October 2020 general conference: Here’s what we know

An empty Conference Center is pictured during the evening session of the 190th Annual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City on Saturday, April 4, 2020. | Ivy Ceballo, Deseret News

SALT LAKE CITY — To be “good citizens” and follow safety procedures, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will again conduct its semiannual general conference without a live audience.

With public gatherings in Utah limited to 10 people last spring, the previous general conference was moved from its traditional venue, the 21,000-seat Conference Center, and broadcast to the world from a small auditorium near Temple Square on April 4-5, 2020. Only the First Presidency and those participating in the session were in attendance. Church leaders and members who normally travel to the conference were encouraged to remain in their respective countries. The general church membership watched from home.

Here’s what we know about the upcoming 190th Semiannual General Conference:

• The October 2020 general conference will be closed to the public and follow the same virtual format it used in April. It will be held Oct. 3-4, 2020.
• The announcement came in a June 4 letter addressed to leaders and members. It was signed by the First Presidency.
• Continued caution and safety concerns were the main reasons for the decision. “While some areas of the world continue to experience the effects of a serious pandemic, other areas do not. As a worldwide organization, we have an obligation to be good citizens and to act with caution as it relates to such a unique setting as general conference, which traditionally brings thousands of visitors to Salt Lake City from around the globe,” the letter states. “Because of our concern for the health and safety of others, we have decided that the October 2020 general conference will follow the same pattern as the conference held in April of this year.”
• The conference will be broadcast as usual. Additional details about the conference will be released in the future.

The conference, organized into five two-hour sessions over two days, traditionally draws about 100,000 people from around the world to the 21,000-seat Conference Center in downtown Salt Lake City. But most of the church’s 16.5 million members tune into the conference through broadcasting technology.

Ivy Ceballo, Deseret News

Maya Bennett, 10, Edward Castro Bennett, Silvia Castro, Luna Thomas, 6, and Gavin Bennett, 15, watch the Sunday morning session of the 190th Annual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in their Murray home on Sunday, April 5, 2020. The couple were recently baptized on Feb. 7 and planned to attend a session of conference at the Conference Center before the COVID-19 pandemic prevented the mass gatherings.

from Deseret News https://ift.tt/2EH4PfB