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Millions of Latter-day Saints will stand together as one across the globe Saturday morning in what is known as a solemn assembly.
The chief purpose is to give church members the opportunity to raise their right hands and sustain a new prophet and president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
It is more spiritual than a simple vote. It also is a clear celebration of their restorationist faith, belief and doctrine.
The practice comes from both the Bible and the early Latter-day Saint history.
Saturday’s solemn assembly will be a clear symbol that church members believe theirs is Jesus Christ’s ancient, biblical church restored to Earth, complete with prophets, apostles and a direct line of priesthood.
On one hand, “It’s become this wonderful, unifying tradition for church members,” said Brandon Metcalf, an archivist in the Church History Department.
On the other, it is a pledge, he said.
“A solemn assembly is a special opportunity to commemorate a sacred occasion where we receive added spiritual power,” he said. “A solemn assembly for a new church president gives us an opportunity to sustain him through covenant.
“We’re covenanting to uphold this new church president through ‘confidence, faith and prayer,’ to borrow a phrase from Section 107 (of the Doctrine and Covenants, a book of Latter-day Saint scripture).”
Saturday’s solemn assembly will take place in the first of four general sessions of the church’s semiannual global general conference.
Church members watching and listening around the world will sustain the church’s 18th prophet, President Dallin H. Oaks.
The concept of a solemn assembly may be unknown to many outside the church. It also may be new to young church members or the more than 1.5 million converts who have joined the church since the last solemn assembly for a new prophet in 2018.
What happens during solemn assembly
An actively participating Latter-day Saints generally sustains the full church leadership three times a year — at the April general conference, a regional meeting called a stake conference and the annual ward conference in each individual congregation. But in those instances, church members remain sitting and all raise their right arms in unison in a single sustaining vote.
A solemn assembly for a new prophet/president of the church is different, Metcalf said. In this case, church members will stand and sustain church leadership in their various priesthood quorums or other church groups.
The new three-member First Presidency will stand first. They will be followed by the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, then the other adult priesthood quorums of the church in order, such as the Quorum of the Seventy and Elders Quorum. The Relief Society will go next, if precedent established in 2018 holds, followed by the Young Men priesthood quorums and Young Women groups, Metcalf said.
Then the entire church membership, including children, will stand at once. That means most church members will sustain President Oaks and the other leaders twice.
“It’s a historic event,” Metcalf said. “We always participate in raising the hand when we sustain church leaders, but to stand by quorums and groups and then as the entire church, and to know that it’s happening in countless homes and buildings worldwide, it feels like a historic gathering of Latter-day Saints when we all manifest our belief in ongoing revelation, that we have prophets, seers and revelators through whom leads his church.
“It truly is a solemn and sacred occasion for us to participate in that.”
The solemn assemblies of 2018 and 2020
The Old Testament describes solemn assemblies associated with religious feasts and festivals, such as the seventh day of the feast of the Passover and the feast of the tabernacles.
There was a solemn assembly for the dedication of the first temple in Jerusalem, known as Solomon’s temple, Metcalf said. Latter-days Saints today hold solemn assemblies at the dedication of new temples, but they are local events, not worldwide ones.
The last general, or global, Latter-day Saint solemn assembly was not held to usher in a new church president.
President Russell M. Nelson called a solemn assembly at general conference in April 2020 to unveil a Bicentennial Proclamation regarding the First Vision, the 1820 theophany that led to the organization of the church.
The proclamation declared the church is “Christ’s New Testament church restored.”
The solemn assembly in 2018 sustained President Nelson as the church’s 17th president and prophet. It was part of a broader history-making day.
An early solemn assembly in Latter-day Saint history
John Taylor is a central figure in the history of solemn assemblies in the church’s history, Metcalf said.
After the death of Brigham Young in 1877, President Taylor was the president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and anticipated the quorum would lead the church for some years. He called a solemn assembly for church members to sustain the quorum as the church’s leading body, Metcalf said.
Taylor was not at the solemn assembly in 1836 because he was a new church member in Canada. He learned of it, of course, and called one both in 1877 and again in 1880 when he became church president.
“Since 1880, the church has always held a solemn assembly for a new president,” Metcalf said.
From 1880 to the advent of radio, only those who were in the Salt Lake Tabernacle for general conference participated in the sustaining vote, Metcalf said. Radio and television participants were invited to join the last vote until 1986, when church leaders also extended the invitation to them to join the quorum and group voting for the start of President Ezra Taft Benson’s administration.
Women voted with the entire congregation from 1880 to 1995, when the Relief Society and Young Women stood and voted alone as groups for the advent of President Gordon B. Hinckley’s administration.
The initial Latter-day Saint solemn assembly took place at the Kirtland Temple dedication on March 27, 1836. President Sidney Rigdon, first counselor in the First Presidency, called on each quorum and then the entire congregation to stand and sustain Joseph Smith.
“After a break,” Metcalf said, “Joseph conducted the afternoon session and called on each quorum to acknowledge the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles as prophets, seers and special witnesses of Jesus Christ to all the earth.”
Joseph Smith specifically asked the membership to uphold the leaders by their prayers, Metcalf said.
Other historical notes about solemn assemblies
Metcalf attended President Nelson’s presidential solemn assembly during general conference at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City in April 2018. The event also revealed the calling of two new apostles who were sustained as part of the proceedings, Elder Gerrit W. Gong and Elder Ulisses Soares.
“They feel like historic gatherings to me,” Metcalf said.
“It was a spiritual moment for me to raise my hand and recognize that he was the Lord’s senior apostle on Earth and rightly held all the necessary priesthood keys to direct the Lord’s work on Earth and move things forward as we prepare for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
“To be there with my family and with this massive congregation of 21,000 Saints at the Conference Center was just a special feeling.”
Metcalf provided a few other historical notes:
- Saturday’s solemn assembly will be just the third in the history of the Conference Center, following those for President Thomas S. Monson in 2008 and President Nelson in 2018.
- Solemn assemblies for a new church president have been held at general conference since 1880 with one exception. In 1901, President Lorenzo Snow died a week after the October general conference, and the solemn assembly for the next president, Joseph F. Smith, was held at the Tabernacle the following month.
- The 1919 solemn assembly for President Heber J. Grant was held at general conference during the global influenza pandemic, but the conference and assembly were postponed from April to June.
President Nelson died last fall a week before general conference. The church sustained President Oaks at its October general conference as the president of the Quorum of the Twelve, which led the church until the quorum met and voted to sustain and ordain him as the new prophet and president nine days after general conference.
Church leaders chose to wait for this week’s general conference to call a solemn assembly for the church to sustain him as the new prophet and 18th president of the church.
About the church
It has been a newsy week for the church, beginning with the announcement of major changes to the second hour of the Sunday meeting schedule.
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Here is a visitors guide about what is and isn’t currently open at Temple Square.
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What I’m reading
I really encourage you to read this story if you read nothing else in ChurchBeat this week: The rise of the new Latter-day Saint influencer.
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Behind the Scenes
