Wednesday, March 4, 2020
REVISTED: April 2020 General Conference Predictions
Hello again, everyone! Far later than I had originally planned, I wanted to note that I have finished the updates to my predictions for the April 2020 General Conference. After finishing tho updates, all that remained was to add the relevant refrences. However, that process is going to take more time than I originally thought, so I decided it would be best to post the predictions for now and enable discussion to start on them, and then to update them as I can with the relevant references. As I previously mentioned, upon reanalyzing the likely layout of the speaking order, I realized that this conference might have a higher-than-normal degree of participation from members of the First Presidency. Where appropriate, I have allowed spaces for any major announcements that could be made. Given President Nelson's statement that that conference would be different from any previous ones, there was a lot to think about. I am sure it will be different mostly due to the focus of its' content (honoring the bicentennial of the imprtant events of the Restoration), but I also wanted to make allowances for other things that might be announced.
Nelsonian-era General Conferences are hard enough to predict as is, but when accounting for his statement regarding how the upcoming conference will be different from anything we have previously seen, it gets even more tricky. I should also perhaps mention that, in connection with the changes in general Church leadership, there are a couple of more specific notes I might have in the future, but I will need to think about the logistics of what I have in mind. Additionally, the statistics might be hard to pin down with any degree of accuracy, and the formulas and methods I use are less than perfect, but I gave it my best shot. And as far as my list of prospective temple locations is concerned, I have several new additions thereunto, and I have chosen in this latest revision to not predict any specific number as far as how many temples might be announced, although I do anticipate a higher-than-usual number to be announced. Other than these notes, and the references I eventually hope to add to contextualize these predictions, the content largely speaks for ittself. An open commenting period is now in effect for the next four weeks (until the night of Wednesday April 1), at which time I will take a few days to finalize those predictions before General Conference weekend. I look forward to your input. 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.
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! While I hope any of you will continue to feel free to comment on these predictions, I wanted to note that I have made a slight adjustment thereunto, which relates to the Sunday Afternoon Session. I discovered I had inadvertently cut a GA Seventy that I meant to include, so I have fixed that issue. I have also begun the preliminary work on the notes section, which will be reflected on the above link to these predictions anytime any of you want to access those. My thanks once again to you all.
ReplyDeleteBig changes to General Conference https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/april-2020-general-conference-format-change
ReplyDeleteAlso Stake Conferences https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/covid-19-impact-large-gatherings-latter-day-saints
And Missionaries https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/covid-19-mtc-adjustment
Scott, thanks for stopping by to ensure those who read this blog are aware of these developments, and for including the relevant web addresses for these news releases. Because I have the Church News app on my phone, I was advised of these adjustments around 20-30 minutes before you commented here, and was thus in the midst of composing a new post to cover those developments at the very moment your comment was submitted. I have a feeling that app will continue to come in handy depnending on any other breaking news items that are published in the Church News.
DeleteIn the interim, if memory serves, I believe I recall you mentioning that you keep a database of information about the GA and Area Seventies of the Church. If I am correct on that, I wonder if you can confirm something for me.
In my predictions above, I included several GA Seventy speakers who fall under two specifications: 1. They have not spoken in General Conference during the last 5-7 years or more. 2. None of them are serving away from Church headquarters (as all GA Seventies and Area Seventies serving outside North America are excused from attending General Conference).
I know David S. Baxter falls under both categories (as he has not spoken in General Conference since April 2012), but his biography on the Church's website shows he is still on medical leave from his Salt Lake assignments (unless I amB mistaken, he is either still dealing with cancer or else dealing with it again). So I am assuming he will not be one of the GA Seventies who speak during this General Conference.
Aside from Elder Baxter, I have all but 1 of the remaing GA Seventies called in April 2019 who have not yet spoken to us in the queue for this go-round (the odd man out there is Elder Alan R. Walker, who, being Second Counselor in the Central America Area Presidency, will be excused from General Conference). So the 4 others would speak this go-round (Elders Gimenez, McCune, Rasband, and Tai). And given those who have not spoken in a while and are not assigned away from Church headquarters, I have Elders Anthony D. Perkins, Scott D. Whiting, S. Gifford Nielsen, and Timothy J. Dyches. Do you have any thoughts about whether or not I am missing anyone from whom we may expect to hear in April 2020? Also, could you look over the list I have compiled of area seventies who may be released and let me know if you believe I have missed anyone on that list? And do you have any thoughts as far as whether Elder L. Whitney Clayton may be released from the Presidency of the Seventy due to his now being 70, or who might replace him, and do you think the new Presidency member might be someone born outside the United States? Additionally, am I correct in my assessment that the release of Elder Clayton will (barring any other changes), leave Elder Patrick Kearon as the first GA Seventy born outside the United States to serve as the Senior President of the Seventy? In that assessment, I am basing my opinion on who has served as Senior President since the reconstitution of the First Quorum of the Seventy in 1976. On any of these questions, if you feel uncomfortable offering an opinion due to that being highly speculative, it's not a problem, but I thought I'd ask, since these are questions I had while assembling my above predictions for this General Conference. Thanks, Scott, for taking time to offer feedback. I always appreciate hearing from you.
If you give me a day or so I will get this info to you.
ReplyDeleteNo worries, Scott. Take whatever time you need. I think it would probabluy be best to have you e-mail that to me. My contact information is on my blogger profile. Thanks.
DeleteI just emailed you.
DeleteThanks, Scott. I am looking forward to reading your thoughts on these questions.
Delete