Rain Posted March 16, 2020 Share Posted March 16, 2020 44 minutes ago, Amulek said: I thought it a little curious myself. I suspect there is some combination of inspiration and pragmatism in play - I mean, most active members should have already had the opportunity to take the sacrament during a church service this month (i.e., first two weeks), so if the guidance is 'monthly,' I can maybe see taking your time to set things in order for coming month. Still, I'm grateful my family will continue to be able to partake of the sacrament regularly until normal services resume. This is something our bishop mentioned - that with having it the first 2 weeks then we were good for March and would pray to find out what was next. 1 Link to comment
The Nehor Posted March 16, 2020 Share Posted March 16, 2020 22 minutes ago, Ginger Snaps said: I belong to a Facebook group for Bishops (and counselors) wives. One of them said their Stake President forbid it because he didn’t want it to be a situation of haves and have-nots. That seems a silly reason to me. 1 Link to comment
rchorse Posted March 16, 2020 Share Posted March 16, 2020 50 minutes ago, Ginger Snaps said: I belong to a Facebook group for Bishops (and counselors) wives. One of them said their Stake President forbid it because he didn’t want it to be a situation of haves and have-nots. Turning everyone into have-nots seems an odd approach. Why not just ensure that everyone has access using ministers, etc. where needed? 3 Link to comment
JAHS Posted March 16, 2020 Share Posted March 16, 2020 Here's an email we got about Seminary (all our schools are closed): Dear parents of seminary students, "Under the direction of CES, our stake is implementing a home study seminary program for our youth. Each Monday, beginning March 16th between 9-10 a.m. parents/youth will need to go to the Alamo building and pick up their week’s assigned outline and drop off the previous weeks work. Please make arraignments to be at the Alamo building during this one hour window each Monday. Teachers will be outside the building and come to your car to distribute the current outline and collect the previous week’s work. This will continue until further notice. More information will be coming shortly. We thank you for your continued effort in helping our wonderful youth continue studying the doctrine of Christ." 1 Link to comment
Calm Posted March 16, 2020 Share Posted March 16, 2020 (edited) 5 hours ago, Raingirl said: My email is correct on every church site. Other than the email from the RS Society President, no communication from anyone. Any chance the general Church Mail is going to spam? You are in the US, correct? added: looks like other people have the same thought There was one particular email carrier that kept dumping in spam or even blocking FM emails for awhile. I don't think we ever figured out why or how to avoid it and so the few members who had problems switched emails for FM. You might consider that. I use a dedicated email address for FM and love that I get hardly any spam on it. Edited March 16, 2020 by Calm Link to comment
JAHS Posted March 16, 2020 Share Posted March 16, 2020 6 BAY AREA COUNTIES IN CALIFORNIA ORDER SHELTER-IN-PLACE Officials in six San Francisco Bay area counties have issued a shelter-in-place mandate affecting nearly 7 million people. The order issued Monday says residents must stay inside and venture out only for necessities for three weeks starting Tuesday in a desperate attempt by officials to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. The order affects the counties of San Francisco, Marin, Santa Clara, San Mateo, Alameda and Contra Costa, as well as the city of Berkeley. People should work from home unless they provide essential services such as public safety, sanitation and health care. Link to comment
Amulek Posted March 16, 2020 Share Posted March 16, 2020 1 hour ago, Ginger Snaps said: I belong to a Facebook group for Bishops (and counselors) wives. One of them said their Stake President forbid it because he didn’t want it to be a situation of haves and have-nots. Well, not to put too fine a point on it, but it isn't like that situation is going to magically change between now and next month - at which point, they'll have to deal with it one way or another. 2 Link to comment
Calm Posted March 16, 2020 Share Posted March 16, 2020 (edited) What is happening with homeless population in areas with high numbers? Edited March 16, 2020 by Calm Link to comment
Rain Posted March 16, 2020 Share Posted March 16, 2020 24 minutes ago, JAHS said: Here's an email we got about Seminary (all our schools are closed): Dear parents of seminary students, "Under the direction of CES, our stake is implementing a home study seminary program for our youth. Each Monday, beginning March 16th between 9-10 a.m. parents/youth will need to go to the Alamo building and pick up their week’s assigned outline and drop off the previous weeks work. Please make arraignments to be at the Alamo building during this one hour window each Monday. Teachers will be outside the building and come to your car to distribute the current outline and collect the previous week’s work. This will continue until further notice. More information will be coming shortly. We thank you for your continued effort in helping our wonderful youth continue studying the doctrine of Christ." My SIL is doing some kind of teleconferencing with her seminary class. She had everyone log in this morning and was so excited for tomorrow. 2 Link to comment
Rain Posted March 16, 2020 Share Posted March 16, 2020 20 minutes ago, JAHS said: 6 BAY AREA COUNTIES IN CALIFORNIA ORDER SHELTER-IN-PLACE Officials in six San Francisco Bay area counties have issued a shelter-in-place mandate affecting nearly 7 million people. The order issued Monday says residents must stay inside and venture out only for necessities for three weeks starting Tuesday in a desperate attempt by officials to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. The order affects the counties of San Francisco, Marin, Santa Clara, San Mateo, Alameda and Contra Costa, as well as the city of Berkeley. People should work from home unless they provide essential services such as public safety, sanitation and health care. On a selfish note I really hope that doesn't happen here. I love my walks. 2 Link to comment
ksfisher Posted March 16, 2020 Share Posted March 16, 2020 5 minutes ago, Rain said: On a selfish note I really hope that doesn't happen here. I love my walks. I would think the risk of catching the virus on a walk would be approaching zero. 2 Link to comment
Scott Lloyd Posted March 16, 2020 Share Posted March 16, 2020 1 hour ago, Ginger Snaps said: I belong to a Facebook group for Bishops (and counselors) wives. One of them said their Stake President forbid it because he didn’t want it to be a situation of haves and have-nots. So you make everybody a have-not? Scarcely makes sense. 1 Link to comment
The Nehor Posted March 16, 2020 Share Posted March 16, 2020 1 hour ago, ksfisher said: I would think the risk of catching the virus on a walk would be approaching zero. Depends on where you are walking and how crowded it is but if there is no one around you should be reasonably safe. Link to comment
rongo Posted March 16, 2020 Share Posted March 16, 2020 (edited) 5 hours ago, rongo said: We loved our home service yesterday. We did it as a full sacrament meeting (my priest and I blessed and my teacher passed). Opening song, opening prayer, sacrament hymn, wife and teacher spoke, and closing song and closing prayer. I taught Sunday School. Next week, my daughter and one of my sons will give the talks. We are excited to have our own priesthood and RS lessons (mom and 18 year-old daughter; dad and two sons) next week. It's interesting how subject this home church is to leader roulette. Anecdotally, it seems the most restrictive leader policies have been in Utah (where we have a lot of family and friends). My read on my sources of info (including media reports) is that this will last at least a month. Governments, businesses, churches, etc. are tripping over each other via draconian measures to absolve themselves of potential liability and not invite criticism for not being good community members and citizens. So, there are going to be increasingly draconian measures, and then critics on both sides will argue that a) the containment measures were successful, or b) the containment measures were unnecessary. Neither is going to be falsifiable, so people will believe whatever their default settings were. it's Wahnsinn that my parents got home from their mission as scheduled literally one day before all of this madness hit. I just hope that the Church doesn't get pressured into bringing the full-time missionaries home. ETA: I also disagree with the commandeering of this by stake presidents, even if this is the view of the Brethren. In my view, the sacrament is an Aaronic priesthood ordinance, and authorization of performing the sacrament should be up to the bishops. I feel the same way about baptism, although I see a role of the SP in regulating logistics of buildings and fonts. My former stake was very heavy-handed in insisting that one may only do COR baptisms on stake baptism day, even when done in a canal, swimming pool, etc. Edited March 16, 2020 by rongo Link to comment
juliann Posted March 16, 2020 Share Posted March 16, 2020 2 hours ago, rchorse said: Turning everyone into have-nots seems an odd approach. Why not just ensure that everyone has access using ministers, etc. where needed? I think that is a thoughtful SP. Not everyone has an authorized priesthood holder. That then requires letting acquaintances into your home when we are cautioned to not do that....or we need to go to someone else's home. It is definitely a have not situation. And when it isn't even required every week there is no need to announce who is lucky and who is not. I heard of another instance where a SP said no one should do it yet. 2 Link to comment
Popular Post InCognitus Posted March 17, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted March 17, 2020 (edited) 2 hours ago, rongo said: Next week, my daughter and one of my sons will give the talks. We are excited to have our own priesthood and RS lessons (mom and 18 year-old daughter; dad and two sons) next week. I can already see how this will play out when we resume our normal Sunday services, and a bishopric member calls to ask someone to give a talk in sacrament meeting: "But I just gave a talk in church last week!". Edited March 17, 2020 by InCognitus 5 Link to comment
Popular Post MorningStar Posted March 17, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted March 17, 2020 We have two priests in our home and it was a wonderful experience having them bless the sacrament for us. They then washed their hands and walked over to a neighbor's house to administer it to them. 5 Link to comment
sunstoned Posted March 17, 2020 Share Posted March 17, 2020 6 hours ago, JAHS said: Here's an email we got about Seminary (all our schools are closed): Dear parents of seminary students, "Under the direction of CES, our stake is implementing a home study seminary program for our youth. Each Monday, beginning March 16th between 9-10 a.m. parents/youth will need to go to the Alamo building and pick up their week’s assigned outline and drop off the previous weeks work. Please make arraignments to be at the Alamo building during this one hour window each Monday. Teachers will be outside the building and come to your car to distribute the current outline and collect the previous week’s work. This will continue until further notice. More information will be coming shortly. We thank you for your continued effort in helping our wonderful youth continue studying the doctrine of Christ." Could they pass this information via the internet? Link to comment
bluebell Posted March 17, 2020 Author Share Posted March 17, 2020 29 minutes ago, sunstoned said: Could they pass this information via the internet? My sons’ seminary classes are going completely online and video conferencing during the closure. Should be interesting. 1 Link to comment
JAHS Posted March 17, 2020 Share Posted March 17, 2020 46 minutes ago, sunstoned said: 6 hours ago, JAHS said: Here's an email we got about Seminary (all our schools are closed): Dear parents of seminary students, "Under the direction of CES, our stake is implementing a home study seminary program for our youth. Each Monday, beginning March 16th between 9-10 a.m. parents/youth will need to go to the Alamo building and pick up their week’s assigned outline and drop off the previous weeks work. Please make arraignments to be at the Alamo building during this one hour window each Monday. Teachers will be outside the building and come to your car to distribute the current outline and collect the previous week’s work. This will continue until further notice. More information will be coming shortly. We thank you for your continued effort in helping our wonderful youth continue studying the doctrine of Christ." Could they pass this information via the internet? They are working on that to make it so. Link to comment
Scott Lloyd Posted March 17, 2020 Share Posted March 17, 2020 5 hours ago, JAHS said: They are working on that to make it so. My children’s public schools are doing so as well — but it’s not taking them over a week to put it in place Link to comment
Kenngo1969 Posted March 17, 2020 Share Posted March 17, 2020 7 hours ago, JAHS said: They are working on that to make it so. 1 Link to comment
JAHS Posted March 17, 2020 Share Posted March 17, 2020 4 hours ago, Kenngo1969 said: Yep. I was actually watching Star Trek when I said that. ☺️ Link to comment
PacMan Posted March 17, 2020 Share Posted March 17, 2020 I can confirm that Area instructions sent to our stake president was not to turn a home sacrament service into a mini-sacrament meeting (I have the actual text). This also includes a prohibition on meeting together with friends for the service. Only families. I don’t know why, but the the more I think about it it the more it makes sense. Mini-sacrament meetings lead to mini-wards, which lead to all sorts of problems. Our bishop has authorized families in the ward to hold sacrament services at home until ward sacrament meetings resume, provided there is at least a priest with a current and valid temple recommend to administer the sacrament. Seems to be working okay. 2 Link to comment
HappyJackWagon Posted March 17, 2020 Share Posted March 17, 2020 On 3/16/2020 at 9:31 AM, bluebell said: What guidances has everyone gotten about how to handle Sundays at home? Our bishop gave all families permission to do the sacrament in their homes, provided someone has authority to do so. He also made provisions for those without a priesthood holder present. And he gave guidelines for how to do the sacrament correctly. Then in closing he wrote: “All ward members should be advised that the stake president passed along instruction from Elder Peterson (area authority seventy) that replication of a sacrament meeting (talks, prayers, hymns, etc.) is not required or appropriate. We are strongly encouraged to focus on the ordinance of the sacrament. The ordinance of the sacrament should take place separately from our Sunday study. (Example: Sacrament ordinance, then song, prayer, study of Come Follow Me, song, prayer.)“ My friend lives in the same town but in a different stake and her stake president basically told her that it was a good opportunity for families to do their own sacrament meeting stuff, including talks, etc. We thought it was odd that our stake presidents have each of us conflicting counsel. Any one get counsel on having sacrament-type meetings or hear from the area 70 on it? Our bishop said "it is not necessary to take the sacrament more than once per month" so he will be allowing the sacrament once per month. Each and every instance (every household each time) has to be approved in advance. For those without a priesthood holder in the home they will arrange for someone to come to the home. Only 1 person is needed. The non-priesthood holder will prepare their own water and bread and receive it themselves after the priesthood holder has blessed it through a screen door or window. Seriously. This is craziness. It extremely controlling to require approval for each family in each instance instead of giving a blanket approval. I have yet to determine the benefit of denying someone the opportunity to receive the sacrament weekly if they are able. Would anyone like to try to explain that one? Also, blessing the sacrament through the door is interesting and raises some questions. If the sacrament can be blessed through a door or window, why not over the phone, or over skype? 1 Link to comment
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