Hello again, everyone! Breaking news was reported by the Newsroom a few hours ago relating to the April 2020 General Conference. According to an official announcement from the First Presidency, all sessions (I am assuming in their entirety) will originate from the Conference Center. But above and beyond that, for this General Conference, the Saturday evening session will not be classified as a Priesthood Session, and will instead be an additional general session held for all Church members 11 years of age and older.
A couple of thoughts on this announnced development: First, I hope that officially puts any rumors that parts of General Conference might originate from special locations to rest. And as I mentioned previously, even if some leaders do speak from outside the Conference Center, there will not be a wide-scale spreading out of Church leadership through various parts of the world. It is scriptural doctrine that the Church cannot convene a General Conference unless a majority of the apostleship is present in one location for it.
Secondly, and only slightly less important, this essentially shoots down my previously-offered thoughts about the probable layout of the speaking order for this General Conference, so I will be throwing those thoughts out the window and starting from scratch. Stay tuned for more on that as I figure it all out. In the meantime, I appreciate the opportunity I had to share this news with you all here, and will continue to monitor all Church news and temple updates and pass them along ASAP after I learn of them.
That does it for now. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such comments are made in accordance with the established guidelines. 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.
Friday, November 22, 2019
BREAKING NEWS: Saturday Session of the April 2020 General Conference
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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Hello again, everyone! I wanted to mention a couple other things here. Firstly, given that the Saturday Evening General Session will pre-empt the Priesthood Session in April, it would not surprise me if the 2020 bicentennial celebration continues with a similar Saturday General Session preempting the Women's Session in October. I could be wrong, but it's just a feeling I have.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, it is looking more likely that the dedication of the Rio de Janeiro Brazil Temple may only be held in May or June at earliest, and that, with all that is left to be done on the renovation for the Tokyo Japan Temple, that temple probably will not have its' open house or rededication until after the 2020 Summmer Olympics wrap up on Sunday August 9.
Additionally, I have an update on that temple. The latest information notes that nterior renovations are progressing inside the temple and that structural framing for the annex building is nearing completion. I should add that I don't anticipate the delayed completion of the Tokyo temple will impact the rededication time-frame for the Washington D.C. Temple, but I am preparing to make allowances for such an eventuality if need be.
After I overhaul my predictions for the April 2020 General Conference in light of today's announcement on that, my next project will hopefully be updating my previously-offered estimates for the timing of known temple events. Stay tuned for more on that as i figure it all out. In the meantime, my thanks once again to you all.
Hello again, everyone! I have a few more Church News updates to pass along, in addition to some major temple news. First, the Church News updates, which speak for themselves:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.thechurchnews.com/living-faith/2019-11-22/president-nelson-video-southeast-asia-global-ministry-168215
https://www.thechurchnews.com/members/2019-11-22/church-news-app-notification-push-168269
https://www.thechurchnews.com/members/2019-11-22/joseph-smith-memorial-building-pianist-retire-167779
Also, further study on my part, including a more careful reading of the First Presidency letter on the change to the April 2020 General Conference Saturday evening session, appears to indicate that the general session for all Church members 11 years of age and older will indeed also be held in October, replacing the annual Women's Session. More on that as I learn more.
In the meantime, the Church of Jesus Christ Temples site reported that, on November 20, the Henrico County Planning Commission approved the plans for the Richmond Virginia Temple. Based on that report, and on the earlier article that indicated that the Richmond Temple would likely have a groundbreaking in spring 2020, it looks like I might again have to revisit the ordering of my list of temples for which a groundbreaking is anticipated. Stay tuned for more on that later. In the meantime, my thanks once again to you all.
President Nelson's comments about temples during his Asia trip were interesting. He told the Saints in Singapore that he prays for the day when a temple can be built there, and in Jakarta that they needed enough members to staff a temple. That timing depended on them.
ReplyDeleteSo for now, those two temples have dropped down my potential list and are no longer on my potential list for the next couple of years.
My top contenders are Kiribati, Madagascar, and Mongolia internationally for countries without temples.
Kenny, thank you for stopping by to comment. I apologize for not responding sooner. I focused some thoughts on President Nelson's recently-concluded Southeast Asia Ministry Tour in the threads of other recent blog posts here, including some personal observations on his comments about temples in each of those areas.
DeleteSome additional thoughts, if I may offer them here: First, although I am waiting for Matthew Martinich to confirm this on his blog, my research shows that Kiribati, Mongolia, and Madagascar may now be first, third, and fifth on his new list of the top ten nations with the strongest Church presence that do not have a temple in any phase, and that Indonesia may have joined that list this go-round as the last of those nations.
Some have argued against a temple in Kiribati, saying that the meterological estimate that Kiribati will be completely submerged underwater within the next century or less. But to that argument, I respond with a favorite saying often uttered by one of my seminary teachers: "Who was right, Noah or the weatherman." So I don't see that forecasted estimate impacting the Church's ability to build a temple there.
As we also know, President Hinckley publicly proposed a Singaporean temple when he visited there almost 20 years ago, so I think it will happen in the relatively near future, since President Nelson reiterated hope for such a prospect during that tour. I suppose his words to the Saints in Indonesia and Vietnam could technically constitute an official public proposal of temples in both places.
But in studying what President Nelson said about such prospects, I was reminded of his having said something similar as he visited the Saints in Thailand and India on his first Global Ministry Tour last year. As we now know, construction on the Bangkok Thailand Temple is underway, and, if we take Bishop Davies at his word in terms of what he told the Bengaluru India Saints in May of this year, the Church is hoping to release more information on the temple in that city before the end of this year.
Additionally, in relation to Vietnam specifically, a few days before President Nelson's visit, the Church was presented a certificate from a Vietnamese government official which officially authorized the Church to conduct religious activities throughout that nation. In the past, when other nations have granted such permission and authorization to the Church, things have really taken off for the Church as a direct result. Quite honestly, with 2 districts operating in Vietnam at present, all it would take is for one of them to be upgraded to a stake, and the Saints in that nation would be ready in that sense. And we have seen recently with the Yigo Guam Temple that the Church does not necessarily have to have a stake established in any city for a temple to be placed there, as long as at least one congregation operates within the limits of that city.
So that was my reasoning on the prospect of a temple for Hanoi. Hope this informaiton is helpful, and thanks, Kenny, for stopping by to comment.
According to the statistics released in April, the top countries without a temple are: (country / Membership)
ReplyDelete1. Kiribati / 20,390
2. Uganda / 16,823
3. Liberia / 13,275
4. Mozambique / 12,274
5. Madagascar / 22,257
6. Mongolia / 11,895
7. Malaysia / 10,504
8. Vanuatu / 9,615
9. Republic of the Congo / 7,903
10. Indonesia / 7,477
26. Singapore / 3,449
Kenny, thank you for sharing that data. I based my earlier assertions on the metrics Matt typically uses in formulating his top ten list, which include the total number of congregations as a key metric in determining the order in which those nations are listed. And I also pulled data from the most-recent "Reaching the Nations" profiles for which Matt has provided an update since the year-end 2018 statistics were released. Based on that data, the ten nations I have listed are, in order: Kiribati, Uganda, Mongolia, Liberia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Malaysia, Vanuatu, Republic of the Congo, and Indonesia. Nice to see that the information you used has some of these nations in the same order as I had them.
DeleteAs Matt has frequently observed, even he has been surprised at the lack of any solid patterns that exist in Nelsonian temple announcements. In a lot of ways, the prophet seems to have thrown out the rulebook in terms of the circumstances under which temples are announced.
Although the first two sets of temples he announced (last year) led me to conclude that the number of temples that would be announced each April and October would be slightly increased from the previous April and October, that theory had to be thrown out when 19 temples were announced in 2018, and 16 were announced this year. Subsequent research on my part led me to the idea that, in general, President Nelson's goal may be to announce 35 new temples during every 2 year period. And with a 19/16 split last year and this year, I don't know what exactly to expect for the Church's 2020 bicentennial.
But there are a couple of things I do know: First, with the two sts of temples announced this year, three areas of the Church had two temples each announced. In April, that occurred in the Pacific Area, and last month, that was the case for the North America Southwest and Utah Areas.
Secondly, with the temples that have been announced thus far by President Nelson, there are a total of 5 current areas of the Church in which a temple has not been announced during that time: Africa Southeast, Middle East/Africa North, North America Central, North America Southeast, and South America Northwest.
Regarding the Africa Southeast Area, with the dedication of the Durban South Africa Temple set for February of next year, hopefully the Church will also be able to conduct groundbreakings for both the Nairobi Kenya and Harare Zimbabwe Temples. The biggest question mark among those 5 areas is the Middle East/Africa North Area, where a temple in the UAE appears likely at some point, but for which the timing thereof may be up in the air as long as political turmoil continues in the nations within that area. And with no clear trend anymore as far as North American temples, the next set of announcements could involve 1 or more such temples, or none at all.
And I understand that, as far as normal logic and reasoning are concerned, Singapore may be lower on the totem pole for a temple than other nations. But the same could have been said of Guam before October of last year, and with a temple now under construction there, my goal was to try and consider every feasible option.
I took a look at Matt's April 2017 list of the top 10 nations with the strongest Church presence that did not then have a temple in any phase, and only Kiribati and Uganda remain on that list. And given that each set of announcements thus far has featured 1-3 nations on the latest version of that list, then Singapore could make it onto the top ten list within the next 5 years or less.
But in view of President Hinckley's public proposal of such a prospect and President Nelson's reiterated hope that could happen at some point, such an announcement could come sooner than that. Kenny, I apologize for my lengthy reply here, but hope that these insights, such as they are, are helpful to the ongoing discussion. In the meantime, thanks so much for taking time to comment.