Whenever Sacrament meetings ran short people would start squirming in the pews.

Because for some reason that meant that the presiding Bishopric dude could start picking on-the-spot Ward members to come up and bear their testimonies instead of just letting everyone out early.

I got chosen 2wice over the course of my adolescence and young adulthood.

I always felt that it was such an invasion of privacy to be forced in front of Ward members to get up and say things you were expected to in order to maintain the facade of belief.

> Were you ever put in that particular "hot-seat" yourself???

> How did you fare???

Enquiring minds wanna know!

Or so it seems to me...

When good ol' Las Vegas Second Ward Sac Meetings would run short, the bishop would have us sing an extra song and he'd ask for a suggestion.

Because you found songs by page number, rather than the name, I'd always have my hand up FIRST, because I always wanted to sing good ol' #4 (in the ancient of ages hymn book, the one True Hymn Book), All Creatures of Our God and King. I didn't have to waste time looking for the page number.

It will always be my favorite song from when I t'were a mormonazo. (and no, that doesn't mean mormon asshole. Geesh!)

In the late 70's, there was a rumor going around that the hymnal was going to be edited 'soon'; that rumor proved to be False.


has that happened lately? the last time I was 'inside' was like, '08...

details, please

GNPE Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In the late 70's, there was a rumor going around
> that the hymnal was going to be edited 'soon';
> that rumor proved to be False.
>
>
> has that happened lately? the last time I was
> 'inside' was like, '08...
>
> details, please

The current hymnal came out in the eighties.

GNPE Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In the late 70's, there was a rumor going around
> that the hymnal was going to be edited 'soon';
> that rumor proved to be False.
>
>
> has that happened lately? the last time I was
> 'inside' was like, '08...
>
> details, please

1985, to be exact. There's a committee working on a revision now, expected to be introduced in the next couple of years.

I always asked for the hymn on page 666.

That was my favorite song too. I still love it even though I dont believe in the lyricism it's a fun song to sing and was one of the only ones that sounded joyous.

It's a grand hymn, EOD, possibly because it's not LDS in origin.

We had a bishop that just sent us home early. Particularly if it was fast sunday.

The next bishop was a stickler. He'd call people up to give testimonies.

One sunday the bishop called on an elderly gentleman who was asleep.

When someone woke him up an pointed to the front, he sheepishly walked up to the podium, cleared his throat and said a quick closing prayer.

We all bolted for the door before the bishop could figure out what happened.

I asked the Bish about that one time and his answer was If we let out early and there is a big gap between SM and sunday school we will lose 1/2 of the teenagers

Has a new hymnal been published since 2008?

Here's an excerpt from Wikipedia on this topic:

  "Hymns of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the official hymnal of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Published in English in 1985, and later in many other languages, it is used throughout the LDS Church. This article refers to the English version. The book was published on the 150th anniversary of the publication of the first LDS hymnbook, compiled by Emma Smith in 1835. Previous hymnbooks used by the church include The Manchester Hymnal (1840), The Psalmody (1889), Songs of Zion (1908), Hymns (1927), and Hymns (1948).

  "On June 18, 2018, the church announced that an updated version of both the hymnbook and the Children's Songbook would be revised through a process of soliciting feedback for a one-year period (which would conclude in July 2019), with that feedback culminating in a unified version of both books that would be used by all congregations worldwide...

  "Previous hymnbooks used by the church include:

  The Manchester Hymnal (1840)
  The Psalmody (1889)
  Songs of Zion (1908)
  Hymns (1927)
  Hymns (1948)
  Hymnal(1985)"
                https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hymns_of_The_Church_of_Jesus_Christ_of_Latter-day_Saints_(1985_book)



If I'm reading this correctly, I grew up with the 1948 edition, in which #4 was my already mentioned favorite. I knew there was a replacement, which would be the 1985 edition. And there will probably be one next year.

There was a favorite hymn in the 1948 edition of the hymnal, "Come,Thou Fount of Every Blessing". When the 1985 edition came out, many of us were disappointed as "the powers that were" left it out.

I have read online long ago, but can't remember the site, that older Mo hymnals contained a lot of funeral hymns, hymns meant for particular individuals, i.e., Dear Mother, Poor Son, that sort of thing. Apparently, mortality rates demanded more variety than just, "Oh, My Father".

Just remembered: some hymns in the 1985 edition had their tunes changed. "Oh, My Father"'s tune was changed. So was, "If You Could Hie to Kolob".

I'm not really the expert here, as I'm only in LDS churches now for milestone family occasions, but I believe 1948 hymnal had two tunes for "O My Father," one originally LDS and one by Protestant composer James McGranahan,sung by Protestants with the hymn text "I Will Sing of My Redeemer." In the 1985 hymnal, only McGranahan's hymn tune remains.

I agree that was the one and only true hymn book. The old blue one. No Primary songs in it.

NormaRae Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I agree that was the one and only true hymn book.
> The old blue one. No Primary songs in it.


Blue? The 1948 edition is brown; my parents still have one. And the 1985 is green. Is that what you're remembering? (Although now that I think about it, I still have a 1985 spiral-bound edition that has a blue cover).

The one I grew up with in the 60s and 70s was dark blue. Or not. I guess that's a good sign if I really don't remember.

Yes, it was dark blue.
I have one that used to belong to my mother.
Published 1948; 16th printing in 1961.

I believe that at various points in time one could order the 1948 hymnals in a few different colors. My mom has a 1948 hymnal in red. It was the ringed variety to stay open easily for piano/organ use. I think most of them are blue, though. The ones both Warren's group and the Apostolic United Brethren have collected for use in their worship services are blue.

As an adolescent, I remember sweating through sacrament meetings where they called people at random to get up and bear their testimonies. I realize now that the assigned speaker did not show and they had to fill the time. But what if the person called did not have a testimony? The social pressure was so great that then, as now, they would bear a testimony whether they had one or not. I started to ask who the speaker was before every sacrament meeting, so that I could leave in case there was no speaker. The biggest worry I had to suffer in my young life. If they did that now, honest people would say that they have no testimony.

Yes, our ward liked to call on teen-agers to give spontaneous testimonies. It was horribly uncomfortable. We did not make eye contact with anyone. We did not look down, either. We sat very still and stared straight ahead. They called me out of the audience, once, and I pointed to my throat, and whispered loudly, "Laryngitis--I can't talk". I figured it was only one lie vs a whole string of lies in my fake testimony.

They use missionaries in our ward.

Happened in my ward once.

The bishopric had just called a new counselor - a young zealot who came to "the mission field" from Utah. He was nice enough, but didn't really understand life outside the Mormon bubble and, as such, didn't really understand social boundaries.

Anyway, one Sunday the meeting ran short. Like "key note speaker was sick so the meeting is wrapping up 20 minutes early" short. It had happened a few times before, and our bishop would always seem to get great pleasure out of starting classes early. His thought was that if church ends early, people either got more socializing time in, or they got to get home and enjoy family time. Unfortunately, that day the bishop was away on a medical emergency (he was a doctor). The bishopric counselor got up and announced that he would be calling people up at random to bear their testimonies. Everyone in the ward looked uncomfortable with the idea. The first was the presiding member's oldest son - he mumbled a quick, canned testimony. Next the presiding member called a relatively new convert. He was a gruff guy, but that day he wasn't feeling well (you could kind of tell just by looking at him). I don't know if the presiding counselor thought he was catching the guy sleeping or what, but immediately after calling the guy's name, the guy waved him off. Well, no one says no to a member of the bishopric! The presiding counselor repeated the guy's name, but in a much more stern, come-to-Jesus tone. The guy yelled "I SAID NO! CHRIST CAN'T YOU TAKE A HINT?!" and left. The presiding counselor looked extremely rattled and ended the meeting without so much as a closing prayer.

To the best of my knowledge, that never happened again.

I'd love to be asked, only to go up and say that I after reading the church essays, I not only lost my testimony, I am downright convinced Joseph Smith was a fraud, and the church is a complete hoax. I'd imagine that would put a quick end to forcing people to bear their testimony.

like most of what ChurchCo does, the leaders who implement these things don't have a Clue... or at least acknowledge ... that they're coercive - intimidating;

that's a part of being 'church broke' so they can do their church duties without / with a minimum of guilt / shame.

I remember a ward conference at BYU-Hawaii when I was five years old and my dad was a bishop. Other than the closing remarks from the stake president, the speakers were all impromptu and were chosen by the stake presidency that morning. When the SP announced the first four names and the order in which they would speak, speaker #3 left the building.(Our ward met in the school's planetarium at that time.) As he slipped out, my sister asked my mom where he was going. My mom answered something to the effect that she didn't know. and that maybe he went back to his room to get a tie, as he wasn't wearing a tie that morning. The campus was small enough at that time that a person could have traveled from the planetarium to any dorm on campus and back in just a few minutes. That apparently wasn't his plan, though. He never reappeared.

My dad said recently that to the best of his knowledge, the guy never had any significant involvement in the LDS church since then. Great job, President @#&!$*@, and great use of your powers of discernment and inspiration. While the guy probably would have found his way out sooner rather than later, and while the SP ultimately did the guy a favor by hastening the process, it surely didn't feel that way at the time to the young man.

I was never called on for an impromptu sharing of my nonexistent testimony, but I was asked to fill dead air time with impromptu music. I wasn't shy about musical performances and had no problem with doing that when asked, and it made my mom proud.

BUT my future husband and my roommate found it hilarious actually that I wouldn't give prayers in church. I don't pray any longer. I do talk to my parents (who are deceased). That's just me. I also never prayed in front of people. I maybe prayed with my kids 5 times. I never prayed in front of my husband. That's why he is still gay (tongue in cheek). Prayer was very personal to me and not to be shared.

So, my roommate was R.S. president and she and my boyfriend thought it would be a good joke if she called on me to give the prayer in R.S., announcing it in the meeting. I did it, but I was not pleased and they knew it. I laughed about it with them, but she never asked me to do that again.

My nephew (all my sisters' kids have left the church) would get home from school before his parents (who are teachers) and there was a letter from the ward telling him he was to give a talk in SM that Sunday when they used to have 2 youth give talks each Sunday I believe. Maybe they still do. That is how his ward announced to kids they were giving talks. He found the letter and tossed it. Then he faked sick on Sunday and his parents found out when they got to church that he was supposed to give a talk. They didn't do anything about it. My sister is so close to being out. She doesn't believe, but goes. But she laughed and laughed telling me about it.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/18/2019 10:30AM by cl2.