Just read church guidelines for returning to church meetings.

Meetings may be streamed but not recorded for later use.

No more than 150 people may attend. (Do wards actually have even that many attend?)

Sacrament meeting is now backwards. Speeches, announcements etc first and may be streamed. Then after the closing prayer streaming stops. A sacrament hymn sung and sacrament distributed.

The first presidency continues to deny worthy priesthood holders from administering the sacrament to their families. If they want it they have to risk their health by attending a meeting. Remember the church loves and values you. Just not enough to keep you alive. Particularly the elderly, who of course are reminded to remember the church in their wills and estate planning.

While sacrament requires you to be physically present. Paying tithing can be done from the safety of your home.

They create their own archaic and obtrusive silly rules for proper worship as latter day saints.

This grand proclamation just came from last year, 2019!

Message from Holland on how to worship.

"We congratulate those bishoprics who are eliminating announcements that detract from the spirit of our worship."

This was the same talk which he blamed noisy wards for creating a distracting environment in the chapel: chatty kids, eating cheerios, whispering, coughing and snoring.

All of this was blamed on the lack of investigators wanting to join the church.

His talk prompted bishops to eliminate all announcements led to members creating a lot of visual clutter of announcements on easels in the foyer- which in turn led to a later church announcement to end such "visual clutter"

Now they are saying that leaders should make announcements and I am not letting them pass the buck. Holland should have kept his giant flap shut. Just let members be social. Stop dictating to members how to worship.

I think the church started losing a lot of its appeal when the social programs ended.

For many people church is a community of like faith and goals. Take that away and you cease to fill the needs of the people. Not going to get many converts without a social function.

Add the ban on home sacraments and the priesthood holders feel helpless. Unable to meet a family need. (Or so I'm hearing).

I attended my brother-in-law's wedding at a nearby church. Many members came and even the youth (who came on their own without threats or intimidation). Friendly people with genuine interest in the welfare of others.

If I felt the need to go to church, then this one would be a strong candidate.

I would never return to the LDS Corp church, even if they paid me. I have way too much baggage and pain. Never, never, never!

Weird of them to take the social part away. People are supposed to come together in fellowship? But, instead they get as bland a product as can be produced.

Wowza Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Weird of them to take the social part away.
> People are supposed to come together in
> fellowship? But, instead they get as bland a
> product as can be produced.

Their line of thinking is that if members believe that the church is true, then whatever product (church experience) they deliver is good enough. Several leaders made it very clear in the 1990s that the church does not exist to entertain.

A couple of years ago, the church excommunicated a family whose crime against the church was to set up a social media group for members who were trying to make sense of multiple first visions, polyandry, JS treasure hunting, MMM, city creek, Prop 8 and the flip-flop of children of gay members. The stake president ordered them to disband the website/forum and stop asking questions. The family asked where are the church resources to help members who have questions and want to stay in the church and the church offered no answers.

And the church kicked them out for apostasy.

Since most of the temple endowment is on film, why doesn't the church simply post a video of the blessing of the sacrament, and families can gather in front ot the TV, break some bread and pour some glasses of water, and turn on the TV?

They do baptisms by proxy. Why not the sacrament blessing?

Excellent!

The church could set up an online shopping cart where you select the membership numbers of each family member after logging-in to a church web-site. Then "Click here to Eat Bread". But first, a recorded voice says "Oh God, the eternal father.........". After the bread, do the same for the water. Google could devise a sacrament app that searches your online browsing habits before approving your sacrament, after which it would report to the church that you participated and took the sacrament, and based on whether or not you viewed any porn or anti-mormon web-sites over the past month, if you were worthy.

This would probably prevent many GAs and the Q15 from taking the sacrament if there was unbiased automated system that determined their worthiness based on what they do in their real lives away from the cameras, lights and artificially induced hero worship.

Wait a minute, they are actually GOING to church now? I know that in July they were doing in-home church because my niece was visiting me and she joined in by FaceTime. I hadn’t thought to ask my Mom if she is going into a church building. I know she will if that’s what they’ve been told to do. If there is anything she perfected in her 92 years, it’s obeying everything and anything a mormon man tells her to do. I’m sure she would never stop short of putting her life on the line. This is so disturbing.

My TBM brother said that LDS Inc. encourages members to set up a direct deposit account with their banks to easily transfer tithing dollars instead of writing a germ infested check. LDS Inc. should also set up a paypal account so members can pay via credit card and a Go Fund Me account so those who can't afford to pay tithing can have it donated by others: pay tithing for others and receive double rewards in heaven! Collecting tithing is LDS Inc's number one concern.

I think members pay tithing partly because it is used for building maintenance, but without being able to physically sit in a building for church services or temple sessions, why pay tithing? I think that's why LDS Inc. is encouraging members to sit in a chapel and risk COVID during the pandemic.