LDS church will go all-digital for its massive yearly conference thanks to coronavirus
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced Wednesday that it will not allow church members to attend its General Conference scheduled for early April amid novel coronavirus concerns.
In a news release on the church’s website, church leaders said they “are deeply concerned about the global spreading of illness caused by COVID-19,” another name for the virus.
“We have counseled with worldwide governmental, ecclesiastical, and medical leaders and have prayerfully considered the current circumstances. We want to be good global citizens and do what we can to control this contagious illness,” the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said in a statement online.
The church, commonly known as the Mormon church, holds its General Conferences each April and October to deliver churchwide sermons and discuss leadership and policy changes. This year’s conference is scheduled for April 4 and 5.
The gathering is typically held in the church’s Conference Center in downtown Salt Lake City. The building can hold 21,000 people.
Officials said church leaders, musicians and other high-ranking church members will conduct the conference in the building as planned. However, instead of a live audience, the conference will have only a digital one.
The church already broadcasts the conference on television and over the internet.
“We live in a remarkable age,” church leaders wrote in three letters to church members. “The Lord has blessed us with the technology and capacity to participate in and receive messages from church leaders in all parts of the world. This special conference will commemorate the bicentennial of the First Vision and the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in these latter days.”
Coronavirus affects LDS temples, missionaries
The General Conference is not the only church operation affected by coronavirus, which by Wednesday had affected two people in Utah, where the church is headquartered. Officials also announced that they would not be bringing new missionaries to the church’s missionary training centers.
The church has training centers in Provo, Utah; São Paulo, Brazil; Bogota, Colombia; Preston, England; Accra, Ghana; Guatemala City, Gautemala; Mexico City, Mexico; Auckland, New Zealand; Lima, Peru; Manila, Philippines and Johannesburg, South Africa.
Instead, incoming missionaries will be trained virtually, church leaders said in a news release.
Missionaries have been recalled from Hong Kong and are under quarantine, and missionaries serving in Cambodia, Singapore, Thailand and Mongolia are self-isolating, the church said.
The church has also closed several temples, including ones in Canada, Rome and Seattle, and is asking church members to cancel large gatherings.
The church’s actions come amid closures across the country and the world. Colleges and schools are closing, and festivals and other large gatherings are being canceled or postponed. In Boise, Treefort Music Festival has been delayed until September, while Boise State University is doing a virtual learning “test run” Friday.
As of Wednesday, no cases of COVID-19 had been confirmed in Idaho.
VIRUS SPREADS BY COUGHING, SNEEZING
Coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, is spread through contact between people within 6 feet of each other, especially through coughing and sneezing that expels respiratory droplets that land in the mouths or noses of people nearby.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it’s possible to catch the disease by touching something that has the virus on it, and then touching your own face, “but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads.”
Symptoms include fever, cough and shortness of breath, which may occur two days to two weeks after exposure. Most people develop only mild symptoms, but some people develop more severe symptoms, including pneumonia, which can be fatal. The disease is especially dangerous to the elderly and others with weaker immune systems.
So far, more than 121,000 cases have been reported worldwide, with about 4,400 deaths, the vast majority of them in China. In the U.S., 1,050 cases have been reported, including 29 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. On Wednesday, the World Health Organization declared the virus a global pandemic.
This story was originally published March 11, 2020 at 2:01 PM.
