What permanent changes in church will come from the current COVID pandemic? There is precedent for world events causing changes to our religious practices. In 1912 the First Presidency issued a letter to all Stake Presidents to not use a “communal sacrament cup” and begin using individual cups like we use today. This was precipitated by the new knowledge of germs and bacteria. But it was slow to be adopted. It took the flu pandemic of 1918 to fully push this as a standard practice.
The 1979 oil crises was a large part of why the church went to the three hour block in 1980. Gas was rationed where I lived in Central California, and a long drive to church three times a day [1] could really cut into your monthly budget.
So what long term or permanent changes do you see coming from the “COVID Pandemic of 2220-21”? One thing that came to my mind is a move to a permanent online option for church. But I think this is getting some pushback. The Leaders see this as a quick path to inactivity, and BIS (Butts In Seats) is the true indication of devotion. Without BIS, the fellowship is lost, callings dwindle, and the need for multi-million dollar church buildings is negated.
Some indication of this pushback is illustrated by a friend of mine telling me that in her stake, as of 1 Jan only people that are “homebound” will be given the Zoom code to log into Sunday meetings. All others will be expected to attend in person. Have any of you seen this in your Stakes? How will they police this? Will zoom codes be shared on the dark web?
What are some lasting changes (good or bad) you see in the church that are the direct result of the COVID pandemic?
[1] Priesthood meeting at 8 am, back home to pick up the women folk, and then back to church for Sunday School. Home for the afternoon, then back at 3 pm for sacrament meeting.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Wheat & Tares 
Today I will be teaching our EQ lesson based on Dallin H. Oaks conference talk “The Need for a Church”. Although he does not mention the pandemic, I will ask for input on what was good and not-so-good about home worship.
For those who choose isolation from Church (President Oaks terms it “individual spirituality”) comes the realization that everything is up to me. Usually this doesn’t result in doing more, but doing less.
As virtual learning has been cited as best for college studies, so I believe that our Spiritual well-being is best nurtured by attendance.
Good morning !
Making the assumption that Spiritual well being is best nurtured by church attendance is a big leap. I would like to see the citations of virtual learning or any learning as a one all approach. There should not be a cookie cutter approach. We all learn differently and even within different subject matters, the same person could have a better different learning approaches.
In academia and in the professional work place, in most our professions, we should try to use “best practices”. In many professions these are approaches that are found in professional journals and should be the gold standard for professionals be it accounting, engineering, medical, legal, IT, etc. I am not a professional teacher, but I spend my full time instructing clients in my professional field. I achieve general success when the client is able to properly apply my advise and it becomes part of their new habits. Some people learn quick, some people take their time, others need 2 or 3 different learning approaches until they integrate it. My job is to teach and follow up and observe and followup. However, if my end goal is to teach as many clients as possible, without any regard to their ‘learning” or integration; who cares what approach is used or if any long term learning occurs ? Best practices are of no value if individuals are ignored for the group whole.
Some people do better with in-the-chapel church, some better with Zoom church, some do better spiritually without any church. Is the goal to make people better people, to draw them close to Christ ? Or is the goal, butts in the seats and give a statistical count?
The LDS church, now in 2022, has another chance to re-set many broken practices and get away from correlation and from the broken missionary system. However, they will not. A few facade, superficial changes will occur, but nothing that gets to the core of the problems. Until the church places “people are more important than programs”; they will continue to bleed members and become more irrelevant. The true learning about the LDS church is found online in the information age, however members are told to avoid the truth and that some truths are not useful. Until the church empties the truth cart and gets back to serving people and helping communities and real world problems, who cares about the newest ‘revelation’ of a policy and a procedure that is not even the best practice for people.
Covid pandemic of 2020-? (Fixed that for you).
I’m hopeful that saying no or establishing boundaries gets more accepted as a result of this. I received a calling last week that I don’t want. Said I needed to speak with the bishop before giving a decision, and he was surprisingly receptive to the boundaries I explained to him, and elements of church that I will absolutely not do. He wanted to think about it, then sent me a text recapping what I had said and that he was good with it.
There will never be any policy to this effect but at the local level they are desperate for people. I encourage all to do this when given a calling or assignment.
Update from Salt Lake County – received an email from our stake presidency yesterday in light of new county mask mandate and as directed by the Utah Area presidency. They told us to review and consider the 1st presidency message from August about masks and vaccines and to be nice to each other at church. There was no mention of widespread use of internet church but I’m pretty sure it’s available. Apparently and also, the area presidency has not authorized at-home administration of the sacrament.
At a minimum the county is pushing the use of KN95 masks – can En$ign Peak provide those for us?
Bill, this was a quote from the church website within your links
No longer do Church members need to worry about the floating red mustache in the sacrament cup or “the fumes of … tobacco in the water,” as George Q. Cannon put it. We can all take the sacrament with peace of mind, thinking of the Savior rather than worrying about who has brushed their teeth.
Why did it take the Spanish flu to “wake members and leadership up and to make changes?” to the obvious problems pre-exisiting the flu epidemic with the sacrament ?
The only change that will create change is speaking up and walking out the door. But if you tell the truth like Sam Young, you are banished ! Ethan thank you for setting your own boundaries.
At the end of December our Bishop sent this in an email:
“ The other update to our meetings is that we will begin phasing out Zoom meetings for everyone. This is being done at the direction of our Area Authorities and General Authorities as they would like to have members attending church in person. This directive may change depending on the progression of the COVID-19 pandemic, but at this time we are asked to scale back zoom meetings….
With that said, please feel free to reach out to me if you have concerns or special circumstances that prevent you from attending in person church. We can work with those that have special circumstances that prevent them from attending in person.“
Some meandering thoughts and questions… Obviously, COVID has caused sweeping societal changes. My engineering colleagues and I have been working from home for nearly two years. Our meetings are held on Zoom or similar virtual platforms. I also teach weekly classes to my colleagues this way. We have been be able to successfully maintain our productivity. I realize that church worship is a different sphere than business or engineering. Some church people get the most benefit by gathering together in-person. But our society has become increasingly “risk adverse.” I imagine we will be hypervigilant against even the normal seasonal flu strains, once (and if) COVID and its mutating variants diminish. So online church may be with us to stay. What are the implications for tithing? One of the purposes of tithing is to cover the expenses for ward buildings. But many ward buildings are under-utilized. Consolidations were already taking place prior to COVID due to shifting demographics, etc. Will the Church try to save money by further consolidation and selling off ward building properties?
I hereby prophesy that any permanent adjustment/change will be labeled as revelation.
One big problem, church meetings for the most part are boring, tedious, and mostly repetitive. Why risk getting ill for this torture? You can attend for the sacrament and to commune with other members, but meetings are rarely spiritual or inspirational. And learning doesn’t seem to be a priority either. Correlation was the death knell for that.
The other issue I have is the sacrament. Why do you need a bishop’s permission to do home sacrament? If you want to comply with that directive during these trying times, why not just invent your own way to remember the Savior? For example, read the blessing on the bread and wine (oops water), and have a snack. It’s the act of remembering that is important.
@Mark Gibson Gibson–I know this is peripheral to the specified topic, but I think you are making a lot of assumptions without much real information to back them up. In fact, I think your remarks actually fit really well under the previous discussion about not respecting and treating us as adults. My husband and I were talking about almost exactly this earlier today. We have always been a super active, multiple big callings couple. We feel that sometimes we allowed church activity to take the place of personal growth and commitment. We actually are grateful for the opportunity the Covid cutback in demands has given us to prioritize learning and becoming more Christlike.
My father pointed out that as he and my mother aged, it was the evangelical Christian family in the neighborhood who were the most kind, loving, and helpful. They lived in jello belt adjacent city where about half of the neighborhood were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. My father (former bishop, high council member, stake clerk, etc.) speculated that the members of the Church were too busy going to meetings to actually give service.
Temple attendance will be a problem. Risky demographic (older folks). An hour or two in close quarters, inside a room, with a bunch of people you don’t know. If someone else is sick or coughing, you don’t really have an option to get up and leave. The whole temple experience is just problematic in terms of this ongoing Covid era. Ironically, just as the Church continues to build new temples all over the place.
We have all seen how many meetings, even sacrament meetings, can be done online — but I think the move to shut down online options is going to continue. Going to meetings, both congregational and the various leadership and auxiliary meetings, has just been such a central part of LDS activity that leadership at all levels can’t imagine not putting them all back in place. They would rather have you sit in church for two hours and get nothing than to have you sit at home online and get something out of it and enjoy it. Now they may be right — it may be the case that in the long run people won’t stay connected without going to a lot of in-person meetings. But it is disconcerting to see the extent to which “getting people to attend meetings” is such a central focus of leadership effort.
Let me correct one major misconception stated by Mark Gibson Gibson: the virtual approach is absolutely, unequivocally, and demonstrably NOT the best for university learning. I say that as a university faculty member for over two decades. Students hate it, instructors loathe it, and the level of learning and comprehension compared to in-person learning is dramatically lower.
For Sunday services, however, virtual options should remain available to any who prefer to take advantage of them.
I can understand the perspective of the Church’s leadership. Having people in the building and participating in meetings in person provides a better communal experience and leads to a higher level of participation and engagement. The problem is that this “one size fits all” approach neglects those for whom Sunday attendance is impossible for reasons of health and those for whom forced interaction is problematic. And the idea that budgets are predicated on attendance figures has always puzzled me, as it reduces those seeking to have a spiritual experience to numbers on a spreadsheet rather than individuals seeking the solace and comfort that the gospel can provide. I am reminded of a line from The Big Bang Theory: “I’m baffled by the notion of [a God] that takes attendance.”
Meetings were generally boring, rarely inspiring, and occasionally terrible. I can’t say much but a friend of mine is in a bishopric that has acknowledged this issue and has developed several plans to radically change the format of sacrament meeting. They have the blessing of stake leadership (and possibly higher up) to experiment and so far it has been well received. Some of the plans include more and shorter talks (8 sacrament speakers!), moving away from General Conference talks as source material, and having non-members from the community speak.
I still wouldn’t risk my health to attend sacrament meeting right now, but at least this sounds fresh and exciting. And better than the old “Well President Kimball said he never went to a boring sacrament meeting, so let’s not change a thing!”
How did Enoch get his people translated without strict adherence to the block schedule? How did the Old and New Testament prophets, prophetesses, apostles, etc., ever develop into the great human beings they were without long weekly meetings, youth programs and trek? How did ol’ Brigham cross the plains without a Sunday School Presidency, Primary, and not a single Eagle Scout on hand?
Much of what local leaders think is vital isn’t vital. Much is tradition. Much is an attempt to control. There are multiple ways to achieve the same ends. I guess even suggesting this makes me a radical.
There was a similar thread on BCC earlier this week. A few observations based on the 80+ comments there:
It seems most members of the church really believe that the biggest measure of their commitment to God is church attendance. A few pointed out in theory we go to church to learn (though as the comments here suggest, that’s not a given) but we actually show our commitment to God outside of church, as we serve our families, neighbors, professional associations, etc. This really resonated with me. The key issue is the members, after taking a break, realize that church is just not engaging enough. It’s sad that the knee-jerk reaction is to push butts in seats and shame people back instead of looking inside and really changing the structure so that church works for the members going forward. I unfortunately don’t see the structure changing, however.
I think the biggest change is that every single member’s view of the FP and Q12 has shifted in a way that just cannot be reversed. For example, many found the April 2020 general conference to be incredibly tone deaf. It’s like the Joseph Smith theme had been planned for some time and the leaders couldn’t be bothered to re-write their talks to be more relevant to the problems at hand. Another example is a lot of very devout members were actually very troubled with the “sacrament for me, but not for thee” church position where single women were barred the ordinance for really no good reason. I mentioned over at BCC that I pleaded my stake to let me bless the sacrament remotely to some of the sisters in the ward but was denied. So our family stood in solidarity and also didn’t take the sacrament. I was impressed to see that others did the same. The fact that we refuse to use technology to bless the lives of the members is baffling to anyone under the age of 60. Last example I’ll give is President Nelson’s call to vaccinate and wear masks. While I actually agree on this one, so many members do not, based on the fact that we will not wear masks as a people in our places of worship. The Utah area authority emails about the UT mask mandate show that even the local leaders absolutely refuse to follow their spiritual and health leaders on such an easy thing.
I think this pandemic may actually be the catalyst that creates a reformed mormonism as a viable option. I think we will start to see individuals either not accepting callings or accepting them with limitations; families attending church when they feel like it instead of when obligated to attend; extracurricular meetings being rejected because of the overwhelming time commitment (ie no more tithing settlement, no more missionary classes; more opting into online seminary); temple attendance will decrease as parents choose to spend their time with the living; and I think orthopraxy/orthodoxy will also change as people will not wear garments as frequently or drink coffee occasionally, for example. And what can the leaders do? If they reject these families (like mine, which are already doing these things), then six people walk out the door forever. We are the largest family in our ward so do they really want to lose us?
My ward has barely changed at all, even during the pandemic.
The only changes in can think of that have stayed in place are some good but minor changes to how sacrament is passed and we still have zoom option available for sacrament meeting only. Many other wards are not doing the sacrament changes nor providing zoom / remote options. So I’m not expecting any permanent changes.
Deve B: You said “the Church continues to build temples all over the place”. Maybe the more accurate statement is “the Church continues to announce the future construction of temples all over the place”. How’s that China temple going?
Well, if someone slipped me a zoom code for church, I might watch once in awhile.
As it turns out, today was my ward’s annual ward conference. The topic? Strengthening the Youth! (How’s that for a Coda to the last two OPs that featured discussion on ignoring adult issues and placing total focus on the youth!)
The stake’s message reflected retrenchment: The importance of youth physically attending church (which means adults coming as well…with no acknowledgement of the current Covid Omicron serge), commitment to participate in weekday youth activities, and enrollment in seminary. That was presented as the formula that will solve all youth challenges and problems. Oh, and all youth should commit to serving a full-time mission.
I think if anything the pandemic brings into stark relief how thin messages like this are. My family watched online and listened to this head-scratching message as a massive elephant stood in the corner of the chapel muttering, “record cases daily in our state, and more than 4 million cases in the US over the past week.” Yet even as in-person church was pitched to the youth as well as in-person youth activities and seminary, my young adult and late teen children just looked at me with a confused “is he totally crazy?” look. One of my daughters muttered, “Ya, that’s not going to happen.” Everything was weird about our meeting. The stake and ward officers were masked, but no one else on the stand or in the congregation (at least in the chapel when the camera zoomed out) was. (I live in Trumpland and maybe 10% mask at church.) It’s surreal. It’s like we can’t have an honest conversation about how weird all of this is or what it means. It’s like while the kitchen is on fire everyone is standing around on the deck talking about what color to paint the house.
A big problem we’ll have to struggle with in 2022? I think no matter what member segment you fall into, there has been a catastrophic loss of trust in general authorities and local authorities. I don’t know how that will be regained. It’s clear my stake leaders have decided to bury their heads in the sand and run away from issues that must be addressed in order for trust to be regained. The dysfunction is just so thick.
A related issue and challenge for my kids? Their church education experience has been so much more rich with our shift to at-home church (as a family we have had amazing discussions and they have opened up so much I feel like I know my children like I never did before), and I think their tolerance for the mundane experience they continue to have in seminary and at church is diminishing to a value of zero. Like @Chadwick and his family, we are undergoing a critical review and finding the flavor of reformed Mormonism that will best fit our needs. Despite confusing church meetings like the one we had today, I still like church. It’s my community and I enjoy socializing with the members of my ward and learning from their experiences. The rest of my family is becoming far less tolerant. I pray the church, general and local, can find a way to make itself relevant. Today made me pessimistic the church will use the past two years as an inflection point to reinvent itself.
In Franklin County Ohio case counts are sky high. I watched the local Lutheran church service webcast which at the start of the meeting appeared to have two or three people in the audience. (Prepandemic attendance would have topped 100-200 easily.) Meanwhile, LDS services were available via zoom by only to those who expressed serious reservations about attending in person)
The comments have made me think that all the extreme time commitments through callings, meeting and tithing to the church over the years have made it difficult to give in other meaningful ways. I regret some of that now but feeling like the time has passed for me to contribute much elsewhere. We’re older so continue with Sacrament Meeting on YouTube. Our ward is on a 2nd year of 9 am church which apart from the pandemic is also a challenge for us. I’m glad there’s been no pressure to return. Our bishop is very caring (doesn’t hurt that he’s our SIL 🙂) Dialogue Sunday School is now at 11:30 MST and was really terrific this morning. I wasn’t really looking forward to the OT but today was exceptional. It’s held twice a month and the next presenter on Jan 23rd will be Jana Riess. Should be good. I no longer feel a need to attend church in person to be spiritually fed. For the most part, with the odd exception, it was often repetitive and boring. But I do miss the singing!
Hey Chadwick and BigSky! Right there with you and your families, it sounds like. Four kids and none of them are wanting to go back. None care about priesthood advancement or activities. Oldest gets next to nothing from Seminary. We have had a better experience with our Home-Centered Sundays. Kids are a bit confused on why Mom and Dad are okay with it 😂. We won’t be going back anytime soon. But we watch Zoom Sacrament meeting to try to keep some connections and conversations.
However, I can report from the heart of Mormon Utah, our stake is returning to Zoom 2nd hour services for all adult meetings and YM/YW for the next three weeks (although not Primary, which is strange to me given they require adult teachers, why is that safer?), and more permission is given to stay home if feeling unwell or nervous. Mask wearing wet much emphasized.
As for the OP topic, I don’t know that I see anything definitive yet as being permanent. I really think the current leadership would love nothing more than to have it all go away ASAP and get back to normal business and meetings. I might be misreading the herbal tea leaves, but I just don’t feel it quite yet.
The Mormonland podcast last week was on point with a very popular sports writer and talk show host doing his version of Martin Luther as he wrote and discusses 20 things he wants to see changed in the church. And he did his best to portray himself as a very strong member who loves the institution and is just trying to give some food for thought. With more people speaking out, it may eventually reverberate back up the chain of command.
@chadwick couldn’t agree more with everything you said (including April 2020 conference … gee, like, not only was that conference not actually prophetic but it showed leaders weren’t even capable of pivoting to respond to problems unfolding right in front of them, let alone foreseeing them).
I’ve also got four kiddos too, who’s for starting that reformed Mormon congregation 😉
Most of these “changes” are just changes in participants, not official church changes – I think Church is eager to get back to normal and won’t keep many pandemic changes at all. No one in our ward seems to notice Omicron, although we never stopped offering Zoom options so that’s nice. There have however been some temple ceremony changes that decrease physical conduct and shorten the ceremony and AFAIK those are here to stay (but that’s just what I hear, I’ve not been).
We had Stake Conference this weekend. It was planned to be mostly in-person, with no option for remote for the leadership session. Then the oldest kid of a counselor in the Stake presidency got Covid and everything went remote.
It’s only serious if it happens to you.
Di: “But I do miss the singing.”
A significant chunk of people would say that music is the best part of church. As a people, we value the hymns, choirs, instrumentalists, and singing from age 3 on up. Some people feel close to other members when singing – maybe their only common ground. Most people have the words to the oft-repeated sacrament hymns memorized.
We finally got our hymn books back, but no choir. When we were 100% virtual congregational singing was a struggle – like to the point of “why bother?”
I hope that whatever comes next brings the music back.
(And what’s the ETA on the new hymnal announced years ago?)
Isn’t “permanent changes” sort of an oxymoron?
re: permanent changes, I would start by cutting all recommended administrative meetings in the CHI in half, e.g. presidency meetings, stake trainings, general priesthood mtgs, etc. If the current CHI recommends monthly, quarterly, semi-annual mtgs, they go to bi-monthly, semi-annual and annual without even considering options. From that level set, I would consider whether the remaining recurring administrative meetings can be discontinued entirely. I would include ward council on the list but I hesitate b/c that is a meeting where women’s voices are heard in a substantive manner (I know not all wards are good at that, but there are plenty where womens’ voices are welcomed.) If, if for some reason the women leaders can’t make it to a WC (travel, illness etc.) I would cancel the meeting.
Eliminate ward conferences (boring and waste of time). Eliminate stake conferences or reduce to one a year. Again, stake conferences are often (mostly) a pointless waste of time. Has anyone missed ward and stake conferences during the pandemic? Didn’t think so.
The Sunday meetings (in person or virtual) should stay. Youth and primary programs too. Mid week activities are very good for maturing Mormon kids (I know not all youth programs function well but they should be given the chance to continue, imo).
I also think we need to look creatively at administering the sacrament. Our family has joined the single sisters of the Church and passed on home sacrament. I’m really surprised and disappointed we haven’t been more creative or flexible for that ordinance. It tells me the ordinance isn’t really that important when there are such blindingly obvious work around to make it more widely available in a global pandemic. I would also place doing home sacrament (and on vacation) in the same category as priesthood blessings: no church approval required. Just do it!
That’s with just 5 minutes thought after skimming the above excellent comments and sad experiences.
During lockdown I read a bunch of books about the 1918 pandemic, and the big takeaway is that it changed society in ways we now take for granted. (Everything from spitting in the street no longer being acceptable to the hem lines of women’s dresses.) I think it’s safe to the same will happen this time around. Personally, I think shaking hands isn’t coming back – it’s not like it actually serves a purpose. But that’s gonna mean that the endowment is gonna feel really weird (I mean, more so) a hundred years down the road.
“I think shaking hands isn’t coming back”
I hope you’re right, but when I went to my ward yesterday multiple people still were shaking hands. I guess we didn’t get the memo.
Joni – “a hundred years down the road” –
my recently released Bishop once said from the pulpit that the 2nd coming will be in our lifetimes. I now teach adult Sunday School so I am going to disabuse everyone of that idea ASAP (without mentioning the bishop by name, of course).
My ward briefly experimented with requiring weekly permission from the bishop to join streamed services. That didn’t last long. I’m pretty sure they gave up on that plan because it loaded up the bishop’s plate, not because it was a terrible idea.
I compare our approach with what I’ve seen a few other local religions do in their response. Other churches required masks. Required. Other churches required proof of vaccination. All other churches were more than happy to provide streamed services with no hoops to jump through, no conditions, no strings attached, no control. It makes me ask the question, “What’s our problem?” I think our response is all about a desire to measure and count people, which is hard to do when butts aren’t in seats.
We’ve had several stake meetings and activities where it was explicitly called out that no streaming option would be made available. We’re not talking leadership meetings, just regular old seminary kickoffs, Sunday sessions of stake conference, and the like. Now they’re offering a room in the back of the stake center for people that feel like they have to wear a mask so they can watch the proceedings on TV.
It’s clear to me that online options will go bye-bye soon. It tells me that the powers that be recognize that there isn’t much value to the message itself, otherwise they’d try to make it as available as possible. All the value is butts in seats. Butts in seats determine the budget. Ooooo, with all that extra cash they can spring for printing another 100 flyers for the ward potluck. Sorry, tangent. Butts in seats also make a ward’s key indicators look good and that can be useful to impress (or avoid getting in trouble) when the reports are due.
The member’s practices will change, but from what I’ve seen, organizational church is gonna organizational church. Stick to the program and pretend like it’s 100% the member’s fault should things not work out to their liking.
@Di
If it’s not too much trouble, do you think you could slip us the code to your ward’s January 23 Zoom Sunday School?
@:)
It’s not our ward SS – but Dialogue Sunday School. You can search online or on FB and can watch live 11:30 MST on January 23rd or watch a recording later.
This is a link for the last SS with artist J Kirk Richards and it was excellent:
https://www.dialoguejournal.com/podcasts/dialogue-gospel-study-58-w-j-kirk-richards/
Zoom is a permanent option our bishop has said, and the Temple already has permanent covid-type changes as alluded to by Pres. Nelson last conference.