Return to Church Guidelines

[Traveler]

31 minutes ago, anatess2 said:

Oh, it is very much a service.  My son prepares and blesses the sacrament, I plan and conduct the hymns, my husband presides and conducts the meeting.  We rotate talks between the 3 of us and the 2 missionaries... all in the service of our God and fellowmen.

Nice for you - my wife was visiting family and I was by myself Sunday.  Breaking bread for one person does not have the same meaning.  I wonder what Moroni did for his Sabbath worship?

 

The Traveler

[anatess2]

33 minutes ago, Traveler said:

Nice for you - my wife was visiting family and I was by myself Sunday.  Breaking bread for one person does not have the same meaning.  I wonder what Moroni did for his Sabbath worship?

 

The Traveler

For sure not video conferencing. 

 

[Jane_Doe]

20 hours ago, Traveler said:

Nice for you - my wife was visiting family and I was by myself Sunday.  Breaking bread for one person does not have the same meaning.  I wonder what Moroni did for his Sabbath worship?

Haha.  That's a great thought.

I'm the only adult member so, home church feels even less formal when it's just me and no bread whatsoever.  I've started recruiting some family members of a Zoom social / church time wherein my 6 year old tell her "primary class" what we've been studying this week (or the 10 minutes before "primary").  

[LadyGunnar]

We have been told church will happen in a few weeks. They will spilt the ward in three. I don't know how they plan on having enough priesthood.  Masks will be required. I am not going back until the mask requirement is gone. It would be a nightmare with my younger children. Not worth it in my mind.

 

I also like home church. I don't fit in our Ward. I feel like I will be an outsider forever because I didn't grow up in the ward, city or even state.   Being at home is nice and the kids love it.

[BobMaster]

15 minutes ago, LadyGunnar said:

We have been told church will happen in a few weeks. They will spilt the ward in three. I don't know how they plan on having enough priesthood.  Masks will be required. I am not going back until the mask requirement is gone. It would be a nightmare with my younger children. Not worth it in my mind.

 

I also like home church. I don't fit in our Ward. I feel like I will be an outsider forever because I didn't grow up in the ward, city or even state.   Being at home is nice and the kids love it.

This is a great thing! (splitting of wards to smaller groups).  With the significant downsizing of the Church recently, there is absolutely no reason to have large congregations-none.  Wards can easily be under 100 people with all the reduction of callings.

I understand you don't feel like you fit in your own Ward; but in a tighter setting you'll be surprised at how much you'll probably find in common.  However, the next thing the Church should do is eliminate the requirements for people to attend wards in the same geographic area . . but that probably wont' happen for a while.  

Edited June 4, 2020 by BobMaster

[Jane_Doe]

27 minutes ago, BobMaster said:

This is a great thing! (splitting of wards to smaller groups).  With the significant downsizing of the Church recently, there is absolutely no reason to have large congregations-none.  Wards can easily be under 100 people with all the reduction of callings.

I understand you don't feel like you fit in your own Ward; but in a tighter setting you'll be surprised at how much you'll probably find in common.  However, the next thing the Church should do is eliminate the requirements for people to attend wards in the same geographic area . . but that probably wont' happen for a while.  

Speaking in for non-pandemic times: a benefit of having larger wards is simply to have more people, particularly for some sub-groups - like youth.  It's MUCH easier to run Young Women's if there's at least 10 where they can support each other and have that variety of personalities , and do more things as a group.  Trying to run a youth program with ~2 can be  awkward and often they miss that peer support.  

[anatess2]

2 hours ago, BobMaster said:

This is a great thing! (splitting of wards to smaller groups).  With the significant downsizing of the Church recently, there is absolutely no reason to have large congregations-none.  Wards can easily be under 100 people with all the reduction of callings.

I understand you don't feel like you fit in your own Ward; but in a tighter setting you'll be surprised at how much you'll probably find in common.  However, the next thing the Church should do is eliminate the requirements for people to attend wards in the same geographic area . . but that probably wont' happen for a while.  

 

1 hour ago, Jane_Doe said:

Speaking in for non-pandemic times: a benefit of having larger wards is simply to have more people, particularly for some sub-groups - like youth.  It's MUCH easier to run Young Women's if there's at least 10 where they can support each other and have that variety of personalities , and do more things as a group.  Trying to run a youth program with ~2 can be  awkward and often they miss that peer support.  

Per my experience in my Philippine ward, a ward is not formed regardless of how many families are attending the branch if there are not enough Priesthood holders.

As far as geographic area - I don't think this is going to change.  A Stake is a geographic area.  A ward is the same.  You attend your ward so that you can lift up that geographic area.  The effect of this is so much more pronounced in the Philippines where you have small towns of very little means that get a tiny branch to form.  From within this branch, the lives of the people in the town are directly affected, making a stark difference between an area with a branch/ward to an area without one simply by the work of the Saints in serving in their callings and serving in their community as a group under the authority of their Bishop/President.

[Vort]

4 hours ago, BobMaster said:

However, the next thing the Church should do is eliminate the requirements for people to attend wards in the same geographic area

That would be a terrible idea.

[LadyGunnar]

8 hours ago, BobMaster said:

This is a great thing! (splitting of wards to smaller groups).  With the significant downsizing of the Church recently, there is absolutely no reason to have large congregations-none.  Wards can easily be under 100 people with all the reduction of callings.

I understand you don't feel like you fit in your own Ward; but in a tighter setting you'll be surprised at how much you'll probably find in common.  However, the next thing the Church should do is eliminate the requirements for people to attend wards in the same geographic area . . but that probably wont' happen for a while.  

I have been here years. I don't fit in here. I have tried and tried. I gave up.

    I had a great ward before we moved here. It's a very unfriendly area. They are great at the fake friendly, but not the real stuff.  I miss my old ward and having people who were really happy to see you. 

[LadyGunnar]

3 hours ago, Vort said:

That would be a terrible idea.

I think it would be great. One ward in our stake has lots of youth. The others have one or two. It would be so nice to be able to have more youth around for my kids.  

[Jane_Doe]

25 minutes ago, LadyGunnar said:

I think it would be great. One ward in our stake has lots of youth. The others have one or two. It would be so nice to be able to have more youth around for my kids.  

I know a lot of ares where they do youth activities with several wards combined, specifically for situations like yours.  

[Plein Air]

.

Edited August 2, 2020 by Plein Air

[LadyGunnar]

2 hours ago, Jane_Doe said:

I know a lot of ares where they do youth activities with several wards combined, specifically for situations like yours.  

I wish they did here.  

[Carborendum]

5 hours ago, LadyGunnar said:

I wish they did here.  

You could suggest that.

We do in our stake because of low numbers.  It takes some effort.  But the youth seem to like it.

[Guest MormonGator]

8 hours ago, LadyGunnar said:

I have been here years. I don't fit in here. I have tried and tried. I gave up.

     I had a great ward before we moved here. It's a very unfriendly area. They are great at the fake friendly, but not the real stuff.  I miss my old ward and having people who were really happy to see you. 

You aren't alone @LadyGunnar. That's almost exactly my boat as well. I'm so sorry it's happening to you. 

Edited June 5, 2020 by MormonGator

[anatess2]

8 hours ago, LadyGunnar said:

I wish they did here.  

In Florida, we've had years where we average 5 boys in Cub Scouts, 2 of which don't attend because of Sports.  We've had years where we average 5 boys in Young Men, some years we have no deacons.  And our geographic area is such that we have to drive 20 minutes to get to the Stake Center. 

In the Philippines, we've had wards where you have to ride a bus for 4 hours to get to the Stake Center.  We've had wards where the next ward over is a day's ride by boat.  And my ward in the Philippines doesn't have a primary because they don't have enough old hat converts to run one - they're more needed to learn things in Sunday School rather than preside over a primary.  The little kids go to Sunday School and Relief Society with their moms.  Filipinos approach each ward challenge with one solution - "We need more baptisms".

So...  Each ward have their own challenges.  It is what it is. We lift where we stand.

Edited June 5, 2020 by anatess2

[Carborendum]

So, I spoke with my bishop about fine-tuning our return-to-church plans.

The plans now include splitting the ward into 7 groups.  Each week only two or three groups will meet at the same time on rotation, mixing with all the other groups over the course of three to four week cycles. Through the rotation, we will eventually get to see everyone in the ward over the course of three months.

He mentioned that it took six weeks for the Area presidency to put together this idea.  And they're taking a few more weeks to implement it on the ward level because there is a lot to balance -- especially in a ward our size.

Combine that with the announcement this week that October Conference will be virtual only, it looks like we're not going to see normal church activity until Thanksgiving or Christmas at the earliest.  I'm betting on the beginning of the year.  But it could be as late as April Conference.

Edited June 8, 2020 by Carborendum

[anatess2]

Our Stake Presidency just sent out a survey on what we want with several survey questions and a comment area.

My answers pretty much lend to - I'd rather have sacrament meeting at home rather than go to Church with all these weird rules like - only x number of families, have to have a mask, sacrament meeting without talks, have to have families volunteer to sanitize the entire place, etc. etc.  Let us know when we can go back to normal, until then, everyone is welcome to my backyard for home sacrament meeting.

[Jane_Doe]

12 minutes ago, anatess2 said:

Our Stake Presidency just sent out a survey on what we want with several survey questions and a comment area.

My answers pretty much lend to - I'd rather have sacrament meeting at home rather than go to Church with all these weird rules like - only x number of families, have to have a mask, sacrament meeting without talks, have to have families volunteer to sanitize the entire place, etc. etc.  Let us know when we can go back to normal, until then, everyone is welcome to my backyard for home sacrament meeting.

My first instinct was similar.

I miss my ward family dearly, and it's exhausting to be doing everything myself.  But showing up for an essentially grab-and-go Sacrament ordinance... doesn't fullfill that need.  

I'd bee totally down for a mini-backyard sacrament meeting with another family or two.  That actually would work great.  I'm going to go text another family in the ward now, asking if they want to join up.

[anatess2]

6 minutes ago, Jane_Doe said:

My first instinct was similar.

I miss my ward family dearly, and it's exhausting to be doing everything myself.  But showing up for an essentially grab-and-go Sacrament ordinance... doesn't fullfill that need.  

I'd bee totally down for a mini-backyard sacrament meeting with another family or two.  That actually would work great.  I'm going to go text another family in the ward now, asking if they want to join up.

Our missionaries got the thumbs up from their mission president to attend our backyard sacrament meeting in person starting next week!  For the past 2 months, they've been attending our meetings online bringing investigators with them.  This time, we can have investigators actually meet members if they don't mind coming over!