Video Recordings in Chapels

I have seen in other threads in a variety of LDSTech forums well intentioned people discussing video recordings of sacrament meetings. The most recent post that said outright that the sacrament meeting was recorded is in the Announcements forum in the thread Submit Your Online Tech Talk Questions. I did not want to take that thread away from the original topic but find myself compelled to speak out against direct violation of Church policy.

Technology has it's place but .... The Church Handbook of Instructions, Book 1, page 183, is quite clear that

Photographs and Video Recordings in Chapels
Taking photographs or making video recordings in chapels is not permitted.

It is as plain as it can be. There are no exceptions in the wording. You can rationalize for or against it all you want but when you sustained the general authorities and officers of the Church you made a covenant to obey their instructions.

Just for the purpose of discussions, video recording and live transmission are not the same. And as far as video recording is concerned it does not matter how it is done or what technology is involved.

Ok, now I'll step down off my soap box.

jdlessley wrote:I have seen in other threads in a variety of LDSTech forums well intentioned people discussing video recordings of sacrament meetings. The most recent post that said outright that the sacrament meeting was recorded is in the Announcements forum in the thread Submit Your Online Tech Talk Questions. I did not want to take that thread away from the original topic but find myself compelled to speak out against direct violation of Church policy.

I absolutely agree with your statement about following Church policy. But I must have missed the post (and I read every single post) that talked about video recordings. In the thread you mentioned, I could only see this comment:

blmcewan wrote:Example: conference broadcasts are streamed all over the world and made available via iTunes--why can we not utilize similar services? I currently record our sacrament meetings via an MP3 records and the line out feed and burn them to CD for our shut-ins in the ward who are not able to make it. Itunes would be a huge time-saver

This talks about audio recording, not video. While we need to be careful about audio recordings, too, you only quoted policy on video recordings. I suppose you could read into that comment a hint of the possibility of video, but all that is being done is audio at this point.

Alan_Brown wrote:This talks about audio recording, not video.

Now I am red faced. I appologize for the diatribe based on a false interpretation. When I saw "... burn them to CD ..." I only saw "video". The format MP3 should have keyed me to audio, but it didn't at the time.

I appologize for the error.

I know this is a side note, But apparently it is possible to get an exemption to the no video taping in Sacrament meeting rule. BYU tv has a live sacrament meeting that they broadcast each week. its only the second half though after the sacrament is over.

1historian wrote:BYU tv has a live sacrament meeting that they broadcast each week. its only the second half though after the sacrament is over.

This is a special program started many years ago as part of a Church project when they were involved with a satellite network. Sorry I cannot remember the names. It was the Family Channel or VistaVision or something like that, and I do not believe the Church is still affiliated with them.

But that is the reason BYU TV broadcasts the meeting without the sacrament. It is by special arrangement and permission from the First Presidency, and I think it is run under the Public Affairs department.

But, again, I probably have all of the usual suspects mixed and goofed up and should have researched this before posting, but I would not know where to look.

1historian wrote:BYU tv has a live sacrament meeting that they broadcast each week. its only the second half though after the sacrament is over.

If I recall correctly, it's a staged meeting. It not even done on a Sunday. If you dig back in the Church News archives, I think you can find out more about it. It's possible it's changed since then.

Is there anyway we can get them to go on the road durring the third mont of the quarter? We cant even get that many people to a regular sacrament meeting much less an extra one durring the week.

Please consider this.

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/stu ... e_number57

Please note you're commenting on a 5 year old, pre-pandemic thread. Much had changed since then.

russellhltn wrote: Sun Sep 10, 2023 2:26 pm Please note you're commenting on a 5 year old, pre-pandemic thread. Much had changed since then.

Or rather 15 year old thread.

jdlessley wrote: Sun Sep 10, 2023 6:21 pm Or rather 15 year old thread.

My, time flies when you're having fun.