My LDS neighbors used to rotate times that they went to church on Sunday. Half the year, they would go early, they'd all leave about 8:30. Then, the other half of the year, they would go later and all leave home around 1 pm and return after 4:30. I noticed recently that now they all leave around 10:50 (it's like a race track on the street- they all hit the road at the same time). Yesterday afternoon, my neighbor was putting out his trash. I asked him about the change. He told me that they used to have a morning service and an afternoon service, but they recently combined both into one service at 11. He didn't elaborate, but I know that some long term older mormons on my street, no longer go. Hopefully, a sign of the times.

That is a sign of a ward closing. There used to be 2 wards meeting in the building and they were combined into a single ward.

Therefore, one ward was 'closed'.

Sounds like that two wards were using the same building but now they combined the two into one, so in a sense, yes a ward was closed.

Not sure I follow, StillAnon. I gather many LDS chapel buildings host two wards. 1st Ward might meet mornings, 2nd Ward the afternoons. Next year, they flip-flop the times. Could it be that two wards were merged into one, now meeting at 11:00? That would make it a loss of a ward.

No, you understand. I didn't know if a "Merger" counted as a ward closing. Based on the responses, I guess it is. Yay!

An interesting note on ward rotation.

Back in the day 3 wards used to meet at my stake center for a few years. This was necessary due to a chapel being remodeled.

Ward A: 9:00-12:00
Ward B: 11:30-2:30
Ward C: 2:00-5:00

The 30 minute overlap allowed two wards to use the building as long as sacrament was the last meeting. My ward was chosen for the ward C schedule because my asshat bishop liked to sleep in. In fact, he liked it so much that he requested the same schedule the following year, while ward B was thrilled to not have to endure the late schedule. Personally, I hated waiting all day for church.

Forgot to add that he also liked it because he could allow SM to go much longer. He was that type of guy that would give his concluding remarks after two conscientious speakers would trim their talks so we could start singing at 4:55. Well, good old asshat bishop would regurgitate the two previous talks, then add his personal road map to Kolob talk to drag Sacrament another 25 minutes. My Dad would actually get up to leave because the bishop pissed him off for the guy's disregard for the meeting schedule. Of course, my TBM would refuse to leave and this would cause a scene.

It was really a bad schedule on F and T Sundays. Nobody would feel the spirit until 4:55 then a line of boo-hoo-hoo-ers would get up and start their cry-a-thons until 5:30. Good for nothing bishop would then give us his sermon-on-the-mound testimony. I seem to recall an 1:55 sacrament meeting due to blessing of babies and a 10 member family speaking at missionary's farewell.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/24/2018 01:29PM by messygoop.

God. That bishop reminds me of the guy that every company has. When you've spent 6 hours in a meeting and it's 10 minutes til it's time to leave. Everyone wants to leave and go grab a beer. The manager asks if there's anymore questions. Everyone is staring daggers at everyone else. "Nobody say a word". And, there's always that one dumbass that asks a multi tiered question, that we all know the answer to, that takes 15 minutes to explain. I hate those people.