LDS Church: April General Conference will be “technology only”

SALT LAKE CITY — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced their 2020 April General Conference will be a “technology only” meeting.

To help control this problem, we feel it wise to limit attendance at the upcoming April 2020 General Conference. We plan to conduct all five sessions of that conference at the Conference Center. General authorities, general officers and their spouses, musicians, choirs, technicians, and others will participate as assigned. But, proceedings of the conference will be distributed throughout the world via technology only. The public will not be admitted in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City, or in stake centers or meetinghouses in areas where contagion is a concern. Questions about other large gatherings of Church members will be answered in separate announcements.

The church has also issued temporary adjustments to local meetings and will postpone stake and leadership conferences as well as other large gatherings in church areas affected by COVID-19 including:

• Asia
• Asia North
• Europe
• Europe East
• All Areas in the United States and Canada

The last change the church announced Wednesday was that starting on March 16, 2020, “all missionaries scheduled to enter missionary training centers in Provo, Utah, or Preston, England, will be trained remotely by video conference.”

After that, the missionary will then travel directly to their assigned area.

The church says that each missionary will receive specific information for their own training and schedules.

The church is taking steps to reduce the number of missionaries in areas where the virus is a concern, according to an update from the church. Those who remain in those countries will take precautions to stay healthy — this includes staying in apartments as much as possible and avoiding personal interaction with other people.

Instead, missionaries are encouraged to teach through phone calls or other technology.

“It is important to note that young missionaries are not generally considered to be at risk for serious complications from the coronavirus,” the church said in a statement.

Utah’s Governor and Lt. Governor both say they are grateful for the steps taken by church leadership saying it was wise.

We appreciate the prudent steps taken by senior leadership of The Church of Jesus of Latter-day Saints to help mitigate the spread of novel coronavirus. The Utah COVID-19 Community Task Force encourages all organizations in the state of Utah to consider adapting their normal operations to help slow the spread of coronavirus in their spheres. These adaptations will vary greatly depending on the scale and scope of events and daily operations. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has made wise decisions that will help minimize exposure to the virus, while simultaneously allowing church members to participate in meetings that are important to their worship.

 

.@SpencerJCox and I have released the following statement on the @Ch_JesusChrist‘s announcements this morning. #utahcovid19 pic.twitter.com/VtTqjTPp6M

— Gov. Gary Herbert (@GovHerbert) March 11, 2020

This story is breaking and will be updated.

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