Hello again, everyone!i Within the last couple of minutes, break ing news has been reported relating to General Conference. In an ongoing effort to reduce and simplify the work of the Church, and as a result of General Conference being more readily available worldwide, effective imeediately, Satuday Evening Sessions on General Conference will be discntinued. The change means no Women's Session each October, and no Priesthood session every April.
Additionally, the First Presidency has also noted that the October 2021 General Conference will again be closed to the public, following the same parameters as rhe previous 3 held during the pandemic. The four sessions will again originate from the Conference Center auditoruim, Although nothing in that respect has been noted as of yet, I imagne that prerecorded music is a given and that only the First Presidency, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and those speaking at or praying during each session.Since I am still in the process of updating my October General Conference predictions, it very well could be that this announcemnt will send me right back to thd drawing board again. I continue to monitor all other Church news updates and temple developments and will be sure to pass word of those along to you all as I become aware thereof,
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.
Hello again, everyone! I failed to recognize ssomething else in today's major announcement: The last 3 General Conferences which have had pandemic-related accommodations, have originated from either the Joseph Smith Memorial Building auditorium or tthe Church Office Building auditorium. Toddy's announcement noted that in October, sessions would originate from the Conference Center theater.
ReplyDeleteIt is also worth noting that each General Conference up through April saw the entire First Presidency speak in one of the sessions, ususally Saturday evening. So it will be interestin to see if any of the sessions going forward feature the entire First Presideny, or if this just means that each members of the First Presidency will ben giving one less address every six months, which I'm sure reduces their workload as well. Lots to think about in view of this development. My thanks once again to you all.
Here are a few more updates:
Deletehttps://www.thechurchnews.com/living-faith/2021-06-07/latter-day-saint-charitiesopen-houston-family-transfer-center-migrants-seeking-asylum-215574
https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders-and-ministry/2021-06-07/young-women-general-presidency-byu-national-titles-running-21554
https://www.thechurchnews.com/temples/2021-06-07/utah-area-presidency-member-protocols-utah-temples-reopen-215173
My thanks once again to you all.
And updates have been provided on the San Juan Puerto Rico, Bentonville Arkansas, and Okinawa Japan Temples:
Deletehttps://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/san-juan-puerto-rico-temple/
https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/bentonville-arkansas-temple/
https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/okinawa-japan-temple/
My thanks once again to you all.
This is going to really mess up your predictions. There are no patterns to go by with this change. President sure keeps us on our toes.
ReplyDeleteScott, you are correct on that. As the old adage goes, "the only thing consistent is change." The announcement brought with it a slew of things to consider. It's been a time-honred tradition for the entire First Presidency to speak in reverse senority order to close out the Saturday evening session. With the elimination of that session, will they all speak in one of the other sessions? Or does this mean that each of them will just have one less talk to worry about every six months? My personal feeling on that question is that they will just give one less talk, and that they might all speak to close out the Sunday Morning Session.
DeleteIf that happens, it means an adjustment in the number of apostles that will speak per sesion. I think we might see scenarios where most of the time, 3 apostles will sepak on Saturday Morning, 4 Saturday Afternoon (thanks to the shortening of the rrocess of the sustaining portion), 2 on Sunday Morning along with the entire First Presidency, and the final 3 in the final session.
Continuing the comment here. It has been somewhat common for there to be a rotation of groups every six months from whom no representatives speak. Let me expand on that a bit. The number of general officers speaking every six months have ranged from 3 on the low end to 5 on the higher end under President Nelson. I think the number will stick to 3 going forward, with 2 organizations not represented in the lineup.
DeleteAdditionally, during the October 2019 General Conference, no members of the Presiding Bishopric spoke. If the Church opts to repeat that every 3 or 4 General Conferences, there will be more openings for other speakers. Similarly, under Presidents Hinckley and Monson, 2 members of the Presidency of the Seventy spoke every six months. An easy adjustment would be having no representation from that body every few conferences as well.
I also think it's likely that the amount of time allotted to each speaker could be trimmed by one or two minutes in general. Let's run an experimnt. In the General Conferences under President Nelson thus far, a majority have seen 6 speakers during the Sunday Morning Session. Let's say for each of those 6, a minute or two of assigned time is trimmed. That action would provide a rough 12 minutes of additional time, which could easily accommodate another speaker in each session.
DeleteThere are also any number of other possible tweaks to allow more time for speakers, including reducing the number of hymns by 1 as well. So yes, there is a lot to consider, but it may not be as complicated as it might seem to be on the surface. While I don't kno exactly how it will all work out, I am grateful for the assurance that this change is inspired, and that it truly will work out somehow.
Sorry for my lengthy reply. Hopefully you, Scott, or anyone else who reads my latest comments here might find my musings on the subject to be of some value. Thanks again for taking time to share your thoughts here, Scott, Always a pleaure to hear from you.
I could see the content of the previously men or women focused sessions moving to other related significant church history dates and just being separate specific broadcasts.
ReplyDeleteSeparately, I could also see general conference being moved to only 2 days (one private leadership training day and one public day in the conference center).
Separately, I could see general conference going to once a year by holding area conferences in the fall and then the general conference in the spring.
We will have to see what happens.
Hello, Danny. Thanks for taking time to comment. I agree with your point that targeted broadcasts featuring different general leaders can be more easily planned and carried to the Church than ever before. That being said, I don't think that there is any chance of the public sessions for each General Conference being reduced to a single day.
DeleteThat may warrant further explanation. In the Doctrine and Covenants, and through other teachings offered in various settings by various apostles, the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles are charged by scriptural duty to oversee and participate in each General Conference, with the one exception to that being an allowance for age- or health-related factors. The evening session was tradition, while the apostolic duty is doctrinal. So I do not see any scenario in which one day of public sessions would make logical sense. If something like that ever does happen, it would likely need to be through an adjustment of the interpretation of those scriptures. There is no way that there would be sufficient time for each of the apostles to speak at least once and for other leaders to participate in a one-day scenario.
Similarly, I don't see the Church transitioning to once-a-year conferences for the same reasons, but above and beyond that, it is another doctrinal mandate that any change in Church leadership needs to be presented to the body of the Church in the regulaarly-appointed General Conferences. So those elements of each General Conference are not negotiable, and I don't think they will ever change.
So the change in this case is an adjustment that differntiates between established tradition (a targeted evening session for one or more specific groups) and the doctrine of the scriptures as properly understood and practiced.
Have acknowledged all of that, Danny, I appreciate you taking time to weigh in here. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this development.