History of the Mormon Sabbath

This Sunday’s Young Women lesson is on the Sabbath, so I was wandering around lds.org to find some supplemenal info for the lesson (the lesson manual rarely provides enough to fill the time). I came across the Ensign article linked in the title. It’s from 1978, so it’s definitely dated (the shift to the 3-hour block since that time being the most obvious change), but it’s quite interesting to see how LDS Sunday and Sabbath traditions came to be.

Some quotes (but go read the whole thing):

Some churches in 1830 held two preaching services, one before noon and a second after lunch. Early Saints, familiar with that pattern of meetings, adopted it, and our current two-meetings-a-Sabbath for all members continues that tradition.

Besides the sacrament, the sermon was the next most important part of Sunday worship. Preaching occupied the major part of each public meeting, and members often were deeply affected by it. Noted W. W. Phelps: “President Smith preached last Sabbath. … He preached one of the greatest sermons I ever heard; it was about 3 1/2 hours long—and unfolded more mysteries than I can write at this time.”

It was at Nauvoo that the first wards were created, but these were for tithing purposes, not for regular meeting purposes. Records do not show any ward sacrament meetings in Nauvoo, only the community-wide morning and afternoon meetings.

From 1850 to 1900 the Sabbath day in the Church changed a great deal. Meetinghouses for each ward made ward sacrament meetings and Sunday Schools possible for the first time. Holding local meetings in turn meant that more local members participated in Sabbath activities as class teachers and members, officers and sacrament administrators, speakers, prayer givers, and choir members. Special fast Sundays and quarterly stake conference Sundays were introduced.

At first worship services took place outdoors. Two months after the first pioneers reached Salt Lake, a newcomer visited a Sunday meeting and “found them by the side of a haystack.” A year later a Sabbath service was held “on the south side of the north wall of the Old Fort.” One Logan clerk could measure attendance by space occupied: “The meetings today were well attended, the congregation covering over half an acre.”

Older members today recall when ward priesthood meetings were on Monday nights, a practice established in 1908. However, some bishops favored a Sunday priesthood meeting, before or after Sunday School, to cut down on travel demands for those who lived far away from chapels. In the 1930s, when wards were permitted to hold priesthood meetings on Sundays or weeknights, most chose Sunday mornings, a practice now standardized throughout the Church.