During the halcyon days of the church when the church had more members in need of a calling, my ward had a dreadful assignment for deacon aged young men. Why was being assigned the Bishop's messenger so terrible? Because it was so boring. Basically, a deacon had to sit on the stand a few seats away from the most important person in the ward, the bishop. One just sat there, awaiting the call to action in case the bishop needed to send a message. It meant having to sit on the stand for the entire duration of sacrament.

Only once was I called into action. A note was quickly scribbled and flashed. I leaned over and grabbed it. I tucked it into the my pocket and descended off the stand. Our protocol required that the messenger duck out of the chapel via the side door. Once outside, you had to see who the note was directed to. Then you walked to the rear doors of the chapel. You looked for the receiver then discreetly deliver the message and wait for the reply before returning to the stand.

Like I mentioned, rarely did the bishop ever use the assigned deacon and the assignment was the most dreaded. It was boring, unlike passing sacrament which could be interesting watching people. The biggest challenge was to mock a member of the bishopric who happened to doze off during SM. Any deacon that manged to fall asleep while sitting on the stand was supposed to be paid a candy bar by each member of the deacon's quorum. Unfortunately, one of the ym advisors caught on to our challenge. When one deacon appeared to be dozing off on the stand, the advisor ran up onto the stand and clashed two hymbooks together (like symbols) behind the sleepy deacon.

When I returned home after serving my mission, I hardly realized that no deacons were taking their posts on the stand near the bishop. The assignment had been abolished.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/16/2019 09:02PM by messygoop.

I was trapped in the bishopric for years. First as financial clerk. Then as executive secretary then a councilor. It would have been nice to have someone to help hunt people down in the ward for me during church.

Now days, the bishop text's the deacon, and the deacon text's the recipient sitting in the pews. But the Deacon still has to sit on the stand for the entire meeting.

That's mormon efficiency!

You're right about using their phones to message. I thought about that recently when I attended my former home ward. I think that I was the only one in the chapel who did not have the phone in hand. Not because I thought the mormon sacrament meeting was super special, but because I think it's poor etiquette. I also refrain from whipping out the phone at funerals and the catholic masses that I have attended in the past.

It would be nice but it was the pre smart phone era. I wasted more time trying to find people. Sometimes the worst person to find was the bishop.

Now it's just sexting: Sacred (Sacrament) Texting.