SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH – Nov. 26, 2015 – (Gephardt Daily) — An initiative out of Boston to shorten the time of Sunday services for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has ended after it was determined the move was out of step with official LDS Church guidelines.
Word of the shortened services began in the fall and were widely circulated in recent days in a social media posting by recently excommunicated Church member, John Dehlin. According to Dehlin’s post, local LDS leaders called for the “elimination of all but essential Sunday meetings, i.e. fewer firesides, choir rehearsals, etc..” thereby reducing the length of the average Sunday session from three hours to two hours and fifteen minutes. “Sacrament will be last,” the posting said. “Emphasis of the day is the taking of the Sacrament, and having time for families.”
Those rumored changes elicited a direct response from the LDS Church. In a statement released to the media just prior to Thanksgiving, Church spokesperson Dale Jones said:
“After recognizing it was not within Church guidelines, local Church leadership in the Boston Massachusetts Stake decided to drop plans to shorten the standard Sunday worship meeting schedule. The two-month experiment set to begin in the stake in January was planned locally with good intentions to better observe the Sabbath Day.”
The current block of time designated for LDS Sunday Church services was established in 1980 after months of pilot studies. Church leaders said back then the new guidelines bolstered attendance of Sacrament meetings as well Relief Society. They also saw increases in attendance of Priesthood, Young Men, Young Women and Sunday School.
