General Conference (Mormons)

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General conference
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir at general conference
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir at general conference
General information
place LDS Conference Center in Salt Lake City , Utah
organizer Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Period every first weekend in April and October
Website General conference in German
Visitor numbers
from the year 2000 approx. 21000
before 2000 approx. 7000
Previous venues
1867 to 2000 Salt Lake Tabernacle

A general conference is a meeting of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , held twice a year, on the first Saturday and Sunday in April and October. It takes place at the LDS Conference Center in Salt Lake City , Utah . During each conference, members come together for a series of two-hour sessions to listen to the sermons of church leaders. The conference consists of six sessions. The women's meetings are held one week before the general meetings. There are then four general sessions and one session for the priests of the Church. Private training meetings are also held for local church leaders.

Although general conferences are held in Salt Lake City, they are international Church events. The sessions are translated into over 90 languages ​​and distributed via local, international and internet media.

History and structure

In the LDS Church, general conferences are meetings held twice a year at which the General Authorities preach and give instructions regarding the principles and doctrine of the Church. Changes in the leadership of the church, which require general approval, are announced and put to vote. General conferences are held on the first weekends of April and October. The April conference is called the Annual General Conference , and the October conference is called the Semi-Annual General Conference . Church statistics and financial reports will be released at the April conference; this is missing from the conference in October. The conferences are named after the number of years since the Church was founded in April 1830. Therefore, the April 2016 conference was the 186th Annual General Conference and the October 2016 conference was the 186th Semiannual General Conference.

The first general conference took place two months after the LDS was founded. Since October 1848, all general conferences have been held in Salt Lake City . With the exception of 1877. This general conference was held in St. George . After the LDS found itself in financial and social crisis due to federal laws against plural marriage in the last two decades of the 19th century and many General Authorities were in exile, five General Conferences were also held outside Salt Lake City from 1885 to 1887 .

Conferences were held in a covered hall from 1848 to 1852, the Old Tabernacle from 1852 to 1867, and the Salt Lake Tabernacle from 1867 to April 2000. Since then, General Conferences have been held in the LDS Conference Center held. Historically, general conferences were always three days long, and April 6th general conference always included April 6th as the founding date of the Church. This made it difficult for members to attend when April 6th fell on a weekday. Therefore, in April 1977 , Spencer W. Kimball decided that general conference should only be held on weekends and only last two days.

Each conference currently consists of six sessions: four general sessions, a priesthood session, and a women's session. General sessions begin at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. These are open to everyone who has tickets. The priesthood meeting for all who holds the priesthood is held at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday. General and priesthood meetings last about two hours, and the women's meeting last about 90 minutes.

Since 1994, the Relief Society met on the Saturday before general conference in October and at a general conference before general conference in April. In November 2013, the church leadership announced that from 2014 these two conferences would be merged and called the general women's conference.

In October 2014, the First Presidency announced that general women’s conference is now part of general conference. In October 2017, the First Presidency announced that priesthood conference will be held in April and women's conference in October from April 2018. Women's conference is now held in October when the priesthood conference was previously held.

The general conference was traditionally held in English, but since October 2014 speakers have been allowed to speak in their mother tongue. The general conference is broadcast worldwide and translated into over 90 languages.

organization

The 2008 general conference from the audience's perspective.

A member of the First Presidency chairs a general conference. However, the President of the Church is mostly present and always has the last word. The chair introduces the various speakers that always include the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles . Almost every General Authority is present, although few speak except the First Presidency and the Twelve. Non-General Authorities from sister organizations of the Church spoke. Most Area Seventy travel to Utah at least once a year to attend at least one general conference.

During general conference, usually on a Saturday afternoon, all General Authorities and church officials are put to a vote by members of the Church. At this time, changes in the church leadership and leadership will be announced. The chairman asks all those present whether they support the current church leadership and encourages them to raise their hands. Then he asks everyone who is dissatisfied with the current church leadership to raise their hands. Voices against the church leadership are rare.

The first general conference after the death of the President of the Church is called a "solemn gathering." There every General Authority and every church official is asked in the order of the hierarchy whether he supports the new president. Everyone should raise their hand for or against the president. After this procedure the new president is officially sworn in.

Often times a general conference announces the construction of new temples or the changes or the introduction of new church programs.

music

The music in general conference usually comes from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir . The songs from the Mormon songbook are sung. However, the Saturday afternoon meeting and the priestly meeting are an exception. At these sessions, the songs are sung by choirs from the Missionary School and Brigham Young University .

Sermons

Gordon B. Hinckley speaks at general conference.

The sermons given by church leaders in general conference are particularly important to members as they are the words of God's prophets in our time. They will all be published in the official church magazine , Liahona , and translated into as many languages ​​as possible.

distribution

The general conference will be televised locally and internationally. The sessions will also be broadcast in the Temple Square buildings . Namely the Salt Lake Tabernacle , the Salt Lake Assembly Hall and the Joseph Smith Memorial Building . General conference will be broadcast by satellite in all Church meetinghouses worldwide. Since 2010, the sessions are also available online on YouTube provided for all to view. The sessions are translated into over 90 languages.

The general conference was televised for the first time in 1949 and translated into different languages ​​(Dutch, German, Samoar and Spanish) for the first time in 1961.

General conference will be broadcast on many regional television and radio stations in Utah .

Further literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ General Conference . Encyclopedia of Mormonism, accessed February 19, 2018
  2. ^ Report of the 147th Annual Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . S. May 1, 1977.
  3. ^ A b Stack: About-face: Mormon women's meeting now part of General Conference . October 30, 2014. Retrieved October 31, 2014.
  4. ^ A b Tad Walch: LDS Church confirms women's meeting now part of general conference . October 30, 2014. Retrieved October 31, 2014.
  5. ^ Church News: First Presidency Announces New General Women's Meeting . In: LDS.org . LDS Church. 4th November 2013.
  6. ↑ General Conference Sessions Consolidated ( en ) In: www.mormonnewsroom.org . October 27, 2017. Retrieved October 27, 2017.
  7. ^ Tad Walch: LDS conference talks may be given in native languages . September 8, 2014.
  8. ↑ a b General Conference Interpretation Fact Sheet . The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Archived from the original on March 8, 2017. Retrieved March 8, 2017.
  9. ^ Thomas S. Monson: The Solemn Assembly Sustaining of Church Officers . LDS Church. May 1995.
  10. ^ New Tabernacle organist named . Deseret News. April 14, 2007.
  11. ↑ Ezra Taft Benson : Come unto Christ, and Be Perfected in Him . May 1988. Archived from the original on July 20, 2012.
  12. ↑ Bruce L. Olsen: Out of Obscurity and Out of Darkness . In: Ensign . January 2000.
  13. ↑ General Conference Interpretation Fact Sheet . Mormon Newsroom .: "Approximately 800 people work together to interpret and translate general conference. About 600 work at the Conference Center, while another 200 work at locations around the world. Many of these individuals are volunteers. "

literature

  • Richard N. Armstrong: Researching Mormonism: General Conference as Artifactual Gold Mine . In: Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought . 30, No. 3, Fall 1997, pp. 151-68. .
  • Dorice Williams Elliott: The Mormon Conference Talk as Patriarchal Discourse . In: Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought . 22, No. 1, Spring 1989, pp. 70-78. .
  • Kenneth W. Godfrey: 150 Years of General Conference . In: Ensign . February 1981, pp. 66-71. .
  • Kenneth W. Godfrey: General Conference . In: Deseret Book (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Latter-day Saint History . , Salt Lake City 2000. .
  • Paul H. Peterson: Accommodating the Saints at General Conference . In: BYU Studies . 41, No. 2, 2002, pp. 5-39. .
  • Bridget Rees: Conference in General . In: LDS Living . 3, No. 5, September-October 2004, pp. 36-37, 39-43. .
  • Gordon Shepherd, Gary Shepherd: Mormon Commitment Rhetoric . In: Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion . 23, No. 2, June 1984, pp. 129-39. doi : 10.2307 / 1386104 . .
  • Gordon Shepherd, Gary Shepherd: Mormonism in Secular Society: Changing Patterns in Official Ecclesiastical Rhetoric . In: Religious Research Association (Ed.): Review of Religious Research . 26, No. 1, September 1984, pp. 28-42. doi : 10.2307 / 3511040 . .
  • Gordon Shepherd, Gary Shepherd: Modes of Leader Rhetoric in the Institutional Development of Mormonism . In: Association for the Sociology of Religion (Ed.): Sociological Analysis . 47, No. 2, Summer 1986, pp. 125-36. doi : 10.2307 / 3711457 . .
  • Cecelia Warner: General Conference: Whence and Whither? . In: Sunstone Review . 4, April 1984, pp. 2-5. .
  • Albert L., Jr. Zobell: The Call to Conference . In: Improvement Era . 53, No. 4, April 1950, pp. 326-29. .

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