In a message sent to Church leadership, and to be read in worship services throughout the world, the Council of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has announced the following changes for future general conferences:

"In the spirit of reducing and simplifying the work of the Church and the demands made upon leaders and members, we are pleased to announce that the Council of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve has decided to modify the general conference meeting schedule.

"Beginning in April 2018, the general women's session will no longer be held on the Saturday preceding the other sessions of general conference. Rather, the general priesthood and general women's sessions will each be held annually, with the general priesthood session being in April and the general women's session being in October. These meetings will originate from the Conference Center on Saturday evening following the morning and afternoon sessions of the conference.

"The session times of general conference will not change.

"We are confident this change will be a blessing in the lives of members throughout the Church."

Well there ya go!

"We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God."

A great and important thing pertaining to the kingdom of ghawd has been revealed. Hosan<yawn>na!

It's not up there with Blacks getting the priesthood, but it still counts!

Yes, a great thing has been revealed...that god is running out of things to reveal...so we don't need as many conference sessions to reveal god's word...

that's funny..

Now if you just leave, you free up 24 hours a year from conference, and 150 hours a year of boring regular church meetings, not to mention all the other BS.

Now they need to cull one of the meetings from the three hour block and make it a two hour block. That would simply a lot of things for church members. Have Sunday School twice a month and Relief Society/Priesthood twice a month and a joint meeting on a fifth Sunday. A fifty minute Primary sharing time with mindless Primary songs for the younger Primary members and a 50 minute Primary lesson for the older Primary members would be plenty.

I could be wrong but I think we'll see more of this ahem streamlining.

Reduce sessions to try and fill seats, merge men and women's sessions, reduce blocks to reduce costs.

I don't think their first concern is filling seats, as in new attendees, but hanging on to the ones who are getting tired of all the lost hours.

Honestly. General Conference could just be one session. Most people interested in it just want to hear the prophet speak and if he's too feeble to do so then they want to hear some apostles. Make the talks a little more interesting and have one session and they will pack the place.

As far as church goes have it be one hour. Just Sacrament meeting. Make Sunday School voluntary. People will still go if there is a good teacher. Have primary during the week. Make it fun. The kids will want to go if it's fun.

Before the cuurent block system Sunday school was two separate meetings.

One for the adults and one for kids under 12.

There was the passing of the sacrament, a few of the infamous 2 1/2 minute talks, song time and then separation for class. The same for the junior sunday school.

My folks didn't see a need to come back later for sacrament.

It could all be done in 90 minutes.

You forgot the Sacrament Gem!!!

Oh, the excitement when I first got to give the Sacrament Gem!!!

Wow - I'd forgotten all about the sacrament gem. Haven't heard the term for decades. Guess I must be an old dog, like yourself.

In the age of internet everything, why have ANY General Conference sessions at all?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/27/2017 03:41PM by left4good.

I'm so excited I could stand up and wave a white hanky.

That's funny!

My TBM nephew attended the Sat session a few weeks ago and commented that there were a lot of empty seats. Perhaps the brethren are just trying to concentrate their efforts on one day and that way there will be more in attendance...?


Perhaps they are simply throwing in the towel a bit. Why do all the work to read talks and such when you don't have to.

To me this is a win-win.

There was a time when getting a seat to conference was the luck of the draw.

Times are sure changin'.

Do they have a standby line for people without tickets? Couldn't they use such a method to fill the sessions? Or not enough takers for a standby line?

And if, far-fetched as it sounds, YBU makes the Final Four, priesthood holders would have to make a difficult decision which to follow.

You make a good point - There are probably those who prefer to stay home and watch conference on TV.... just like the ball game - you get to see replays, get a drink, sit in a lounge chair etc etc.

I bet a conference session the women didn't have a say in this so-called decision.

They're not endowed with the gift of revelation - according to the patriarchal order.

The next step would be to go back to the Tabernacle.

In my opinion, it's about the money, i.e., having the conference center open that weekend. What do you think?

Remember when there were 2 sessions on Friday, 3 on Saturday (1 priesthood), and 2 on Sunday, and 1 for the women folk. 2 hours each session. Twice a year.

That’s 32 hours a year just to say “be good & pay your tithing.”



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/29/2017 02:11PM by PapaKen.

I remember the Friday sessions. Seemed like one was later on Friday night.

Back when I was a Mia Maid in the early 60's, our YW leaders loaded up a few cars and drove a dozen of us girls down to Salt Lake from Idaho in JUNE for conference. Remember June conference? We went to see the dance festival as well as a session or two of conference. We also got to go to Lagoon and window shop at the big downtown dept stores. It was all so exciting for a bunch of girls from small towns. When was June conference discontinued?