Some Thoughts on General Conference

General Conference is coming up. I’ve seen a lot of speculation and rumors flying around about this or that big change that might come. I generally don’t put much stock into rumors, so while I hope some of the speculation I’ve heard is true (and I hope some other speculation I’ve heard is false), I’m taking a wait and see approach, and I’m trying not to get emotionally invested in any of the speculation thus far.

I didn’t grow up in the church, so I don’t have childhood memories of watching conference. I think I may have caught a session or two on TV when I was a new member as a teen, back in the day when the local public access channel would broadcast it as part of their public service programming. But the first time I remember making a whole production of it was when I was in high school. A friend of mine invited me over, along with another mutual friend who attended church without his family, to watch conference at her house with her family. We ate food and watched church on comfy couches. I don’t remember any of the talks, but I remember how wonderful it felt to share the experience with others.

We don’t really have much of a liturgical calendar in Mormonism, but General Conference is the closest we get in some ways to the experience. I sometimes even jokingly refer to it as “The Feast of St. General Conference Day”. Some talks are sublime, some are mundane, and some make me want to yell at my television screen. (If I have to hear another strawman talk directed at singles that makes it clear that the speaker has never had a meaningful conversation on the subject with an actual single person…) Despite my complicated relationship to conference, I still kind of love it.

Most of the time, I watch it at home alone while attending to various projects – house cleaning, furniture assembly, quilt making, etc. Occasionally I’ll get together with friends for a feast while watching and discussing. No matter how I watch it, it feels like the whole weekend is a trip to another place outside of time – kind of like some sort of churchy vacation from the comfort of someone’s living room.

I’m sure many more pixels will be spilled in talking about this or that thing said at conference, and I’ll probably participate in those conversations. Some of the talks will uplift me, and some won’t. I’ll probably be moved to both happy tears and frustrated/hurt tears – though I’m hoping for more happy and less hurt.

Please pass the cinnamon rolls!

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