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Church ends saturday evening sessions for general conference


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https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/general-conference-update-june-2021

Quote

 

The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has announced changes to upcoming general conferences of the Church, which are held each April and October.

Beginning with October’s general conference and continuing thereafter, the Saturday evening sessions will be discontinued. Previously, a Saturday evening session was held for women (in October) and priesthood holders (in April). This change is being made because all sessions of general conference are now available to anyone who desires to watch or listen.

For the October 2021 general conference (to be held October 2–3), conference proceedings will originate from the Conference Center auditorium in Salt Lake City. Once again, the Conference Center will be closed to the public.

General conference is an opportunity for Church members and friends worldwide to receive messages about the Savior Jesus Christ from living prophets and apostles through ever-expanding technologies.

 

Thoughts?  

I have read a few posts from women on Facebook uplift worrying that we not be able to hear from our women leaders very often anymore with this change.  My husband is sad because he loved the priesthood session the most out of all the sessions.

Edited by bluebell
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6 minutes ago, ttribe said:

Wait!  You mean my local Dairy Queen won't be overrun by Dad's and their boys in white shirts and ties after Priesthood session anymore?! 

You are now free from that oppression.  :D 

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I’m going to miss the priesthood session. I had a number of experiences with my boys attending the session in person because I was regularly assigned to cover that specific session of conference. 
 

Does this mean no more general “women’s meetings” ever, even if not held in connection with general conference?

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Just now, Scott Lloyd said:

I’m going to miss the priesthood session. I had a number of experiences with my boys attending the session in person because I was regularly assigned to cover that specific session of conference. 
 

Does this mean no more general “women’s meetings” ever, even if not held in connection with general conference?

That's a good question.   

I've never seen a stake EQ hold annual stake level EQ meetings for the men, but annual stake relief society meetings for the women are very typical (I think they are even talked about in the general handbook).  Ward Relief Societies meet outside of church fairly regularly as well (our's meets once a month but all of them are supposed to meet at least quarterly I believe) while that hardly ever happens on the ward EQ level and when it does, it's not because it was mandated. 

The women of the church have a history of meeting together.  Maybe that history will continue on the general level as well, just not in conjunction with GC.  I don't think it's likely, since they did away with that meeting when it got moved to GC weekend, but maybe it will come back?

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There may be value in retaining the option to once in a while hold a Saturday evening session, just not every time. It could be done with special meetings planned for special occasions such as the Church was going to do in commemoration of the First Vision before the koof pandemic messed things up. 

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Just now, bluebell said:

That's a good question.   

I've never seen a stake EQ hold annual stake level EQ meetings for the men, but annual stake relief society meetings for the women are very typical (I think they are even talked about in the general handbook).  Ward Relief Societies meet outside of church fairly regularly as well (our's meets once a month but all of them are supposed to meet at least quarterly I believe) while that hardly ever happens on the ward EQ level and when it does, it's not because it was mandated. 

The women of the church have a history of meeting together.  Maybe that history will continue on the general level as well, just not in conjunction with GC.  I don't think it's likely, since they did away with that meeting when it got moved to GC weekend, but maybe it will come back?

Our Stake has an annual Stake Priesthood meeting, just a generic priesthood meeting, typically for any business and some talks. All Priesthood holders are invited, it used to be twice a year but it's now down to one a year. 

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4 minutes ago, bluebell said:

I've never seen a stake EQ hold annual stake level EQ meetings for the men,

If I didn’t know better, I would think you have no men or boys in your family. The stake general priesthood meeting is held semi-annually, and I think that is standard throughout the Church. 
 

Or did you mean a meeting that excludes Aaronic Priesthood holders? I’m not sure what value that would have that could not be accomplished in the stake general priesthood meeting. 

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I liked the priesthood sessions because it was mostly the guys hanging out together and it was sort of a little less informal than the other sessions and it could go longer or shorter as needed. One year they had some BYU football players give talks including Steve Young and Lavell Edwards.

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3 minutes ago, Duncan said:

Our Stake has an annual Stake Priesthood meeting, just a generic priesthood meeting, typically for any business and some talks. All Priesthood holders are invited, it used to be twice a year but it's now down to one a year. 

I posted pretty much the same thing, but if ours have been cut from twice to once a year, I’m unaware of it. 
 

In our stake, it has come to be informally called “the donut meeting,” because, in order to entice youth (and men) to come to a stake meeting that early on a Sunday morning, the stake has taken to providing Krispy Kremes and milk, chocolate milk or juice after the meeting. 

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12 minutes ago, JAHS said:

I liked the priesthood sessions because it was mostly the guys hanging out together and it was sort of a little less informal than the other sessions and it could go longer or shorter as needed. One year they had some BYU football players give talks including Steve Young and Lavell Edwards.

I remember the time they had a youthful Matt Holland (son of Elder Jeffrey R. Holland) speak at the session. 
 

He grew up to become president of UVU and today is a Seventy in his own right, either General Authority or Area, I forget which. 
 

Added later: He’s a General Authority Seventy, sustained in April 2020. I just checked. 

Edited by Scott Lloyd
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1 minute ago, Scott Lloyd said:

I posted pretty much the same thing, but if ours have been cut from twice to once a year, I’m unaware of it. 
 

In our stake, it has come to be informally called “the donut meeting,” because, in order to entice youth (and men) to come to a stake meeting that early on a Sunday morning, the stake has taken to providing Krispy Kremes and milk, chocolate milk or juice after the meeting. 

aha! Our is just once year, sometimes they forget to have it hahaha! It's been, I dunno, within the last 10 years that they have it down to one meeting year. We USED to have treats but haven't for quite sometime, pre covid of course. 

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46 minutes ago, ttribe said:

Wait!  You mean my local Dairy Queen won't be overrun by Dad's and their boys in white shirts and ties after Priesthood session anymore?! 

My first thought too.

My night job usually gets hit hard for women's session.

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34 minutes ago, Scott Lloyd said:

This is only peripherally related, but I think they could cut down the length of stake conference sessions and not lose a great deal thereby. I’m not sure there is that much value in having them be two hours as opposed to, say, 90 minutes. 

Gone are three days of general conference and two sessions, morning and afternoon, of stake conference.  

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50 minutes ago, bluebell said:

https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/general-conference-update-june-2021

Thoughts?  

I have read a few posts from women on Facebook uplift worrying that we not be able to hear from our women leaders very often anymore with this change.  My husband is sad because he loved the priesthood session the most out of all the sessions.

I think there’s more opportunity now to hear from the women leaders in the general sessions, more so than there used to be. And they speak more often at other general events as well, such as the First Presidency Christmas Devotional. 

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8 minutes ago, Bernard Gui said:

I have been consistently attending GC Priesthood meeting since 1959...and then going out for hamburgers afterwards with leaders, friends, and family. One of my favorite memories is the 100 mile drive to the stake center in Albuquerque to here it on a telephone feed, and then stopping at Lotta Burger in Santa Fe on the way back home for one of their awesome green chile burgers. Then continuing the burger tradition with my sons and now my grandsons. Here in Puyallup there is a member of our ward named Harry who has hosted all the men and boys at his home for grilled burgers and dogs after the Priesthood session for going on 20 years.
Really gonna miss it. 🙁

Maybe such things could continue as planned events, just not in connection with a meeting. 

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9 minutes ago, Bernard Gui said:

I have been consistently attending GC Priesthood meeting since 1959...and then going out for hamburgers afterwards with leaders, friends, and family. One of my favorite memories is the 100 mile drive to the stake center in Albuquerque to here it on a telephone feed, and then stopping at Lotta Burger in Santa Fe on the way back home for one of their awesome green chile burgers. Then continuing the burger tradition with my sons and now my grandsons. Here in Puyallup there is a member of our ward named Harry who has hosted all the men and boys at his home for grilled burgers and dogs after the Priesthood session for going on 20 years. And the wonderful spiritual experiences and focused instructions over decades. Formative stuff for me.
Really gonna miss it. 🙁

As a friend of mine said, this really is going to be a hard cultural shift for a lot of saints.

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3 minutes ago, Bob Crockett said:

Gone are three days of general conference and two sessions, morning and afternoon, of stake conference.  

Yeah. But even when we had two Sunday stake conference sessions there was no Saturday evening adult session. So the net result is still two sessions. 
 

We used to have stake conference quarterly, though. Do you remember that?

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12 minutes ago, Bernard Gui said:

I have been consistently attending GC Priesthood meeting since 1959...and then going out for hamburgers afterwards with leaders, friends, and family. One of my favorite youthful memories is the 100 mile drive to the stake center in Albuquerque to hear it on a telephone feed, and then stopping at Lotta Burger in Santa Fe on the way back home for one of their awesome green chile burgers. Then continuing the burger tradition with my sons and now my grandsons. Here in Puyallup there is a member of our ward named Harry who has hosted all the men and boys at his home for grilled burgers and dogs after the Priesthood session for going on 20 years. We call them Harry Burgers. Not to mention the wonderful spiritual experiences and focused instructions over decades. Formative stuff for me.
Really gonna miss it. 🙁

Because we live in California the priesthood session was at 5PM for us so the tradition of going out for ice cream didn't work because we hadn't had dinner yet. So for a few decades now the Bishop invited everyone over to his house for pizza.

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An excerpt from the U.S. News about this story (article by the AP) :

Quote

A session that used to be reserved for men only at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' twice-annual signature conference has been permanently scrapped, the faith announced Monday.

The decision comes three years after the church changed the Saturday evening session to alternate each six months between being for only men and only women and nearly eight years after the faith began broadcasting the male-only session.

 

Some women in the faith objected to the male-only session, contending it was an illustration of a gender inequality in the faith. Only men are allowed to be considered priesthood holders in the faith's lay clergy, a distinction that allows them to lead congregations and hold the highest leadership positions in the Utah-based faith that counts 16.5 million members.

This seems a bit garbled, does it not?  The first paragraph references "{a} session that used to be reserved for men only ... has been permanently scrapped," but the second then states that the "Saturday evening session {} alternate{s} each six months between being for only men and only women."  

Both sessions are being discontinued.  

I wonder if this is a bit of journalistic pot-stirring gone awry.  The third paragraph references the infamous-and-anonymous "some" to make a point about "gender inequality in the faith."  I wonder who these "some women" are, and if they likewise objected to the Women's Session as being a problematic "women-only session."

Thanks,

-Smac

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27 minutes ago, Scott Lloyd said:

If I didn’t know better, I would think you have no men or boys in your family. The stake general priesthood meeting is held semi-annually, and I think that is standard throughout the Church. 
 

Or did you mean a meeting that excludes Aaronic Priesthood holders? I’m not sure what value that would have that could not be accomplished in the stake general priesthood meeting. 

I'm talking about something different.  For the stake RS (at least in the 5 different states and multiple wards in each state that I've been a member of) this is typically a 4 hour to all day event.  There is usually one keynote speaker that is often not actually from the stake, and then the stake leaders will speak as well.  There are other activities (sometimes something service oriented and/or breakout sessions in different rooms in the stake center) and then almost always a lunch served at some point during the day.

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I hope there are other opportunities to create traditions. Tradition is very important. So many have been eliminated with not much offered to replace them.

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3 minutes ago, smac97 said:

An excerpt from the U.S. News about this story (article by the AP) :

This seems a bit garbled, does it not?  The first paragraph references "{a} session that used to be reserved for men only ... has been permanently scrapped," but the second then states that the "Saturday evening session {} alternate{s} each six months between being for only men and only women."  

Both sessions are being discontinued.  

I wonder if this is a bit of journalistic pot-stirring gone awry.  The third paragraph references the infamous-and-anonymous "some" to make a point about "gender inequality in the faith."  I wonder who these "some women" are, and if they likewise objected to the Women's Session as being a problematic "women-only session."

Thanks,

-Smac

Never miss an opportunity to insert a dig, right?

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