Mormans hold signature conference virtually

choir will stay at home. The music will be prerecorded.

Leaders from the Utahbased faith that counts 16 million members worldwide utilize the conference to provide spiritual guidance, underscore the religion’s key beliefs and, sometimes, announce new initiatives or rules.

The last time the church conference was held without people in attendance was during World War II because of wartime travel restrictions. Flu epidemics forced the church to postpone the conference in 1919 by two months and cancel the conference in the fall of 1957, according to a church history of the conference.

Staying home and watching the speeches on TV or their computers or tablets won’t feel much different for many church members, since most watch from their living rooms and attend only occasionally or on special occasions because tickets are limited.

The religion has been planning since last year to use this conference to commemorate the 200th anniversary of when their founder Joseph Smith, then a teenager, says he had a vision of

God and Jesus Christ in the woods of upstate New York that led to the formation of the church 10 years later.

That will likely still be the centerpiece theme of the weekend, with leaders also providing message of reassurance to weary members, said Patrick Mason, a religious scholar who is the Arrington Chair of Mormon History and Culture at Utah State University.

“I expect that we are going to hear a lot of messages of reassurance, like ‘God is still in charge,’ ‘God still loves us,’ ‘God is still taking care of us,’” Mason said. “I think they are going to do a lot to ease people’s fears, ease people’s anxieties.”