Leaders say that Mormons spend less time in church on Sundays
Leaders say that Mormons spend less time in church on Sundays
Mormons will begin to spend less time in the church every Sunday, two hours instead of three, after a change announced on Saturday with the goal of making worship more manageable for members around the world.
The change, which will come into effect in January, is significant for Mormons, who are expected to attend the three hours of every Sunday since 1980 to be considered active members of the faith.
The news provoked widespread applause from the members, and some published memes of celebration on social networks. It came during the biannual conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, where a leader also reaffirmed the opposition of faith to gay marriage and his belief that gender is granted by God and is eternal.
"The main leaders of the church have been aware for many years that for some of our precious members, a three-hour Sunday church schedule can be difficult," said Quentin L. Cook, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Leaders of the church who help direct the faith. "This is particularly true for parents with young children, primary children, elderly members, new converts and others."
The three-hour commitment is considerable compared to the Sunday services of other religions. Many Catholic, Lutheran and Methodist churches, for example, offer weekly worship that lasts about an hour or an hour and a half, along with volunteer classes and other meetings throughout the week.
The president of the church, Russell M. Nelson, called the adjustment a new "home-centered church" strategy that arises as faith expands across the world. More than half of its 16 million members live outside the US UU And Canada.
"The long-standing goal of the church is to help all members increase their faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and in his atonement," Nelson said. "In this complex world today, this is not easy, the adversary is increasing his attack on the faith and families at an exponential rate, and in order to survive spiritually, we need counter-strategies and proactive plans."
Paulina Porras, mother of twins for 1 year, was ecstatic with the news. Her daughters are not old enough to go to the children's programs alone, so she and her husband have to take care of them during church time on Sunday.
"Staying three hours is impossible," said Porras, 29, of Logan. "Two hours we can do".
Instead of attending two meetings each Sunday beyond one hour worship, such as Sunday school and men's and women's groups, members will attend one every Sunday, and meetings will rotate throughout the month, Cook said. .
Marc Fish, owner of an insurance company in Las Vegas, also praised the change. Three hours each Sunday can be intimidating for potential converts and straying members, and the change gives families the flexibility to weave in gospel activities at home.
Fisher, 38, has seven children between the ages of 7 and 25 who are busy with piano, volleyball and homework, he said. Plan to have more one-on-one conversations with them.
"The schedules are crazy for many families," said Fisher. "Sometimes you hear in the church that we're stuck with checklists, the pressure and the stress of just finding everything."
While members of the United States are likely to welcome the new program, it seems to reflect primarily that the church is deviating from the very Western-American approach, where most members live near chapels and can manage the The three-hour Sunday commitment, or block of worship, said a Mormon scholar Matthew Bowman, an associate professor of history at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas.
"This change is aimed at making participation in the church more flexible and increasingly directed to smaller congregations: a shorter worship block means fewer demands for volunteers for the congregation, fewer jobs that need to be filled and, in general, , easier administration, "Bowman said in an interview. email.
According to independent Mormon researcher Matt Martinich, the growth of church membership has declined in recent years, with membership growth in 2017 the slowest in 80 years. The number of convert baptisms in 2017 reached the lowest level in 30 years, he said.
It is mainly due to the slowdown in growth in countries with more members: the United States, Mexico, Brazil, the Philippines, Chile and Peru, Martinich said.
He does not believe that Sunday's change is intended to increase retention, but rather to use the resources of the church and the time of members more efficiently. The change could allow several congregations to use the same church building in places like Utah, where there are a large number of members. It will also allow members to carry out personal and family activities of the Gospel in their own time, he said.
The two-day Mormon conference began a day after the faith announced that it was changing the name of the famous Mormon Tabernacle Choir to eliminate the word "Mormon." The group of singers, now called the Tabernacle Choir in the Temple Square, acted in the conference as they always do.
The decision to change the name of the choir was the first major movement since President Nelson in August called for an end to the use of abbreviated names for the religion that church members and the public have used for generations.
Nelson did not mention the subject in his brief comments, but a lower-level church leader named Paul B. Pieper called Latter-day Saints to accept Nelson's "prophetic call." Pieper encouraged the members to "take upon themselves the name of Jesus Christ," which has "a singular and essential power."
The comments on gay marriage and gender came from the Quorum of the Twelve member, Dallin H. Oaks, who urged members to oppose "social and legal pressures to withdraw from traditional marriage or to make changes that confuse or alter gender or homogenize the differences between men and women. "
Oaks said those relationships and identities are "essential to achieve God's great plan" and that Satan "seeks to confuse gender, distort marriage and discourage motherhood, especially by fathers who will raise their children in the truth." .
The comments align with past positions of faith, which has sought to adopt a more welcoming stance for LGBTQ people while adhering to the fundamental opposition to same-sex marriage and the operations of transgender people.
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