Question About Sitting with Family/congregation After Blessing/Passing the Sacrament

[Anonymous]

My question is can priesthood holders sit with their family/congregation after administrating the sacrament? Or if there is any Church policy that requires them to remain at their designated seats?

Situation: The ward that I belong to has pretty much no Aaronic priesthood holder so basically it is either elders or high priests in charge of administrating the sacrament (which a lot of them have their own family and children).

Leaders at the most recent PEC had different opinions so I wanna know what’s the latest church policy about this issue (answer with reference would be most appreciated)?

Thank for everyone for your input!!

[Anonymous]

I guess I don’t see how or why this is an issue. In any ward I have ever been in or visited those who bless and pass the sacrament generally return to sit in the congregation afterwards, although I have seen the occasional single guy who blessed remain up front (very rarely). In my own ward they are specifically excused, but most wards they just seem to get up when it’s over. In wards that do have enough AP to do the passing it would seem much better that they return to their families – I can only begin to imagine what kinds of horsing around they might do if made to stay up front.

[Anonymous]

When I was a priest, we could do whatever we wanted. I remember staying up there, or moving down. I think it all depended on whether we wanted to sit with our families or not. It seems like most wards have the Aaronic Priesthood with their families, but I’m not aware of any rules or regulations on it.

[Anonymous]

Section 20.4 in Handbook 2 outlines sacrament guidelines but gives no guidance on what is done after the ordinance is complete. Handbook 1 doesn’t give any additional information, it only says “See Handbook 2, 20.4.

In my experience 99.99% of the time the conducting member of the bishopric (or branch presidency) says something like, “We would like to thank the Aaronic Priesthood for the reverent manner in which they blessed and administered the sacrament and at this time we excuse them to go sit with their families.”

Which can drive people nuts because the “priesthood” didn’t administer the ordinance, priesthood holders did. Semantics aside…

Typically both the people that blessed the sacrament and the people that passed it go back to sit with the rest of the congregation when invited to do so but they don’t have to. It doesn’t matter whether the people that were involved were deacons, teachers, priests, elders, HPs, etc. once dismissed anyone that wishes to do so usually returns to their normal seats.

As far as I know there’s only one call to have certain people sit on the stand during SM:

Handbook 2, Section 18.2 wrote:

The bishop oversees ward meetings. He presides at these meetings unless a member of the stake presidency, an Area Seventy, or a General Authority attends. His counselors may conduct ward meetings and may preside if he is absent. Presiding authorities and visiting high councilors should be invited to sit on the stand. High councilors do not preside when attending ward meetings.

If the bishop and his counselors are all absent, the stake president designates who presides at sacrament meeting. Normally he designates the high priests group leader, but he could authorize another priesthood holder instead.

So if you are a presiding authority (in most cases a member of the bishopric or branch presidency) then you are “expected” to sit on the stand.

I have seen wards where the bishop requests one Aaronic Priesthood holder to sit up on the stand with him to serve as a gopher. Someone that can relay messages to people (if needed) during the meeting.

To go along with the expectation of who is supposed to sit on the stand… I’ve also seen cases where the people giving talks don’t sit on the stand for the duration of sacrament meeting, they go up to the front when it’s their turn to speak. Ward customs I guess.

[Anonymous]

There is no policy.

In every ward I have attended as an adult (in seven states throughout the entire US), they have returned to their seats. Sometimes, they were excused officially from the pulpit; sometimes, they simply left after the ordinance ended.

Not allowing men to go back and sit with their wives and children is stupid and unreasonable. I usually am not that blunt, but I will make an exception in this case.

Frankly, if I ever become a Bishop, God forbid, I plan on having the counselor who is conducting sit with me on the stand and having the other counselor sit with his family for that month. The counselors are not “presiding authorities”, so there is no policy requiring them to sit on the stand every week.

[Anonymous]

gospeltangents wrote:

When I was a priest, we could do whatever we wanted. I remember staying up there, or moving down.

That’s the way it was for me, too. We’d usually stay up there on F&T meeting if we were going to T.

kevanli, without being confrontational, in your situation I would say, “Well, I (or my son) will be sitting with my family (or his family) after the sacrament. If you’d rather our family not participate in the sacrament because of that, I understand, but I would appreciate your showing me the source you are using for making this a requirement, just so I know what’s behind this.”

[Anonymous]

It would seem like a quick escalation to a stake authority, either HC or SPresidency member, would clarify that there is no policy, and maybe that stake has a recommendation. Sometimes stakes like it to be uniform and standard across units, but more and more in the church with the emphasis on families being together for Sundays and not leaving mothers with all the kids while priesthood is off doing their thing…it is more common for priesthood to be dismissed and told to go sit with their families.

I would be respectful of the bishop and sustain him by being supportive…but also at some point you set boundaries for yourself and your family.

If you were to tell him something like OON said, and just said “as for me and my son, we’ll be sitting with my wife” then you let them choose to not invite you to participate or not…but either way, you get what you feel is best for your family…to sit together. And they will not have any policy that would tell you to do otherwise. In fact, your example maybe something of value to remind other priesthood holders on family first.

[Anonymous]

I attended a brand new building in Eagle Mountain UT last month, and it had seats for the deacon’s behinds the priests on the stand. This was done to free up room for the congregation. So instead of the deacons taking pews that the congregation could sit in, they sat in a normally unused space behind the priests, with 8 chairs specifically for them. When it was time for them to pass, they filed down in front of the sacrament table. When it was over, they did not return to their seats on the stand.

Some of my fondest memories of being a priest (16-17 yr old) was blessing the sacrament then staying behind the sacrament table for the rest of the meeting. The bench behind the table was at ground level, and hidden from the bishopric by the stand. So we were out of sight, out of mind. We’d remove our shoes, and just relax. Good times!

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