General Conference Mormonism
In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , a General Conference is a meeting of all members of the Church for the general direction of affairs of the Church and in education. The first general conference of the organized church for two months was held June 9, 1830 at Fayette , New York, chaired by Joseph Smith and bringing 27 members of the Church. Originally, the general conferences were held every three months, according to one of the first revelations that Joseph Smith would have had History and Structure In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , General Conferences are a semi-annual meeting where General Authorities and other church leaders give speeches and teach members of the Church. Change of Presidency of the Church are proposed and supported by the principle of mutual consent. General conferences are held on the weekend, the first Sunday of April and October. The April conference is known as the Annual General Conference, and as the October semi-annual General Conference. At the April conference presents the annual and financial reports that do not appear in the October meeting. Both conferences are identified by the number of years since the founding of the Church in April 1830, so that the conference in April 2008 was the 178th annual meeting and conference in October 2007 was the 177th general conference semi-annually. The conferences have been held since 1848 in Salt Lake City , Utah , in the Tabernacle at Temple Square until 2000 and the Conference Centre next. Historically, the General Conference lasted more than three days and always included the annual conference on April 6 which proved embarrassing when 6 April was midweek which made it difficult to support the conference for people with commitments work or school. In April 1977, during the Presidency of Spencer W. Kimball , the conference has been reduced to two days, Saturday and Sunday . Currently, each conference consists of five sessions of two hours, four general sessions and one session of Priesthood. General sessions begin at 10am and 14h, Saturday and Sunday. The general sessions are open to all church members and guests holding tickets, usually for a single session. Tickets are free and members of the Church can ask them or their leaders, either by writing to the church headquarters. The previous day tickets are also available if ticket holders will withdraw. Saturday at 18h session Priesthood is organized for men and boys aged 12 and over who hold the Priesthood of the Church. In addition, a general meeting of Women ( Relief Society ) was held Saturday at the start of the October general conference, and a general meeting of the organization of girls takes place in early April conference. These meetings generally last about 90 to 120 minutes. A member of the First Presidency of the Church directs each session of the conference, and the President of the Church presides. On some occasions in the past, when some or all of the First Presidency, was absent, the first president asked a person authorized to do so, usually the oldest of the apostles. The official leader presents the various stakeholders, who during the sessions generally include all members of the First Presidency and some of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and a selection of other church leaders. Nearly all the General Authorities of the Church are present. Stakeholders who are not General Authority are men and women of the auxiliary organizations. During a general session (usually on Saturday afternoon), the leader of the meeting has all the authorities and general officers of the Church in common consent. This is normally the time that changes in the general direction of the church announced. Members of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles are listed by name, other people with other calls are listed by their name if they are called or reported a previous or new call. The person running the meeting request to all those who support the current or the new president of hands for a vote of support. " Those who oppose it are invited to raise their hands then. The dissenting votes are rare and the declaration of use terminating the vote "the vote was unanimous." After the death of a President of the Church and the call of his successor, the session at which voting takes place support is called solemn assembly. At a solemn assembly, groups of Latter-day Saints are encouraged to support the new President of the Church. In general, the order of support is primarily the Presidency, the Quorum of the Twelve, the Quorum of the Seventy, the holders of the Melchizedek priesthood , the priesthood of Aaron , the Relief Society , the members of the organization of Young Girls , then all members of the Church . Then the name of all the General Authorities are read, and votes of support or votes 'cons' are required. Often, announcements are made at the General Conference as the construction of new temples or new directions and new programs. Music is an important part of the conference invitation to spirituality. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the organist of the conference center produce most music, except for sessions on Saturday afternoon and Priesthood sessions. Are also invited local choirs, choruses of the Institute of Missionary Training Center, and BYU. The songs are generally selected from the standard repertoire of hymns from the LDS Church and their various arrangements, sometimes with a piece of sacred repertoire. Usually, the assembly is invited to stand and join in a hymn to mid-term review of each session. Very rarely, soloists interpret music conferences. The last to do was Liriel Domiciano at the Annual General Conference of 2004 with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. The church members believe and support the President of the Church , the counselors in the First Presidency and members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles as "prophets, seers, and revealing," and are encouraged to pay particular attention to what they teach throughout the year. However, the speeches given at the General Conference, particularly valued are regarded as the will of God to members of the Church today . Sermons (usually called speech) are published in the Ensign, the official magazine of the Church in English the following month a general conference. They are also translated and printed in the Ensign , international version of the Ensign, published in several languages. The Church members are encouraged to read and study the speeches, discuss at home and the Church, and comment on lessons and speeches to the Church. Sample of subjects during the general conference address: Although the conference is held within the conference center in Salt Lake City , Utah , the Church makes it as accessible as possible. It appears on the screens in different buildings in Temple Square , including the Tabernacle , the Assembly Hall (Assembly Hall), and the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. The conference is usually broadcast in the media of the Church such as KSL-TV, KSL (AM), KBYU (FM) and KBYU-TV. The conference generally prevails over the usual programming. The conference is broadcast by satellite in churches around the world, either simultaneously or delayed to accommodate different time zones. Lectures are also broadcast by pay TV networks such as Dish Network, DirecTV and C-band on some networks BYU TV. In recent years, a webcast audio replay can also be heard via the official website of the Church. They do not broadcast the Priesthood session. The General Conference can be accessed live on various cable channels and offers programming as a public service. It can also be followed live on BYU TV Dish Network channel 9403 and DirecTV channel 374. BYU TV is also available on 250 cable systems in the United States. Information on how to get BYU Television are in: www.byutv.org. BYU Television also broadcasts the live call over the Internet www.byu.tv BYU Television International broadcasts and live sessions in Spanish and Portuguese www.byutvint.org. Diffusion is also www.lds.org. Using all these methods, the Church sends the conference in 83 countries in over 5700 installations of the Church and over 18 television stations and 1,700 cable. Volunteer professionals translate into simultaneous speeches in over 80 languages, which means that 88% of church members can listen to general conference in their native language. The Church intends to increase the translation of the general conference to 100% of the languages of its members by 2010. ((Fact | date = September 2007)) Organization
Music
Speech
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