Friday, October 4, 2024 | Deseret News Weekend
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E General Conference | F1
‘Greatest period of my growth’: President Oaks in the Philippines
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Exploring 4 eras in Mexico’s heritage of temple faithfulness
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Caring for those in need: Following the 2 great commandments
Illustration by Michelle Budge, Deseret News
‘The Church has always been trying to be on the cutting edge of technology so that it can get the message out to everybody’ By Rachel Sterzer Gibson Church News
T
he first general conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints took place on a small farm in the forests of western New York. About 40 Church members — along with some friends and other interested people — crowded into the log home of Peter and Mary Whitmer on Wednesday, June 9, 1830, in the township of Fayette in Seneca County, New York. At that time, the entire Church had fewer than a dozen priesthood holders. The minutes for that meeting reveal that Joseph Smith read the “articles and covenants” — or what would become Doctrine and Covenants 20 — which were received by unanimous voice of the entire congregation. Oliver Cowdery ordained Samuel Smith an elder; then Joseph Smith Sr. and Hyrum Smith were ordained priests. That day began the heritage of the general conference of the Church. Today, more than 17 million Latter-day Saints — in addition to friends and associates of all faiths, beliefs and backgrounds — are invited twice a year, during the first weekends of April and October, to hear messages from Church leaders focused on Jesus Christ and His gospel. Each two-day event consists of five sessions, generally two hours, and can be watched live in close to 70 languages, or consumed later after it’s translated into more than 100 languages. The process of accommodating a handful of people in 1830 to now — where it is watched by millions around the world — has been remarkable, said Christine Marin, an audiovisual specialist in the Church History Department. “It’s so interesting how it’s evolved.”
That evolution has included many milestones and technological innovations. This year marks the 100th anniversary of broadcasting the Church’s general conference on radio, the 75th anniversary of general conference broadcast via television and the 25th anniversary of live broadcast via the internet. Marin noted, “The Church has always been trying to be on the cutting edge of technology so that it can get the message out to everybody.”
The evolution of general conference At first, conferences were convened at the request of the First Presidency. “In 1830, they had two conferences. The next year, they had 40, because conferences were called as needed” at different times and locations, Marin said. The April 6, 1833, general conference, for example, was held at the ferry on the Big Blue River in Jackson County, Missouri. It was not until Church headquarters moved to Nauvoo, Illinois, that the pattern was set of holding conferences in April and October. Until 1977, conference was always held on the 6th of April — the anniversary of the organization of the Church — no matter the day of the week, and general conference lasted three or more days. After the Saints’ arrival in the Salt Lake Valley, the membership soon outgrew a single venue. The Church’s first foray in trying to share the messages of conference beyond the walls of the Salt Lake Tabernacle involved a man learning shorthand and taking meticulous notes. “[At that time] quite often the Brethren did not write their talks. They spoke from the pulpit extemporaneously,” Marin said. Beginning in 1850, the man’s notes were transcribed and BROADCAST E2