There wer not enough teachers so the second hour was cancelled in the ward today

Wow. Bonus. Sunday time off.

Less personal contact is a better way to go for now anyway.

Do Mormons have the option to just phone it in now (eg: via Zoom) or is it all still in-person meets? I haven't been keeping up with the details lately. Many churches are doing distance services in The Time of COVID. Hellishly good idea!

My Mom's ward requires in person attendance. Any member wanting to use Zoom has to be approved by the bishop.

The ward building does not have heat so they are being told to bring blankets.

My Mom gets too cold and leaves after the first hour.

Last week, the ward only met for sacrament. Today, they were told to grin and bear it.

Possibly clueless question but why don't they have heat?

Not addressed by leaders.

It is believed that the building is warmed by propane gas, and there is a shortage.

I don't recall any propane tank reservoirs, but they may have converted the central air/heating awhile back.

Pacific Gas & Electric is the power provider (a company who starts fires when they don't shut off the juice for days due to fire danger :)

Your mom's ward sounds like a nightmare. Is there any way you can report the ward for requiring members to sit in the building without heat? Report them for elder abuse or something?

Maybe you can tell the local newspaper about your mom's ward for requiring in-person attendance during the omicron surge and having members sit in church meetings in a building without heat. Tell them about your elderly mom feeling like she doesn't have choice. The Mormon church hates bad publicity.

I don't know how much the "local paper" would care about this. Nobody is 'required' to be there, nobody's is getting paid, and the doors are not locked. People can come and go as they please and if a church that has billions can afford a couple of space heaters at Lowes does not make people leave, than kind of on them

Devout Mormons do what they are told. If they are told to sit in a cold building where they can possibly catch Covid, it's a potential health hazard.

People are free to chose, but when they've been brainwashed to be obedient, they really don't have a choice.

"They didn't say it would be easy--just that it would be worth it...."

to not make sure they have heat. With all that money tucked away and they can't fix the heating?

Not enough teachers. Is there a strike going on for teachers in the lds church? There should be. They didn't just pull someone out of the audience to teach? That is what they used to do. Seems like they are falling apart.

Forgot to mention that Primary kids gathered on the stand to sing their Christmas hymns last month. They had 8 kids!

That's the entire primary of the ward! This isn't a branch, a single's ward or retiree ward of octogenarians. No this is a ward that has always had lots of families with 5-6 kids per family.

I remember the days of yore when you had the vailiants?? A and B with CTR A and B. They had so many kids that you couldn't fit them into one classroom when a primary teacher was out.

The ward is seeking permission to meet in the stake center, but it has to discussed, vetted and approved by the stake presidency before announcing it to the congregation.

Church leadership in action at its finest.

You would give your pre-adolescent more autonomy than local leaders are given by the over-reach of the centralized authoritarianism Mormon leaders practice. If the heater in their bedroom isn't working, your kid could decide for themselves that it's warmer in the kitchen and sit there to do their homework without having to wait out a parental conclave before that simple, logical and reasonable choice is made.

I mean. It's not rocket science.

A local leader making a choice in the best interests of his flock is hardly the makings of a revolution.

Expecting old folks to shiver in a freezing chapel and chilling them more with dirges for "music" and repetitive, boring-as-hell "talks" is indeed abusive.

Hopefully, the bishop, or whoever, can get the crucial permission from wherever, asap, because otherwise they deserve to end up with an empty church. Making it even colder, literally and figuratively, than it is already.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/17/2022 01:29PM by Nightingale.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/26/2022 05:09PM by messygoop.

Sometimes when ghawd needs more workers on the other side, he hasn't got time to be subtle!

What happened to all the claims that God will provide, healing the sick and all that?

This pandemic has really exposed that most of what they claim is bluster. They are NOT able to pray away illness. They are not able to perform a bunch of miracles. They can't make a fish feed millions or make the building warm. All they can do is bluster and collect money.

Excellent point, dagny.

I remember the missionaries running around town doing laying on of hands here and there, including for my sister. She did feel better after, for an hour or two. That could well have been a function of her expectation that the rite would be effective or even just that she had a few moments of peace and feeling that somebody cared (whether they actually did or not, they went through the motions).

I love the idea that prayers can be answered or that humans can invoke blessings, including healing, by simple communion with one another. But. Even if that seems true in some cases, it is, by definition and experience, inequitable, thus unjust. I can never get comfortable with the idea that some people are blessed or healed and so many others are not. The twist that "your prayers are always answered but maybe not in the way you expected" has never appealed to my sense of fairness or reason.

It's not just the Mormons who manifestly cannot deliver on their promises. But that's who we're focusing on here, by definition.

Re their building without heat and their cold seniors, it wouldn't even take prayer to fix the situation. They can (1) fix the bloody furnace; (2) meet elsewhere; (3) set up online meetings for everybody; (4) cancel meetings for the foreseeable until they get in a plumber or electrician or furnace guy or whatever the hell it is they need - it doesn't sound like rocket science to me.

It is seriously and literally unbelievable that such a minor building issue should drag on and put people through misery, over and above the misery of sitting through a Mormon service in the first place.

Perhaps it's a NUMBERS thing.

Not (just) how much did we make (take) today.
Combine that with attendance! Voila!

Let's see, we counted (ONLY) $2,345.00... and,
There are (ONLY) 38 member/ bodies here... and,
So the formula is... NOPE, that ward doesn't get heated today (for just 1-2 hours, besides, brother Banks isn't here, and neither are the Pranks)!

Your know, brother snooper, that unless you have 60 in attendance (including at least 25 men), and/ or you bring in $5,000.00 or more, weekly, in tithes, consistently, for 3 months. You know the rules.

But, president Posh, it's 16° outside.

Not exceptions, BS. You got that?

Yessir, but DOZENS- of people aren't here - and probably Thousands of Dollars - In Part due to the coldness.

I don't care what the reason is.
Besides, that's probably just an excuse.
I don't care where you get the money.
Just get it or else! You got that?

You got that?!? Brother Snooper, are you there?

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The call has been disconnected due to lack of funds... AND lack of fun!

Was church entirely canceled in Tonga?

I hope Rusty warned them!

I suspect the furnace went out and replacements are back ordered.

As for “it is believed the building is heated by propane…”, it is not a matter of belief. It is a simple fact. If there is not a large propane tank behind the building, it is not heated by propane. Go look.

Truly a modern day miracle.