel free to subscribe. 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.
Saturday, October 6, 2018
BREAKING NEWS: 2-Hour Block Announced
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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In addition to my life-long love for the subjects which I cover in the posts of this blog, I have long held the belief that we can disagree without becoming disagreeable. Differences of opinion are natural, while being disagreeable in expressing those differences is not. And in that sense, I have no desire to close the door on anyone who earnestly desires to contribute to the ongoing dialogue on subjects covered in the posts on this blog.
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I'd also like to remind all who comment here that I try to respond personally to each individual comment as I feel is appropriate. Such replies are not meant to end the conversation, but to acknowledge earnest feedback as it is submitted.
And in order to better preserve the spirit and pure intentions for which this blog was established, I also hereby request that anyone not commenting with a regular user name (particularly those whose comments appear under the "Unknown" or "Anonymous" monikers, give the rest of us a name to work with in addressing any replies. If such individuals do not wish to disclose their actual given names, a pseudonym or nickname would suffice.
Any comments made by individuals who opt to not give a name by which they can ber identified may, depending on the substance and tone of such comments, be subject to deletion as well. I would respectfully ask that all of us do all we can to keep the dialogue positive, polite, and without malice or ill-will. May the Lord bless us all in our discussion of these important matters.
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Do you know if testimony meeting has been discontinued? I am only seeing reference to Sacrament Meeting with speakers, etc. in the FAQ's and other info with no reference to Testimony Meeting.
ReplyDeleteHello, Dianne, and thank you for taking time to comment. To address your question, you are correct that testimony meeting was not referenced in the available material. By extension, I would assume that anything not mentioned specifically as changing remains the same, and that testimony meeting would fall into that category.
ReplyDeleteThat assumption is based on the previous statements from Church leaders highlighting the importance of Fast & Testimony Meeting. Church leaders have recently clarified what testimonies are and are not and at what point young children should be offering their testimonies in such meetings.
Based on all of that, I would assume that will continue to be the case. If something future is released from the First Presidency which indicates otherwise, we will know for sure. But the big question I have is what cutting the Sacrament Meeting from 70 to 60 minutes will mean for things like baby blessings and for the ward business section of Sacrament Meeting. It will be interesting to see what occurs with all of that.
In the meantime, Dianne, I believe I owe you an apology. When you commented earlier to share your first-hand knowledge about the process of the Oakland California Temple renovation, I may have been overly dismissive of your feedback. I have since confirmed (with the Church of Jesus Christ Temples site back online) that the completion estimate for Oakland has been altered to mid-2019. It appears you were right and that I should have taken your feedback more seriously. Please accept my profound apologies for not doing so, and thank you for taking time to comment.