Easter Sunday, April 5, 2026

On January 26, 2024, the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints instructed, “Each year, Church services and meetings should be limited to sacrament meeting only on Easter Sunday and on a Sunday before or after Christmas Day. If Christmas is not on a Sunday, stake and district presidencies decide whether to hold this sacrament meeting before or after Christmas.” (Letter URL, and announcement URL)

I am curious what will happen in the Spring. Easter Sunday will next be observed by non-Orthodox Christians on April 5th, which falls on a General Conference weekend. This coincidence of Sundays is not unusual. They coincided 11 out of 50 of the most recent Aprils. The usual thing on recent Conference Easters had been for the Sunday morning session of Conference, the most outward-facing session, to proceed as normal, but more of the talks than usual are about the Resurrection, and the testimonies and preaching of Christ, present at any General Conference, are given with acknowledgement that they are being voiced on Easter. Two hours later when the Sunday afternoon session starts, Easter has been mostly out of the way.

On Easter Sunday, April 6, 1980, President Kimball presided the sessions that day from the reconstructed Whitmer home, site of the organization of the Church in 1830. President Kimball started out the morning session, “We are here, this lovely Easter morning, in the reconstructed farmhouse of Peter Whitmer, Sr. It has been faithfully restored for this occasion to bring to us anew the recollection of the all-important and significant event which occurred here a century and a half ago.” His next minutes concerned the Restoration of the Gospel without any Easter focus, but he then followed up with a good Easter talk. The next speaker was Elder Gordon Hinckley, and he noted Easter twice in his Restoration talk. “And so, brothers and sisters, on this day of Easter, when we remember Him who overcame death, we speak with gratitude of the Prophet who was a preeminent witness of the living Christ.” The next two speakers, Elder Boyd Packer and Pres. Marion Romney, did not mention Easter or approach it. For the afternoon session only the opening speaker Elder Mark Petersen mentioned Easter once.

At the By Common Consent website, William V. Smith, a student of the recording and transmittal of Joseph Smith’s sermons summarized Joseph Smith’s recorded preaching on Easter Sundays:

It was not that Latter-day Saints were ignorant of the meaning or existence of Easter Sunday. It was mentioned in some diaries for example, but its celebration was either non-existent or muted. Hence, among the surviving reports of early Mormon sermons, there is little evidence that the Easter holiday itself provoked any special homilies. As far as Joseph Smith is concerned there are a few candidates. Here are some.

He delivered short remarks on Easter Sunday, April 11, 1841 but the weather was bad and the meeting adjourned to the river to perform baptisms. On Easter, March 27, 1842, Wilford Woodruff only notes that Joseph spoke on baptism for the dead (certainly a uniquely Mormon topic of relevance). Easter, April 16, 1843, Joseph preached a funeral sermon for Lorenzo Barnes. The holiday is not mentioned in surviving reports. Finally, Easter, April 7, 1844 was the occasion of Joseph’s funeral sermon for King Follett. While this sermon is famous for many reasons, it is little known as, nor does it self-identify as, an Easter Sunday sermon. However, I think it qualifies for that in an important way.

Some may recall hearing Pres. Gordon Hinckley describe in 2002 efforts to simplify the functions of the Church:

“[. . .] we know that the administrative load is very heavy on our bishops and stake presidents, as well as some others. An awareness of that fact has led the Presidency and the Twelve to hold a number of meetings, some of them long and interesting, in which, in effect, we have taken the Church apart and then put it together again. Our objective has been to see whether there might be some programs we could do away with. But as we have analyzed these, we have not seen much that could be dropped. To drop one is like giving away one of your children. You haven’t the heart to do it. But I wish to assure you that we are aware of the burdens you carry and the time you spend. In this priesthood meeting I wish to mention a few of the items we have discussed. I think you will note that we have made some progress, although it may be small.”

A future prophet was prepared who lacked Hinckley’s sentimental attachments and sense of collegial collaboration, an iconoclast who could clear out the clutter of laurels, pageants, priesthood meetings, and “Mormonism” (so called). A curious contradiction though was that Pres. Nelson was drawn, and drew the Church with him, to even older traditions of the Catholics. He decided Easter should be a bigger thing among the latter-day saints, and that Holy Week should be a thing too. In 2023, General Conference coincided with Palm Sunday, and the Deseret News reported:

A record for mentions of Palm Sunday
[. . .]
The mentions of Palm Sunday were striking.
In fact, leaders mentioned that day 20 times on Sunday. That’s one more time than that exact term had been said in general conferences in the first 192 years of the gatherings [. . .]

Last week there was reporting on progress with renovation of the Salt Lake temple, and a photo of the new pavilions north of the temple struck me. Here is a similar photo found at the Salt Lake Tribune website:

The photo left me wondering counterfactuals: If Russell Nelson’s immediate predecesors in the Quorum of the Twelve had all died five years earlier, which was very possible considering the advanced ages he and they reached, would we now find crosses on the interior and exterior of chapels of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? Such did not happen, so through experience we learn just how much Catholic style the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was supposed to adopt.

So looking at the near future, what will the Church do with General Conference on Easter Sunday, April 5, 2026. Will it follow its direction to wards quoted in the opening paragraph above and limit Conference to one hour so that gathering longer than that as a church on Easter will not interfere with our religion?