On this side of the Atlantic General Conference weekend doesn’t have quite the same party atmosphere that seems to exist in some quarters over in Utah, and especially Salt Lake.
As a child growing up, I was aware that every now and then church would be very peculiar indeed, with normal meetings suspended. Instead the adults would sit in a darkened chapel at an odd hour, looking at a still picture of a church leader projected onto a screen, whilst listening to a voice of dubious broadcast quality, apparently transmitted live via a phone line – that would be transatlantic cable, with a telecoms engineer on site. Sometimes the connection would fail, and the engineer would be busy trying to re-establish a link. Our choice was to either join the adults in the dark, or play quietly in the Junior Sunday School rooms where the sound was piped through. None of it made any sense whatsoever, and it was a relief when normal meetings resumed the following week.
Things changed with the advent of video cassettes. This meant we were running several weeks later. We got our Ensigns before our wards and stakes had scheduled the video broadcasts; it was possible to read along with the broadcast and many did – perhaps the reason for video editing a la Poelman. Videos made it possible for the same time format observed as in Utah of course, though I don’t know how many watched the all sessions, or how many wards and stakes even organised viewings for all sessions, but as I recall it, my family participated on the Sunday.
When satellite broadcasts superseded video we were back to the same weekend as the US, at odd hours. These days General Conference looks a lot like this:
Saturday
5-7pm Saturday Morning Session (live)
Sunday
10am -12pm Priesthood Session
1-3pm Saturday Afternoon Session
5-7pm Sunday Morning Session (live)
9-11pm (in some places on an experimental basis only) Sunday Afternoon Session (live)
A few weeks later on either a Saturday morning or Sunday evening the General Women’s Session will be shown. Pointless numbering those sessions, or getting into arguments about which is the first session, because that really does depend on where you are.
In my family we don’t go overboard for General Conference. When our children were small we pretty much ignored anything happening on Saturday, my husband would attend the broadcast for the Priesthood session on Sunday morning, and we’d all attend church for the Saturday Afternoon Session broadcast on Sunday afternoon. There’s no going out for ice cream after the Priesthood Session here. As the church internet site developed, I enjoyed being able to prepare note sheets for my children listing the hymns and speakers (with pictures), leaving space for them to write or draw something from each address; one of the benefits of getting the broadcast several hours later.
Now that my kids are older, and conference is available live over the internet, we generally have the audio running at home early Saturday evening for the live broadcast of the Saturday Morning Session, though no-one is obliged to stay and listen. My husband and son will attend church on Sunday morning for the Priesthood Session whilst my daughter and I listen at home, getting lunch ready for their return, after which we make the mad dash to church for the Saturday Afternoon broadcast. By this time I’ve probably already taken a sneak peak at the live blogging reports and have a heads up on the contents of the various talks. I’ve yet to decide if this is a good thing or a bad thing. How might it colour my listening? Sunday’s sessions are then left running at home over the internet for anyone who cares to listen. I generally skip the Sunday Afternoon Session on the grounds that I simply cannot stay awake that long, pick up the podcast when it becomes available, and use the talks for family home evening lessons.
The General Women’s Session remains the poor relation; shown several weeks later with very few attending. By that time anyone who wanted to has had ample opportunity to read the transcript, listen to the podcast or watch online.
- What changes have you seen in your experience of General Conference?
- How does it work in your part of the world?
- Do you appreciate watching as a church community, or do you prefer to do so at home with family?
- How might the General Women’s Session be given a boost?
Discuss
Wheat & Tares 
It’s interesting to hear perspectives outside the USA. I often travel on conference weekend, so it’s pretty much impossible to attend all the sessions for me. On one occasion, we were in Hawaii, and went to the church in Kauai to watch. Apparently, one branch watched the Sunday session at 6 AM, recorded it, and someone drove the copy to our church where we watched it at 10 AM as we would have at home.
Another time we were flying, and was surprised to find out it was broadcast on the airplane! (Thanks Delta! Actually watched part of the Utes dismantle Oregon last week on Delta again!) This weekend I’m travelling again and will miss most of the sessions.
Sometimes people complain and ask why the LDS church can’t broadcast services on tv. I always respond that they do it twice per year!
Now that the Priesthood Session is broadcast to everyone (Thanks Kate Kelly), why can’t they broadcast the Women’s conference to everyone?
Thanks Hedgehog for that post. Things are unsurprisingly similar here in the Oz.
In this day and age, I can’t see why we even think about going to church to watch something that we can see at home. I did watch some of the women’s session live. I loved the choir, who sang beautifully, however, I became overloaded with the monotones patronising way that the sisters speak in. Probably doesn’t bug anyone else but if I hear “With every breath we take, we strive to follow Him” again I think I might be sick.
There is a culture here that if you are righteous you go to see conference at church. As if the extra sacrifice will bring extra blessings. I can’t remember the last time I dragged my family to see conference at church. When asked, I just reply,”no one in Utah goes to church – they watch it on tv”.
Just to balance that out a bit – some of the brethren well and truly fall into that category too…
I live in Southeast Asia.
Here the video of the broadcast is downloadable, translated, about a week after conference, so someone in our young, small, branch has the job of downloading it onto flash drives. We then can gather at the church a week later to watch it projected on a screen from a laptop on a Saturday and Sunday.
Our time zone makes live watching via internet pretty impossible except for the two Saturday evening sessions which we can catch live, at home, early on Sunday morning if we wish.
The vast majority of the members of our branch do not come from families where the oldest generation in the household (multi-generation living is the norm here) are not members of the church, so very few of the members watch conference at home.
And, Mormon Heretic,, I checked. The General Women’s Session was broadcast on BYU TV and the Priesthood Session will be broadcast there as well.
KSL’s schedule says that KSL only broadcasts the four morning and afternoon general sessions. Not sure why.
correction:
“do not come from families where the oldest generation ARE members of the church”
double negative not intended
1. What changes have you seen in your experience of General Conference?
2. How does it work in your part of the world?
3. Do you appreciate watching as a church community, or do you prefer to do so at home with family?
4. How might the General Women’s Session be given a boost?
1. What changes have you seen in your experience of General Conference?
One session was shown on a local tv station which stopped after a few years because no one thanked them for it. I can remember feeling kind of bad about that but I was a kid and that just wasn’t my thing. In later years we had the telephone thing and later we started we started having visual and sound. At a certain time I was made the High Priest group leader and I was noticing that before we had starting having all this high technology we had gotten used to having a conference vacation on Sunday and I shamed them all for it and said they should all start coming. The next Sunday was the next general conference. One of the high priests said every high priest should bring a pie that he liked to eat to have after priesthood meeting. The next Sunday the ward had the highest priesthood meeting in its history. We’ve done the pie social thing ever since. Now the ward has changed so much that they don’t even know how it started.
2. How does it work in your part of the world?
Read no. 1. Besides that, during the Saturday and Sunday sessions, since a lot of us lived outside of town, we’d bring food and eat it between sessions. On one of those in between sessions my family and one of the other families were in the kitchen preparing our stuff and the wife of the other family said ‘let’s just put this all together and eat it together’ and so we did. After a while it became a total out-of-towner thing and a lot of families were involved. The in-towners went home and the out-of-towners stayed at church.
3. Do you appreciate watching as a church community, or do you prefer to do so at home with family?
As the computers started taking over the world, I started noticing that when the gospel, as it always had done, would tend to gather the people, the computer would tend to separate them. It wasn’t long and the eating together didn’t happen anymore. Maybe that’s all part of advancement, although the priesthood pies still exist and I will be in the kitchen helping to serve.
4. How might the General Women’s Session be given a boost?
I don’t listen much to them. In fact, I never do. Do they need a boost? What was it – a week ago? My wife was listening to it and I stopped a bit and listened. Some of them talk kind of funny. I don’t know. Maybe it’s how you talk in heaven. I’d rather go to priesthood. Even if everything goes bad, I still have the pie.
When we lived in Singapore through mid-2013, we had church on GC weekend because of the time difference. GC was available on the internet on Monday. We then took the following Sunday off. If people wanted to gather & watch it at the church they could, but that was kind of dumb because the transcripts were already on lds.org by then, not just the video. It was just too late to go watch it.
Now that we are in Phoenix again, it seems that most members like to go to the church for both the women’s session and the priesthood session, but only those sessions. About 8 years ago, our family started a ward tradition of having a General Conference “After Party” where several ward families get together after Sunday’s final session and we eat and talk. One sister always puts together a quiz covering highlights of the talks. The tradition carried on without us, and now we don’t have to host anymore! But we do join.
I too remember listening to a broadcast coming over phone lines and remembering how often it failed. I also remember when the satellite transmissions started being used and before the session started the tech accidentally switched to a porn feed. Now that was something exciting!
Currently I have a very busy job and I am constantly in meeting after meeting at work, and then I have 2 callings that keep me busy. I am an introvert, so I am exhausted from all the interactions I have to do. So I LOVE to put conference on in the garage and clean and or just piddle around in the garage. I have managed to skip out of many of the priesthood sessions as of late and just listen to them for the same reason. On Sunday my wife insists that we not only watch both sessions, but me and the kids stay awake. The only way she is able to stay awake is she is ever vigilant watching for any sign of heavy eyelids.
I was in Geneva, Switzerland one weekend a number of years ago at the end of May. When I went to Church, they were watching a video of Conference from almost two months earlier. It was French subtitles and I could tell they weren’t getting it all with those. I felt kind of bad for the delay and the poor translations.
I guess things are much better now.
Thank you for the comments everyone.
MH, a couple of years ago we missed conference weekend due to travel. We were in Japan, when it wouldn’t be available until the following week, when we were back in Britain. We did get to watch the downloaded YW broadcast that week though – so at least there, it was still in the same time frame. Very different to how it’s done here. Travel can make it difficult, I agree.
LDS Aussie, Rich, I’d love to hear the women speak more authoritatively. They are also hampered by addressing an audience from age 8 upwards now.
LDS Aussie “if you are righteous you go to see conference at church” I think there can be an element of that here too. Particularly with respect to the Sunday Morning live broadcast which apparently sees the largest attendance, though that’s the one we’re at home for.
Miriam, good point on part member families. I can see that would make viewing as a church community much more important.
Rich, the pies sound good. The stake RS try to make the viewing of the women’s session a communal event by providing food afterwards, sometimes a full lunch if done on a Saturday morning, but food doesn’t seem to act as the draw it might.
hawkgrrrl, it’s interesting that it’s the Priesthood and Women’s sessions that get the attendance at church. I guess those are the ones that don’t require entertaining small children quietly for 2 hours.
I do wonder if the women’s session would get better attendance here if it was done much closer to actual event.
A Happy Hubby, “before the session started the tech accidentally switched to a porn feed”
Ooops! I’ve seen problems tuning to the correct language channel, so we’ve endured the first few minutes in a variety of languages, and sometimes lost the picture, but never that!
A darkened chapel is an invitation to close my eyes I find, and makes it more difficult to take notes.
Jeff, I do hope the foreign language translations are high quality now. I enjoyed hearing talks given in native languages at the last conference, and I think it’s a good experience for English language speakers to hear translation.
I honestly can’t imagine parking my sore rear end and bad back, in church clothes, in a pew for 6 hours on Saturday and 4 on Sunday when I can sit on a comfortable couch at home and listen on the Internet. I used to get to the end of Conference weekend in a considerable amount of pain, especially when we lived someplace where it wasn’t practical to go home in those two-hour breaks between sessions. Since the Church beefed up the Netcast bandwidth and the sessions don’t punk out every 15 minutes, Conference has become a lot more enjoyable. I can listen without being distracted by the pain shooting up my spine and down my sciatic nerve.
Although we used to go to PH session and participate in the ice cream bacchanalia, with that coming over the Net now also, I think I’ll just lay in a half-gallon of toasted almond fudge and sit at home with my 17-year-old son.
Thanks for this insight.
When we lived in Brazil 20 years ago, there was no satellite available, so GC weekend was just another church day. Thus the idea of teaching the talks through the year made more sense than it does in a place where everyone already was exposed to those talks.
I hope your back held out in comfort NI. The ice cream sounds yummy!
Good point Naismith, about going over talks. I don’t know when that first became popular, or how long it took to spread globally, but thankfully my ward seem to be moving away from that a little bit now.
What is a conference?
A meeting or gathering of people where items of interest are discussed between people.
I don’t know if it ever was this way in the LDS church. First, they weeded out any discussion. It is all top down and not even any discussion between the top leaders. Then they watered down the meeting-together aspect with technology so there is no need for any gathering.
People are social beings and need to get together to function properly. Perching in the foyer chatting with friends is closer to a real conference than what is broadcast to the world. Sitting at home listening to authorative leaders talk is not a conference. I know that is what we do but it is misnamed. Just like you are never going to be eating steak at the stake house. Not on our budget.
I might suggest that we would go far in solving the problems in the LDS church if we actually had real conferences as frequently as we pretend to do. Real gathering of people with discussions.
I think I got this from the infamous humor writer of the much maligned Salt Lake Tribune, Robert Kirby. He proposed a classification scheme of Mormons based on their general conference behaviors. To the best of my memory and imagination here it is:
1. SQUARE CONFERENCE MORMONS. They go to temple square in salt lake and stand in line for hours, sometimes in snow storms, other times with seagulls pooping on them, or the rare tornado.
a. Subcategory- PUNCTUAL. They arrive on temple square in time to get into the tabernacle, probably 6 hours before the start of the morning session (10:00 am) to be safe.
b. Subcategory -LATE. They get herded into some other building in the area like the assembly hall (nicer) or the old salt palace with one of the lesser GAs sitting on the stand because the tabernacle is packed.
c. Subcategory -LOST. They never do make it into a building (sometimes intentionally) but picnic on the lawn and appreciate the beautiful landscaping.
2. CHAPEL CONFERENCE MORMONS. They drive various distances from 100 yards to 1000 miles to the wardhouse to listen to broadcasts or reproductions of them in all of their variety.
a. Subcategory- REVERENT- completely during prayers, talks, and participate in singing including standing up. Usually take notes.
b. Subcategory- MOSTLY-REVERENT during talks, not exactly quiet during prayers and wandering around, chatting with others during songs. Youth may be openly playing conference bingo or other games.
TIRED. Generally asleep during some or most of the session. (It is impossible to sleep in those hard crowded seats in the old Blabbernacle).
d. Subcategory -Irreverent. Consigned to the nursery where talks are piped in but not exactly audible. Various games and a general ruckus prevails. YW in kitchen preparing to water-balloon cute missionaries. YM playing basketball and maybe swearing. Chatting in the foyer probably included.
e. Subcategory- Lost also possible if the ward house has a nice lawn or pavilion and not in a harsher climate than Utah (which is generally true).
3. Home Conference Mormons. They listen to conference at home.
a. Subcategory reverent. Sit on authentic folding chairs borrowed from the church and in rows with white shirts and Sunday dress worn. Full participation and near silence required just like it was church. No comments allowed. Notes taken and written quizzes given and graded later.
b. Subcategory causal dress and lounging on soft furniture or floors. A few on-topic comments made from time to time. Snacking during songs maybe even prayers if done quietly. Youngins present under foot but not paying close attention; playing games. wrassling, squealing, chucking stuff at the screen by the end. Or carried away during the second hour.
c. Subcategory chores like yard work or garage cleaning or other projects performed with conference playing on radio. May change stations to music or football games during songs and prayers . Often done on Saturday but not unheard of on Sunday.
d. Subcategory pajamas or sports wear worn. Frequent and not always supportive comments and disagreements during sermons. Unrelated discussions abound or reading sunstone magazine. Older family cranks do humorous impersonations of the speaker or tell stories about dating their wife or daughters. Sips of coffee/tea not usual. Youth disappear after (or during) the opening prayer. Don’t listen on Saturday.
E. Subcategory tape it and/or skip it all together and go to the mountains or the lake or to Nevada (where gambling is legal and beer is cheaper).
The completion of the conference center (also known as the Supernacle) with the ticketing system has eliminated all but the first (and last?) subcategory of Square Conference Mormons and the long waiting. The advancement and wide spread possession of digital contraptions has greatly reduced the number of Chapel Conference Mormons (especially outside of Utah but in the USA) where they once abounded and probably made them a bit more reverent. Home Conference Mormons are probably becoming harder to classify.
#16 – Then likely you’re unfamiliar with the nature of the beast. Yes, the Church IS very much a “top-down” organization, b/c of WHOSE organization it is.
Ultimately, the several members ‘discuss’ with their feet – by either coming or not. Even the Savior Himself had to deal with apostasy, and His skills in organizational behavior, public relations, and staffing I wouldn’t begin to doubt. See John 6:66-68.
We’ll go “far” in solving the various problems that individual members and the various branches, wards, and stakes face when and only when we actually heed the words handed down. Goes for yours truly as well, I don’t profess to be particularly special.
Mike, some sort of conference of the style of academic conferences, with opportunity for questions, discussions and feedback would be wonderful. Sometimes questions and feedback happens in the priesthood leadership session of a stake conference.
Fun list. I’d probably fit under several catergories/subcatergories depending on the session, so I don’t think it’s so clear cut, but fun.
Douglas “the Church IS very much a “top-down” organization, b/c of WHOSE organization it is.”
I don’t see that the one follows from the other Douglas.
I grew up in Utah as a kid. We would all go to my grandma’s house for a big cousin free for all and turkey dinner, with conference on in the background as we sort of pretended to listen. Then all the adults would fall asleep on the floor.
As a young married we lived in Seattle. You could watch conference on cable but we didn’t have it. Sometimes we went to the church to watch a session. We were probably trying to put a little more effort into it since we had small kids.
Nowadays I will watch a session online if one of my adult children wants to watch with me. Otherwise I read them all later in the ensign. I just don’t learn well by listening to things. I don’t think there’s anything extra righteous about seeing it live, although if other people want to do that, more power to them.
Mike, according to D&C 20:61-62, church “conferences” (that is the term used) were established primarily to perform church business. Part of this business was giving instruction concerning mission efforts. I suspect it eventually morphed into increasing instruction on doctrinal topics in general, since it was an occasion where church leaders had an opportunity to speak to a large group of members.
The type of conference of which you speak, where members are free to discuss and debate church topics was done a bit informally while Joseph Smith was alive (if memory serves), but was eliminated as church authority became more centralized. Public disagreement with those in positions of authority became highly problematic. It’s hard to debate with someone when their church position automatically trumps anything you might say.
Discussion at the ward level is much more permissible, but even then it is not kosher to present as legitimate a position counter to what’s been stated by church leaders. That’s kinda where Douglas’ very mainstream view of the church as a top-down organization comes into play.
Sorry for the format mistakes on the GC classification system; my computer shut down while correcting it until a few minutes ago and I don’t understand how it managed to post it. Not sure I was going to post it, just was putting it on the launch pad to see how it looked when kaboom….
***
Douglas wrote referring to going far:
“only when we actually heed the words handed down…”
I comprehend what you are saying. Gird up your loins and do what is right. Follow the prophets who lead us to Christ. I heed pretty much what I actually believe in doing. I might be misguided but I am not a flake.
For one personal example, I have a burning conviction that a certain non-LDS scout troop is doing it right (not perfect but with excellence) and I have no problem helping them in every way I can, spending many hours every week and burning 10 days of vacation to take them to Matagamon Maine high adventure last summer. This even though my son who joined the troop at age 11 is now in graduate school.
I also have a burning conviction (maybe indigestion) that my ward scout troop is beyond anything I can do for it except recruit the few LDS scouts into the other troop. I have been the scout master and the troop committee chairman and gone to summer camp for a week with them. I have also been in the bishop’s dog house and not by choice when it comes to scouting. These perceptions, whether you agree with them or not, govern my actions. It is quite beyond a matter of heeding.
At this point I am not willing to heed any LDS leader’s words on the topic of scouting without skeptical and careful consideration. To get me and my hundreds of nights of boy scout camping experience over 15 years on board with LDS scouting as it is currently constituted in my ward is going to require a long conversation and more; listening and talking on both sides to the point that perceptions rooted in long years of experience are altered.
My bishop listens and talks to me but neither of our perceptions changes and that spills over after many years of frustration to my current complete reluctance to do much of anything pertaining to LDS scouting. I believe Jesus is pleased with this non-LDS troop and is braiding whips to use on my LDS troop. Apostascy when I think of it pretty much describes my LDS troop. Our leaders can’t play the I-represent-Jesus card unless or until they “bear the fruits” to back it up.
Scouting is not the only problem area I have struggled with in my life-long activity in the LDS church. It is merely one example to illustrate a point.
Laughing at the image of everyone asleep after a big dinner jennyinnc. I’ve experienced those kinds of big family get-togethers, though not in conjunction with conference. I also don’t learn well listening, so find I have to take copious notes.
Thanks for that history Mary Ann.
I’ve certainly experienced frustrations myself Mike. Thankfully we don’t have church scouting here.