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The church has done some advanced planning for the Coronavirus. See attached article. https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/coronavirus-update-february-27-2020 The emphasis seems to be on:
-Missionary Work (outside the US)
-Temple Work (outside the US & Washington State)
-Worship services (outside the US)
-General Conference (modified some meetings such as Leadership meeting)
-Other areas.
Nothing is being said in our area of the US (midwest states)
It seems to be business as usual. I wish they would communicate more within the Ward & Stake.
With special emphasis on: if you’re sick, stay home. For example.
Minyan Man wrote:
With special emphasis on: if you’re sick, stay home. For example.
That’s an important message that I think people need to hear, even during normal times.
I live in an area where there have been multiple confirmed cases of coronavirus… some just a few miles away. There was an announcement that came from an area authority that was read last Sunday. Highlights:
No plans to cancel sacrament meeting or church. IMO, other than primary, sacrament meeting is probably the most problematic. Most in attendance touch those trays. If we’re not comfortable with cancelling church altogether, maybe we should suspend the ordinance for the time being?
- If you want to stay home, you can. I’d like to see leaders be more proactive and go ahead and cancel church because 1) I don’t trust sick people to stay at home, historically people have shown up to church while sick 2) You might be shedding the virus before you’re symptomatic.
- No hand shaking or hugs.
- If you stay home you aren’t authorized to bless the sacrament. If you want the sacrament, we’ll send the priests. If the point of all of this is to limit contact with others I don’t see how having priests go from house to house solves anything.
Schools in this area are closing and suspending activities. IMO church should follow suit. Closing church would take the decision to attend out of people’s hands, meaning no indecision over whether someone is sick enough or whether they are the wrong kind of sick that should prevent them from attending church.
I’m still in the process of convincing family to stay home for a while, take a wait and see approach. Not that I’m particularly paranoid, but because I don’t think attendance every Sunday is absolutely essential. Church will still be there when things get better and no one is missing anything.
Think of that one church in the DC area where the guy handing out communion tested positive for coronavirus. We could easily have that exact same scenario play out in one of our wards.
Just as I post this, we get the following from HQ: I think this is a good idea. It is better to be cautious.
Breaking news: https://www.thechurchnews.com/global/2020-03-11/coronavirus-covid-19-april-2020-general-conference-changes-176727 ” class=”bbcode_url”> https://www.thechurchnews.com/global/2020-03-11/coronavirus-covid-19-april-2020-general-conference-changes-176727 -No spectators at GC.
-Provo and England MTCs “closed” (missionaries slated to go there will get online training)
-Stake and leadership conferences are “postponed” in US/Canada, Asia, Europe
All of this effective March 16.
(
soupset about this. 
Nelson didsay that the up-coming April conference would be unique. nibbler wrote:
Nelsondidsay that the up-coming April conference would be unique.
And prophets do have that way of saying something without saying something…. (See Isaiah, for example.)
:shh: I hope that the church might use this opportunity to evaluate how many of our meeting are really critical and how many could be reasonably done by other means. I am especially thinking of leadership training meetings involving travel or an increase in the access to online seminary.
😮 😮 😮 Think of the damage one infected person can do during a pandemic. I have friends who went to Laos, Thailand & Italy within the past few weeks. I’m sure they will be in church on Sunday. We raise our right hand to sustain & show support for our local leaders. At times like this
they need to make some tough decisions. I would prefer they acted on the side of caution.
The other option is, we make our own decision about staying home on Sunday. That’s what I plan to do.
Roy wrote:
I hope that the church might use this opportunity to evaluate how many of our meeting are really critical and how many could be reasonably done by other means.I am especially thinking of leadership training meetings involving travel or an increase in the access to online seminary.
😮 😮 😮
Think of how many hours saved every week leadership could devote to their families? Think about how much personal money could be saved if the church provided better budgets for activities. imagine how quickly we could focus on our savior instead of the prophet if we were “allowed” the bless the sacrament at home, to perform ordinances in local areas. Imagine the progress we could make, if we let go of 1950s living culture and realized the digital age can be a great advantage?
grobert93 wrote:
imagine how quickly we could focus on our savior instead of the prophet if we were “allowed” the bless the sacrament at home [snip]
One thought that’s crept up while processing the announcement my area received…
I appreciate how not every home has someone that holds an office in the priesthood that could bless the sacrament, so moving to a model where they authorized people to do this in their homes would create haves and have-nots. On the other hand, it feels like the only reason we take such a hard line approach is because allowing people to bless the sacrament in their homes invalidates one of the primary answers to the question, “Why go to church?” Because church controls access to the ordinance of the sacrament.
Maybe this is a research topic for me, but I do wonder where the tradition of doing the sacrament every Sunday originated.
nibbler wrote:
Maybe this is a research topic for me, but I do wonder where the tradition of doing the sacrament every Sunday originated.
I would love to know what you discover. As an LDS member from birth, I was surprised to learn that weekly bread and water is not a given in many Christian churches.
The local Lutheran church has suspended their sacrament. This is Lent season where sacraments are increased. They also turned off all the drinking fountains in the building. Cancelled the “social hour events” – such as coffee and soup supper. I live 2 hours from a highly infected area.
Bread & water from a tray – No Way.
I just feel sorry for Joseph Smith. This was supposed to be his big party. You know “the one he didn’t want”. This really puts a lid on that.
DJ – I do feel your pain. Acutely.
I believe the scriptural precedent is: Doctrine and Covenants 20:75 wrote:It is expedient that the church meet together often to partake of bread and wine in the remembrance of the Lord Jesus;
I found the following:
https://rsc.byu.edu/you-shall-have-my-word/lords-supper-early-mormonism ” class=”bbcode_url”> https://rsc.byu.edu/you-shall-have-my-word/lords-supper-early-mormonism The short version is that in very early Mormonism the ordinance:
resembled an actual supper
- was performed by top leaders, Q12, JS, etc.
- wasn’t on Sundays
- even though D&C20:77,79 existed, the prayer wasn’t always followed to the letter like it is now, this was in following of how other religions practiced sacrament at the time
- the frequency of the ordinance was sporadic, as conditions permitted
- in the early days I think they liked getting everyone together to do it as opposed to the way it is now where each unit can administer the sacrament for themselves
In the early days converts brought their traditions from other faiths with them and those practices were honored. During the BY era more focus was placed on formalization and frequency and by some time during the 1850s we were doing it weekly on Sunday, typically at the end of sacrament service instead of the beginning.
That’s very high level. There’s much more detail in the link.
This just in – Our local Catholic churches have suspended all Masses and meetings until further notice. NIbbler, I remember learning this in institute years ago. It’s also when I learned that Fast Day was on Thursday’s.
I totally believe Joseph Smith would show up to our church and wonder WTH?
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