Searching for an email today and came across old emails of Branch Council Meetings (I attended first as clerk then as member of Branch Presidency before leaving).

Brought back some memories as I skimmed over a few. Looking back, it was mostly two hours of wasted time and bitching and certain people trying to appear very important and righteous.

One memory sticks out of a retired police inspector serving as exec sec, sparking out at everyone having individual conversations and not directing to the Branch President, then chastising for having own agendas. I remember agreeing with what he was saying but not the way he said it. Lot of members then upset at being shouted at.

Does anyone have any horror stories from Ward councils?

I was Sunday School president and therefore attended the ward gossip meeting.
It as useless as female appendages on a male member of the boar family!!!!!!!!!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/26/2021 11:53AM by thedesertrat1.

You said, "certain people trying to appear very important and righteous" which nails it.

I mostly remember it being a gossip fest and me being shocked at the information about members being shared which I thought should have been quite private, not up for open discussion. I felt sorry for the people being discussed and knew they would be mortified if they heard what was being said about them.

I agree with everything that has been said.

Horrible meeting and waste of time.

My post from awhile back:

Church leaders gossip/talk about members with problems. So if a member is NOT paying tithing and then approaches his/her leaders or the Bishop for help, then there's a big "Uh-hum" moral judgement aimed at the member.

As ward clerk, I sat through these gossip fests. I recall a giant kerfuffle about a prominent family who showed up at a ward potluck dinner with "nothing" to share. This wasn't a couple, but the typical 6 children mormon family. Both the RS and Primary president were floored that nothing was brought. Not a loaf of bread or a can of corn. To make matters worse, a few of their unruly children had cut in line for seconds while others were still waiting in line for their first serving.

Some were concerned that perhaps the family did not have food in their pantry. Before the bishop could restore order to the council, I was ambushed. "Messy, are they paying tithing? You must know since you help Brother Bills with tithing settlement."

Yes, I knew that the family was not making regular tithing donations. They were sporadic, but it was not my call to reveal that info; so I kept quiet. So I looked over at the bishop and shrugged my shoulders. There was no way that I was going to give the angry mob more ammunition. The bishop saved me by telling the council that the family was caught up on tithing.

've said it before that 75% of Ward Council's dealt with garbage like this.

"Did you see what Sister So-and-so was wearing?"

"Have the YW been advised on their choice of clothing? We're seeing way too much leg again?"

And then they would B and M about Madonna lace gloves and gothic inspired make-up.

He really didn't like having callings, but took them. He would always talk to my mother about how bad the gossip was in these meetings.

I'm sure I was one of the ones they gossiped about. I started walking some years after my husband left and I walked at night quite a bit of the time. I saw the bishop walking home from the stake center one night and the next week I was brought up in bishopric meetings, that I had come out of my house and wasn't being a hermit. One of the clerks was the husband of my VT (who was my good friend my ONLY VT. I wouldn't let anyone else come and she was the only one who had my unlisted phone number). He told my friend about them talking about me and she told him, "Because she doesn't want these men in her business, so she stays private and I won't give you her phone number."

If they think the members of the ward don't know what goes on in those meetings, they would be wrong.

Gossip Central.

ChurchCo could eliminate these or 'attempt' to narrow the scope, but then what would they have?


ChurchCo is an endless loop of worthless events

If these men didn't spend SO MUCH time TALKING about doing things, they might actually come up with something they [themselves] could do, AND DO IT!

To avoid all this .I just decided a few years ago to become invisible which is easy to do if you know how.
I'm still active but stay out of sight. Just look at the people who fall through the cracks and just become one of them. I haven't ever been assigned a minister.

Before we resigned the bishop came to our house and first thanked my husband for being the best scoutmaster that they have ever had and after that bishop continued saying that I was the problem of the scouting program. Bishop said that they had 4 meetings about me being unable to watch me children and that many women had volunteered to watch my children over night so that my husband could go camping. The scouts camps got canceled because the second adult leader did not show up and not because I am unable to watch me children. I don't need my husband to watch our children I am doing it. Husband wanted the bishop to like him so he said that everything is well with scouting is just that his wife needs help at home cleaning the kitchen. I had Relief society showing up with cleaning buckets at my door so my husband could go camping lol. Where is the power of discernment bishop? Without doing any research bishop started believing my husband and stared ward gossiping about me being unable to watch my children.

I've been to ward councils where someone announced a highly personal problem that a ward family was having, and would we please keep them in our prayers. Mormons have distinct problems with boundaries, and don't appear to realize that if there are 14 people at the meeting, and someone announces that a member is having a problem with pornography, his pornography "problem" has just been increased 14-fold.

I think that most of the exercises we did like the many meetings and home teaching were all just complicated exercises in keeping tabs on the ward members. I think that because I've never seen a situation in which a member was actually helped by Mormon behavior, rather than harmed.

When did ward councils come into being?