A Sunday Snapshot

From time to time, I've spoken of what goes on in the Den on a Sunday.  As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or Mormons, our Sundays roll a little bit differently.  I thought a bit about this today as the Boy had a friend join our services for the first time today.  So how is it different?

A couple of things - Sundays are treated as a Sabbath day, a day of rest from the demands of everyday life, which means we typically don't shop, run around, work, etc., as we try to dedicate the day to the Savior (although I dedicate a goodly portion of it to the reading of the Sunday New York Times - so sue me).  Secondly, our Sunday services are three hours in length and are led by a lay clergy, meaning lots of folks get involved in Sunday worship.  I'm one of those who is involved and I'm involve at a leadership level, serving as Second Counselor in our ward (like a local parish) bishopric.  So my day is a little different.  Here's how it went today:

0600 - Bishopric meeting: opportunity for us to review the day's agenda, speakers, and to discuss needs within our ward
0700 - Ward Council: the leaders of our various groups (e.g. Sunday School, mission, primary, youth, etc) met to talk about 2011 plans as well as any upcoming activities and needs of ward members
0900 - Sacrament Meeting: this meeting opens our three hour block and is our most important meeting of the day.  Why?  The Sacrament is passed to all in this meeting.  Today was Testimony meeting, where any member of the ward was invited to come forward and bear witness of the Savior and the truths of His gospel.  Today was a good one - powerful spirit.

Sacrament Meeting - not ours, just a reasonable facsimilie

 1015 - Sunday School: I actually got to go today!  We are studying the Old Testament and had an interesting discussion from Jeremiah.
1110 - Priesthood Meeting - Men's worship service.  Met with some of the young men today.

1200 - The block's over and folks head home.  I stay back as one of my administrative responsibilities includes reconciling collected tithing (yep, we're tithe payers, too).  We wrapped up in about an hour today and it was time to head home.

Looking at my calendar, the rest of the day is free.  No other meetings.  It's a quiet Sunday.  So we're home now, hanging out and trying to make it a day of rest.  The Lord took a break after six days, per Genesis, so why not us?  It's been a good day.  I like Sundays like these.