Wherever they are in the world, millions will rise together Saturday morning to raise their right hands during a solemn assembly, ushering in a new prophet and president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
President Dallin H. Oaks was ordained by the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on Oct. 14. Saturday marks the first time the entire church has gathered since then.
The solemn assembly will be one of the first items on the agenda for the faith’s 196th Annual General Conference, which originates from the Conference Center across the street from Temple Square in Salt Lake City.
Each church member will have a chance to stand and sustain the new prophet as part of their priesthood quorum or group. Then all will do so again as one. Sustaining church leaders is an indication a church member will follow, support and assist them with confidence, faith and prayer, said Brandon Metcalf, an archivist in the Church History Department.
This weekend’s conference will be markedly different from those in the past, because there will be just four daytime general sessions, two on Saturday and two on Sunday.
It’s the biggest change to the general conference schedule since 1977. That’s when the church reduced general conference to two days and five sessions. The church announced in November that it would discontinue the Saturday night session.
Prior to 1977, general conference typically was a three-day event.
General sessions of conference are meetings where all members of the church gather with church leadership. On Thursday, the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve held a church leadership conference for general authorities and officers. They announced 91 new Area Seventies.
The two-day conference lands on Easter weekend again this year. General conferences always feature messages centered on Jesus Christ, his Atonement and his Resurrection.
For example, speakers mentioned Christ 1,604 times during the October 2024 conference, according to a Deseret News analysis.
They often do so using scripture. The April 2025 conference featured 702 scripture references, per a separate Deseret News study.
Joseph Smith was sustained in a solemn assembly at the Kirtland Temple dedication in Ohio in 1836, six years after the church was organized.
Each of the church’s presidents have been sustained in a solemn assembly since 1880. That’s when John Taylor became the church’s third president after the death of Joseph Smith’s successor, Brigham Young, Metcalf said.
President Oaks is the church’s 18th president. His predecessor, President Russell M. Nelson, died a week before the church’s October 2025 general conference.
The First Presidency dissolved on his death, and President Oaks presided at the October conference as president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. The quorum led the church for 17 days until the ordination of President Oaks.
The new First Presidency also will be sustained for the first time by a general conference of the church, as will a new acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, two new apostles and a reconstructed Presiding Bishopric.
- President D. Todd Christofferson is the new second counselor in the First Presidency, joining Presidents Oaks and Henry B. Eyring, who is now the first counselor.
- President Eyring is the president of the Quorum of the Twelve, but because he is serving in the First Presidency, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf is the new acting president of the quorum.
- Elder Gérald Caussé was called as an apostle and ordained in November, filling the vacancy in church leadership created by President Nelson’s death.
- Elder Clark G. Gilbert was called as an apostle in February. He filled the vacancy created by the death of President Jeffrey R. Holland, who had been serving as president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
- Bishop W. Christopher Waddell is the new Presiding Bishop, replacing Elder Caussé.
The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square will perform this weekend.
Each of the general sessions of the conference will be streamed live on broadcasts.ChurchofJesusChrist.org in 80 languages.
They will also be available to watch or listen to on the general conference YouTube channel in 14 languages; the Gospel Stream app in four languages; Gospel Library in 80 languages; and other radio, television, satellite and digital channels.
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