Sacrament speaking format for 2019

[cobba]

Hello

I was wondering what other wards will be doing for 2019 now that we are going to 60 minutes in sacrament meeting?

How many minutes will you be assigning to speakers? And will you be going down to a maximum of 2 speakers?

Many thanks!

[davesudweeks]

Our bishopric attended stake bishopric training this morning. The stake provided a suggested Sacrament meeting program which lists 3 speakers (though speaker 2 is noted as "optional"). Also, the intermediate hymn is listed as optional with a note that it could be canceled if needed. No timing was suggested for the speakers.

So, in other words, it looks roughly the same as today. They did specifically instruct the bishops in our stake to NOT take time for announcements that can be provided in other ways. Pages 2 and 3 of the handout contained specific direction from our Stake President on the format he wants to have for the 2nd hour meetings.

[sbradshaw]

As an attendee, my recommendation would be to simply shorten each talk by 2–3 minutes, be sure to start on time, and make sure your channels of communication outside of announcements during the meeting are effective (cutting out the announcements during the meeting). If you have four talks, you may need to go to three. I would not recommend cutting out the intermediate hymn. Singing hymns is the only interactive element of actual "worship" during our worship meeting, outside of the sacrament ordinance itself, and not only that, it keeps people awake.

[davesudweeks]

I would not recommend cutting out the intermediate hymn.

I agree, and I was only providing the information from our Stake President for the OPs reference. I personally hope we keep the intermediate hymn.

[russellhltn]

It should be noted that the intermediate hymn is a "may".

I've seen cases when the first speaker runs overtime that the intermediate hymn is either eliminated or cut down to one verse. So, it can be used as a tool to keep things on-time.