In the Latter Day Saint movement

Latter Day Saint movement

The Latter Day Saint movement is a group of independent churches tracing their origin to a Christian primitivist movement founded by Joseph Smith, Jr. in the late 1820s. Collectively, these churches have over 14 million members...

, a general conference is a meeting for all members of the church for conducting general church business and instruction.

The first general conference of the newly formed Church of Christ was held on June 9, 1830, in Fayette, New York

Fayette, New York

Fayette is a town in Seneca County, New York, United States. The population was 3,643 at the 2000 census.The Town of Fayette is on the western border of the county and is southeast of Geneva, New York.- History :...

, presided over by Joseph Smith. It included a gathering of the 27 members of the two-month-old church.

Originally, general conferences were held every three months, as provided by one of Joseph Smith's early revelations. Beginning in 1832, the conferences were held less frequently, usually to conduct special church business or to respond to special church needs.

Following the death of Joseph Smith Jr. in 1844, and the resulting succession crisis, general conferences have been practiced in different forms by several denominations in the Latter Day Saint movement.

General Conferences of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

History and structure

In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), general conferences are a semiannual meeting where general authorities

General authority

In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , a general authority is a member of certain leadership organizations who are given administrative and ecclesiastical authority over the church...

 and other church leaders preach sermons and give guidance to the members of the church. Changes to church leadership are also proposed and sustained through the principle of common consent

Common consent

Common consent is a democratic principle established by the Latter Day Saint movement's founder, Joseph Smith, Jr., who taught in 1830 that "all things must be done in order, and by common consent in the church, by the prayer of faith." As it is most frequently used by the Church of Jesus Christ of...

. General conferences are held on the weekends containing the first Sunday in April and the first Sunday in October. The April conference is known as the Annual General Conference, and the October conference the Semiannual General Conference. The April conference includes annual statistical and financial reports not included in the October meeting. Both conferences are identified by the number of years since the church was founded in April 1830; thus, the April 2008 meeting was the 178th Annual General Conference, and the October 2007 meeting was the 177th Semiannual General Conference.

The conferences have been held in Salt Lake City, Utah

Salt Lake City, Utah

Salt Lake City is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. The name of the city is often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC. With a population of 186,440 as of the 2010 Census, the city lies in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, which has a total population of 1,124,197...

 since 1848; in the Salt Lake Tabernacle

Salt Lake Tabernacle

The Salt Lake Tabernacle, also known as the Mormon Tabernacle, is located on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah along with the Salt Lake Assembly Hall and Salt Lake Temple.-History:...

 on Temple Square

Temple Square

Temple Square is a ten acre complex located in the center of Salt Lake City, Utah, owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . In recent years, the usage of the name has gradually changed to include several other church facilities immediately adjacent to Temple Square...

 before 2000 and in the Conference Center

LDS Conference Center

The Conference Center, located in Salt Lake City, Utah, is the premier meeting hall for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Completed in spring 2000 in time for the church's April 2000 general conference, the 21,000-seat Conference Center replaced the traditional use of the nearby Salt...

 after that. Historically, general conference was over three days with the annual conference always including April 6. This proved awkward when April 6 fell midweek as this made conference difficult to attend for those with work and school commitments. In April 1977, during Spencer W. Kimball's

Spencer W. Kimball

Spencer Woolley Kimball was the twelfth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1973 until his death in 1985.-Ancestry:...

 presidency, conference was reduced to two days, Saturday and Sunday.

Currently, each conference consists of five two-hour sessions: four general sessions and one Priesthood

Priesthood (LDS Church)

In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , the priesthood is the power and authority to act in the name of God for the salvation of humankind...

 session. General sessions commence at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. (Mountain Time) on Saturday and Sunday. General sessions are open to all church members and guests holding tickets, usually for only one session. The tickets are free of charge and members of the church can request them from either their local leaders or by writing to church headquarters. Standby tickets are also available, as frequently many ticket holders are not able to attend. At 6 p.m. on Saturday the Priesthood session is held for men and boys (12 years and older) who hold the priesthood of the church. Additionally, a women's

Relief Society

The Relief Society is a philanthropic and educational women's organization and an official auxiliary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . It was founded in 1842 in Nauvoo, Illinois, USA and has approximately 6 million members in over 170 countries and territories...

 general meeting is held on the Saturday preceding the Saturday general sessions of the October conference, and a general meeting for young women

Young Women (organization)

The Young Women is a youth organization and an official auxiliary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...

 is held at a similar time before the April conference. These meetings usually last around 90 to 120 minutes.

Organization

A member of the First Presidency

First Presidency (LDS Church)

The First Presidency is the presiding or governing body of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . It is composed of the President of the Church and his counselors. The First Presidency currently consists of President Thomas S. Monson and his two counselors, Henry B...

 of the church normally conducts each conference session, with the President of the Church presiding. On occasions in the past, when part or all of the First Presidency have been absent, whoever the First Presidency requests to conduct the Conference may do so, usually the most senior apostle not in the First Presidency. The conducting official introduces the various speakers, which over the course of the sessions will generally include all members of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and a selection of other leaders in the church. Almost every general authority

General authority

In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , a general authority is a member of certain leadership organizations who are given administrative and ecclesiastical authority over the church...

 of the church is present, though outside the First Presidency and Twelve only few speak. Non-general authority speakers may include male and female officers of auxiliary organization

Auxiliary organization (LDS Church)

An auxiliary organization is a secondary body of church government within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that is "established for moral, educational, and benevolent purposes." As their name suggests, LDS Church auxiliary organizations are ancillary to the governing power of the...

s.

During one general session (usually Saturday afternoon) the conducting officer presents all the general authorities and general officers of the church for the formal sustaining vote

Common consent

Common consent is a democratic principle established by the Latter Day Saint movement's founder, Joseph Smith, Jr., who taught in 1830 that "all things must be done in order, and by common consent in the church, by the prayer of faith." As it is most frequently used by the Church of Jesus Christ of...

 of the membership, and it is usually at this time that any changes among the general church leadership are announced. Normally, the members of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve are mentioned by name; those in other positions are mentioned by name only if they are being called or released from a previous or to a new position. The person conducting asks all of those who are in favor of sustaining the current leadership or of the calling of a new leader to raise their hand in a "vote." The counselor then asks that any who are opposed raise their hand. Dissenting votes are rare and the customary declaration at the end of the voting is "the voting appears to be unanimous in the affirmative."

At the first general conference after the death of a church president and the calling of his successor, the session at which the sustaining vote takes place is called a solemn assembly

Solemn assembly (Latter Day Saints)

A solemn assembly is a sacred gathering in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints which is held, most often, for the purpose of sustaining a new president and prophet of the church...

. At a solemn assembly, groups of Latter-day Saints are asked to stand in succession and sustain the new president of the church. Typically, the order is: First Presidency, the Quorum of the Twelve, the Quorums of Seventy, Melchizedek priesthood

Melchizedek priesthood

The Melchizedek priesthood is the greater of the two orders of priesthood recognized in Mormonism. The others are the Aaronic priesthood and the rarely recognized Patriarchal priesthood...

 holders, Aaronic priesthood holders, Relief Society

Relief Society

The Relief Society is a philanthropic and educational women's organization and an official auxiliary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . It was founded in 1842 in Nauvoo, Illinois, USA and has approximately 6 million members in over 170 countries and territories...

 members, members of the Young Women organization, and then all members together. Then the names of all other general authorities are read, and a sustaining and opposing vote is called for.

Frequently, special announcements are made at general conference, which may include building sites for new temples

Temple (LDS Church)

In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , a temple is a building dedicated to be a House of the Lord, and they are considered by Church members to be the most sacred structures on earth. Upon completion, temples are usually open to the public for a short period of time...

 or the institution of new policies or programs.

Music

Music is also an important part of the conference. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir

Mormon Tabernacle Choir

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, sometimes colloquially referred to as MoTab, is a Grammy and Emmy Award winning, 360-member, all-volunteer choir. The choir is part of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . However, the choir is completely self-funded, traveling and producing albums to...

 along with the organist at the Conference Center generally provide the majority of the music, with the exception of the Saturday afternoon and priesthood sessions. Guest ensembles include regional choirs, institute choirs, the MTC

Missionary Training Center

Missionary Training Centers are centers devoted to training missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The flagship MTC is located in Provo, Utah, USA, adjacent to the campus of Brigham Young University....

 choir, and the BYU Choirs

BYU Choirs

The choirs at Brigham Young University consist of four auditioned choirs: the Concert Choir, the Men's Chorus, the Women's Chorus, and the Brigham Young University Singers. Each choir is highly accomplished and performs from an extensive repertoire. Together, the choirs have recorded and released a...

. The hymns are usually selected from the normal repertoire of LDS hymns

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints hymns

This article is about LDS church hymns in general, for the book, see Hymns of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Latter-day Saint hymns come from many sources, and there have been numerous hymn books printed by the Church since its organization in 1830...

 and their various arrangements, with an occasional piece from traditional sacred choral repertoire. Usually, the congregation is invited to stand and join in with one hymn halfway through each session.

Very rarely, soloist artists will perform for conferences. The last to do so, Liriel Domiciano

Liriel Domiciano

Liriel Domiciano is a Brazilian pop star and classical singer. She was born in São Paulo. Along with Rinaldo Viana, she won the Raul Gil Amateur Show, the equivalent of the United States' American Idol. Their first CD, Romance, became the second-highest classical bestseller in Brazilian history...

, performed in the 2004 Annual General Conference with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

Beginning in 1996, the recordings of the music performed in General Conference itself have from that date been distributed on the CD recordings of each Conference. When the Church began distributing DVDs in 2001, the music was also included, and in October 2008, mp3 recordings of the music performed began to be posted at the same time, or within a day or two of, the audio mp3 recordings of the sermons are posted on the Church's website.

Sermons

Members of the church regard and sustain the President of the Church, the counselors in the First Presidency, and members of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles as "prophets, seers, and revelators," and are counseled to pay close attention to what they teach throughout the year. However, the sermons given at general conference are held in particularly high esteem and they are considered the will of God to the church members at the current time. The sermons (usually called talks) are published in the Ensign, the official church English language magazine, the month following a general conference. They are also translated and printed in the Liahona

Liahona (magazine)

Liahona is the official international magazine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is named after the word Liahona from the Book of Mormon. The Liahona is published in 51 different languages from one to twelve times per year depending on the language...

, the church's international version of the Ensign, which is published in multiple languages. Church members are encouraged to read and study the talks, discuss them at home and at church, and quote from them while giving lessons and sermons at church.

A sample of the topics of general conference discourses includes:

• Unity (Eyring, October 2008)
• Forgiveness (Faust, April 2007; Hinckley, October 2005)
• Natural disasters and preparedness (Hinckley, October 2005)
• Faith (Sorensen, April 2005)
• The dangers of pornography (Hinckley, October 2004; Oaks, April 2005; Holland, April 2010)
• The first vision of Joseph Smith (Uchtdorf, April 2005)
• Acquiring a testimony of Jesus (McMullin, April 2004)
• Fatherhood (Perry, April 2004)
• The Atonement of Jesus (Hafe, April 2004)
• Fasting (Pratt, October 2004)
• Repentance (Nelson, April 2007; Uchtdorf, April 2007; Oaks, October 2003)
• Eternal life through Jesus (Madsen, April 2002)
• Tithing (Tingey, April 2002)
• Hope in the Atonement of Jesus (Faust, October 2001)
• The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ (Packer, October 2001)

Dissemination

Although the conference is actually held in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, the church makes it as widely available as possible. It is shown on screens in various buildings on Temple Square

Temple Square

Temple Square is a ten acre complex located in the center of Salt Lake City, Utah, owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . In recent years, the usage of the name has gradually changed to include several other church facilities immediately adjacent to Temple Square...

, including the Tabernacle, Salt Lake Assembly Hall

Salt Lake Assembly Hall

thumb|200px|right|Front entrance to the Assembly Hall with the [[Seagull Monument]] in foregroundthumb|200px|right|Inside Assembly HallThe Salt Lake Assembly Hall is one of the buildings owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the southwest corner of Temple Square in Salt Lake...

 and the Joseph Smith Memorial Building

Joseph Smith Memorial Building

The Joseph Smith Memorial Building is named in honor of Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. It is located on the corner of Main Street and South Temple in Salt Lake City. Previously the Hotel Utah, it is now an administrative building...

. The conference usually airs on the LDS-owned media

Mass media

Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...

 outlets KSL-TV

KSL-TV

KSL-TV, virtual channel 5, is an NBC-affiliated television station located in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. KSL-TV is owned by Bonneville International Corporation, which is in turn owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...

, KSL (AM), KBYU (FM)

KBYU (FM)

KBYU-FM is a classical music radio station run by Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Operating at 89.1 MHz, it is known on-air as Classical 89. It transmits at an effective radiated power of 30 kW...

, and KBYU-TV

KBYU-TV

KBYU-TV is a Public Broadcasting Service member public television station serving the U.S. state of Utah. The station broadcasts locally in digital-only on UHF channel 44, which redirects to its former analog channel 11 via PSIP. It is rebroadcast statewide through a network of translators...

. The conference usually preempts regularly scheduled programming. The conference is broadcast by satellite

Satellite television

Satellite television is television programming delivered by the means of communications satellite and received by an outdoor antenna, usually a parabolic mirror generally referred to as a satellite dish, and as far as household usage is concerned, a satellite receiver either in the form of an...

 to church meetinghouses throughout the world, either simultaneously or time delayed to accommodate for differing time zones.

Conferences are also broadcast by some pay television networks such as Dish

Dish Network

Dish Network Corporation is the second largest pay TV provider in the United States, providing direct broadcast satellite service—including satellite television, audio programming, and interactive television services—to 14.337 million commercial and residential customers in the United States. Dish...

, DirecTV

DirecTV

DirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster based in El Segundo, California. Its satellite service, launched on June 17, 1994, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America, and the Anglophone Caribbean. ...

, and C-band in some markets on the BYU TV station. In recent years, an audio webcast

Webcast

A webcast is a media presentation distributed over the Internet using streaming media technology to distribute a single content source to many simultaneous listeners/viewers. A webcast may either be distributed live or on demand...

 of conference can also be heard via the church's website. These latter, more public methods usually do not carry the priesthood session.

The Internet site broadcasts on the Church's website have, since October 2009, been supplemented with the Church's own official radio station, Mormon Channel

Mormon Channel

Mormon Channel is an over the air and Internet radio station owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . It is based in Salt Lake City, Utah....

 also broadcasting the four general sessions of General Conference live.

General Conference can be viewed live on many cable and over-the-air channels that offer the programming as a public service. It can also be viewed live on BYU Television on the Dish Network, Channel 9403 and DirecTV, Channel 374. BYU Television is also available on over 250 cable systems in the U.S. Information on how to get BYU Television can be found at www.byutv.org. BYU Television International also broadcasts General Conference to 252 Cable systems in Latin America in Spanish and Portuguese.

General Conference can be viewed on the Internet at www.lds.org. Audio streaming is also at the same website at radio.lds.org. Beginning in April 2010, all the talks from that Conference were posted on Youtube, at youtube.com/mormonmessages. The Youtube embedded links are not included on mormonmessages.org which resides within the lds.org website, however.

BYU Television also streams conference live on the Interent at www.byu.tv and BYU Television International streams the sessions live in Spanish and Portuguese at www.byutvint.org.

Using all these methods, the church delivers the broadcast to 83 countries transmitting to over 7450 church facilities worldwide and airing over 20 television and 2177 cable stations. Volunteer language professionals translate the sermons into over 90 languages live during the simulcast, meaning that ninety-eight percent of church members can listen to general conference in their native language. Where there is no satellite or internet availability the Church provides local Church units general conference on DVD.

World Conference in Community of Christ

World Conference

World Conference (Community of Christ)

World Conference is the highest legislative body in the Community of Christ and is empowered to act for the entire church. It operates according to a principle known as "common consent" and is presided over by the First Presidency...

is the name given to the tri-annual meeting of delegates of Community of Christ

Community of Christ

The Community of Christ, known from 1872 to 2001 as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints , is an American-based international Christian church established in April 1830 that claims as its mission "to proclaim Jesus Christ and promote communities of joy, hope, love, and peace"...

. Originally called General Conferences and held semiannually, or as need arose, they have the same origin as the semi-annual General Conferences of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS).

The World Conference is the highest legislative body in the Community of Christ and is empowered to act for the entire church. Delegates to the conference are elected by Mission Center conferences. Motions are often debated vigorously and the results are sometimes controversial. World Conferences are traditionally held at Community of Christ World Headquarters, with the legislative and main worship services held in the Auditorium

Auditorium (Community of Christ)

The Auditorium is a house of worship and office building located on the greater Temple Lot in Independence, Missouri...

.

External links

• LDS Church Conference Reports (October 1897–present)
• Official General Conference page of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
• Deseret News General Conference page
• Tad Walch, "An LDS Conference Outside the U.S.?", Deseret Morning News
  Deseret Morning News
  The Deseret News is a newspaper published in Salt Lake City, Utah, and is Utah's oldest continuously published daily newspaper. It has the second largest daily circulation in the state behind The Salt Lake Tribune. The Deseret News is owned by Deseret News Publishing Company, a subsidiary of...
  
  , 2007-04-03