What is the Sacrament ordinance?

Mormons take the Sacrament each Sunday during Sacrament Meeting. The Sacrament is an ordinance that helps us remember the Savior's sacrifice for each one of us. Pieces of bread are blessed and passed to the congregation, and then little cups of water are blessed and passed. The bread and water represent Jesus's body and blood which were torn and shed for us during the Savior's suffering in Gethsemane and his crucifixion. During the Sacrament, the chapel gets pretty quiet as we try to think about the Savior and all that He has done for us. ("Ye saints, partake and testify ye do remember him." ~Hymn 182, v.4)

Mormonism 101

How are speakers for Sacrament Meeting chosen?

A Mormon ward (local congregation) is run by a lay ministry rather than paid clergy, so there are different members of the ward speaking each week. Usually there are 2-4 speakers, and the addresses that they give are called "talks" (Mormon Terminology, Part 1). How are those speakers chosen?

One or all of the three members of the bishopric (the three leaders of the ward) will pray about what topic the ward needs to learn more about, and they will also pray about which member of the congregation should give the talk on that subject. When they feel they have their answer, they call up the person in mind and ask him or her to give the talk. Sometimes they will also provide the person with a General Conference talk or a scripture to use as a reference. The bishopric should try to notify the speakers at least a week early so that the speakers have time to prepare their talks, and sometimes they will make follow-up calls to see how the talk preparation is going.

Once the speaker accepts the request to give a talk, he should start to think about his topic and research it. He should also make sure that he prays that God will guide him in his preparation. The given topic is often very broad, so it helps for the speaker to consider what life experiences he has had that have to do with the topic. Choosing personal experiences to share in the talk helps to narrow down the topic a little, and it might just be why God chose that person to speak on the given topic. Someone, or several people in the ward, might need to hear about what the speaker learned from a life experience. Many Mormons will tell you that they have heard talks before that have completely changed their lives. When the speaker prepares and gives his talk with God's help, it's highly likely that many people who hear the talk will receive significant help for their own lives.

There isn't a prescribed style for giving a talk, but most people start by introducing themselves, and as they get into their topic, they try to teach doctrine using the scriptures, quotes from General Authorities (well-known church leaders), and personal experiences. Each talk should last about 5-20 minutes, depending on how many speakers there are in the program and whether there is an intermediate musical number or not. The speaker will often end with his testimony and close in the name of Jesus Christ. Mormons typically close in Jesus' name as a way to affirm that in all they have said, they have tried to convey a message that the Lord would approve of.

Using a lay ministry to supply speakers has its advantages and disadvantages. Speakers will make mistakes every now and then, so you might hear some false doctrine. But Mormons believe that we shouldn't automatically take everything speakers say at face value anyway, so you want to make sure that as you're listening, you pay attention to whether the Spirit is confirming to your heart or not that what the speaker is saying is true. Another disadvantage is that you might find some speakers' styles very tedious, over-your-head, or otherwise hard to follow. However, it's a new set of speakers each week, and some people are very hilarious and entertaining. Other people have inspiring stories or musical voices that you could spend all day listening to. Probably one of the most beneficial aspects of having different speakers each Sunday is the variety of personal experiences that are shared. When one speaker tells about how God helped him to overcome an addiction, or when another tells of how she came to know that God was actually real, the congregation have yet another reason to believe that their own testimonies about God are legitimate.

The system also serves to benefit the speakers themselves. They will probably be the ones to learn the most from their topic. Speakers also get the chance to practice leadership and public speaking skills in a supportive environment. Speakers might also feel compelled to draw closer to God as they seek to know what God wants them to say. When it becomes your turn to give a talk, you can't deny that it would be nice to have some divine inspiration to help you out. When people start drawing closer to God, lives start changing in wonderful ways.

If you would like to read more about how the church uses a lay ministry, see this related article on Mormon.org: Why don't Mormons have paid clergy?

Why so many tears?

It's true. We Mormons are criers. If you attend a Mormon church service for the full three hours in a ward where there are lots of members (at least 20 in each classroom), chances are high that you will hear at least one person start to choke up while sharing a comment or giving a talk, and it's pretty much guaranteed if you attend Sacrament Meeting on Fast Sunday (usually the first Sunday of the month).

Why so many tears and thick voices? Mormons believe in the Holy Ghost. He is a member of the godhead, but unlike Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ who have perfected bodies of flesh and bones, the Holy Ghost is a personage of spirit. Because he's a spirit, he can literally come and dwell within us. The mission of the Holy Ghost is to comfort, guide, counsel, and teach us. Anyone can be visited by the Holy Ghost. When Mormons say that they can feel that something is true, it could be that they have been visited by the Holy Ghost, and he testified to them that whatever they were thinking or wondering about was true. That's most often how he teaches us, when we're wondering if something is true or not.

When the Holy Ghost comes to be with us, we can feel it. It's a sweet, peaceful, warm feeling of power, sometimes barely noticeable and sometimes like a fire burning in our hearts, and it makes us feel loved and happy. The way the Holy Ghost feels is so wonderful that it alone can make a person cry just from sheer joy. It's pretty cool. When the feeling that the Holy Ghost gives us is accompanied with a reassuring feeling that whatever we were thinking about is true, that new knowledge can produce strong emotion. For example, if you were praying to God about whether the Bible is true or not, and you suddenly felt the Holy Ghost reassuring you that yes, it is true, then you would know that you no longer have to worry about believing in something that isn't actually true. You could then move forward with confidence that to read the Bible would put you on the right path. That new knowledge would make you feel relieved, confident, and maybe a little less stressed out.

Mormons are truth-seekers. We believe that each of us needs to find out if God is real, and if he is, what he wants us to believe and to do. Most Mormons have investigated the possibility of there being a God and have felt the Holy Ghost confirming to them that yes, God is real. We have also made it priority to find out what it is that God wants us to believe and to do. That's why when you go to church and hear Mormons talk about their beliefs, they will get emotional as they remember the times when the Holy Ghost came to them and testified of specific truths. They may also get emotional because they are feeling the Holy Ghost again as they are talking, reinforcing their testimonies of the truth.

The feelings inspired by the Holy Ghost are beautiful and can make us cry, but sometimes we cry out of emotion alone and not because of the influence of the Holy Ghost. Our church services tend to get very personal as we share stories from our own lives. We all experience really painful challenges, and many Mormons feel comfortable enough to share them and to share the lessons God taught them because of those experiences. Some of us will cry as we remember pain, and some of us because we're particularly passionate about something, and some of us just because we have trouble regulating our emotions. Keep in mind that strong emotion doesn't necessarily indicate the influence of the Holy Ghost or that whatever is said is true.

The Uplifted Hand

"All in favor, please make it manifest by the uplifted hand......Any opposed by the same sign......." 

For help understanding Mormon words and phrases used in this post, see Mormon Terminology, Pt. 1.

During the first part of Sacrament Meeting, the member of the bishopric conducting the meeting will conduct the ward business. Items of ward business include welcoming new members to the ward (congregation), releasing individuals from callings and extending new callings, and approving changes in ward boundaries. All of these items request the ward's unanimous vote. When the member of the bishopric proposes one of these changes, he says something like, "We would like to release Sister Anderson from her calling as Ward Pianist with a vote of thanks. All in favor, please make it manifest by the uplifted hand." This is the part where all the members of the ward will raise their right arms to a right angle with the elbow bent and palm facing forward (as shown in the picture below), to show their support for the proposed change.

One who isn't used to this custom might think it unusual to see all those arms raised, again and again with each item of business, but Mormons are used to it. Mormon practices often make use of outward symbols, just as the Law of Moses did. Mormons not only use the uplifted hand to show support for people and changes in the ward, but also when baptizing (as pictured) and performing other sacred rituals. Mormons might use the "uplifted hand" every Sunday, but it's still a sacred gesture.

Why do Mormons dress up for church?

If you have ever been to a church service for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, you probably noticed that the men wear suits and ties, typically with white shirts, and that the women wear dresses or skirts with nice tops. The children are also dressed up. You will hardly see men wearing colored shirts or anyone in jeans. Why do Mormons dress up like that on Sundays?

Mormons believe in outward symbols. In the Old Testament in the Holy Bible, we read that God had Israel follow the Law of Moses, which included many symbolic rituals and sacrifices that served to remind Israel of the Messiah who was to come save them. We believe that God still wants his children to learn from outward symbols. Therefore, on Sundays we dress up to help us remember that Sunday is a special day, a day to rest from our labors and to do God's work. We especially make sure that we dress up for church services to remind ourselves and our children that church attendance is extremely important and should not be observed casually.

The "Sunday best" dress code mentioned above isn't exactly a rule. The Church of Jesus Christ is a world-wide church, and you will find some variation in the definition of "Sunday best." But above all, remember that the way you dress is a personal matter and should be decided between you and God.

You may have also noticed that Mormon women typically don't wear dress pants to church. There is no theological objection to it, but Mormon culture doesn't exactly encourage it. My *guess* is that Mormons want to preserve the gender distinctions. Mormons believe that a person's gender is an important and eternal trait, meaning that we were either male or female before we were born and will be ever after. Considering that society doesn't exactly share our beliefs, we want to keep ourselves somewhat aloof from society's influence. Like I said, Mormons believe in symbolism. When the only ones who wear skirts and dresses are women and the only ones who wear suits and dress pants are men, a visual symbol of the distinction between the sexes is created.

It could also be that historically the women of the church have been wary of associating themselves too much with women who don't know and follow God's plan for us (the women "of the world"). When the women's rights movement made it socially acceptable for women to wear pants, but also did some more extreme things like burning bras, it might have been hard for everyone to sort out what changes were wonderful, good, and maybe not so good.

Ultimately, it's a good idea to wear something to church that is nicer than you would normally wear the rest of the week. That way you and your children can more easily remember to worship God and to honor his holy Sabbath Day.

The "Seminary Answers"

Education is an important principle to Mormons. That's why church is 3 hours long, and the Church publishes all kinds of books and materials to help teachers teach and students learn. There are also many classes that the Church provides (such as Sunday S\chool, financial seminars, leadership training, etc.), and seminary is one of them. Seminary is a four-year class for high school students. Each year the class focuses on either the Book of Mormon, the Old Testament and the Pearl of Great Price, the New Testament, or the Doctrine and Covenants and church history. The class is typically held five days a week during the regular school year, which can get pretty tedious for a busy, stressed-out teen. (I would know. I lived it.)

The terms "Seminary answers" and "Sunday School answers" have come to mean the answers to a question that pretty much everyone in the room knows but will not say because it's so obvious. For example, a Sunday School teacher might ask, "How can we come closer to God? Any thoughts?" The Seminary answers are: 1) Pray. 2) Read your scriptures. 3) Go to church. 4) Repent. 5) Develop your faith in Jesus Christ (by doing what he says and such).

Those four answers are the answers to SO MANY QUESTIONS that teachers will ask, probably because they are pretty much the answers to life. Because these answers are so universal, and because the concepts in the answers are taught day after day, after day, after day, after day.....in seminary, and week after week in Sunday School, they are called the "Seminary answers" or the "Sunday School answers."

Or at least that how I would explain it.