ST. GEORGE — The Saturday evening session of the biannual general conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints once reserved for men only is being discontinued.
The church’s First Presidency announced Monday that the evening Saturday sessions of the faith’s general conference are being dropped “because all sessions of general conference are now available to anyone who desires to watch or listen.”
The change takes effect this October.
According to Church News, the Saturday evening sessions have been an official part of the general conference since the mid-1940s. Commonly known as the “priesthood session,” it was open to men only until the church began to broadcast the session over 10 years ago.
A Saturday evening session of the conference has also been held for the women of the church a week prior to the regular two-day church conference. However, this changed three years ago as the session for women and session for men began to be held on an alternate six-month basis during the conference proper.
The church also announced Monday that the next conference, set for Oct. 2-3, will return to its traditional venue of the 20,000-seat Conference Center in Salt Lake City; however, due to the lingering pandemic, the conference will remain closed to the public.
Since the onset of the pandemic, the general conference has been held in smaller venues and closed to the public as a precautionary measure.
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