“And the Church Did Meet Together Oft”

Brant Gardner

Moroni shifts from has previous practice of separating liturgical elements by chapter breaks. The breaks were significant enough that he broke chapters between the two sacramental prayers. He broke chapters between the introduction and the first liturgical description in chapter 2. In spite of those clear divisions, Moroni does not make a chapter break here, even though he has finished with baptism. The probable reason for this non-division is that Moroni saw the material contained in verses 5-9 as the outgrowth of the baptismal covenant. Even though we would see these items under slightly different categories, for Moroni they were all results of baptism, and therefore appropriate to the chapter on baptism.

The first new statement that we have deals with liturgical time, or the repeated frequency of the acts of “church.” In modern LDS practice, we are very familiar with the weekly observance of special activities associated with the gospel. We go to church. We pray publicly. We sing songs. We partake of the sacrament. We hear people teach us. All of these are elements of the practice of church, but so is the fact that we do it every Sunday. We do now know on which day of the week the Nephites met. Nor can we be certain that they met weekly (or only weekly). Moroni simply tells us that they “did meet together oft.” That would appear to suggest a frequency that is greater than once a month, and certainly allows for a weekly meeting as a congregation.

What went on when they met together “oft?” Moroni tells us that they fasted and prayed. We may expect that fasting is therefore a part of the communal practice. We do not know how often they fasted, but enough that it was considered a part of regular church practice. They also prayed together. While not specifically stated, we may assume that there were public, oral, prayers. Nephi prays on his tower in his garden (Helaman 7:10-11), so we know that vocal prayers are considered acceptable.

In addition to public prayer, the also “speak one with another concerning the welfare of their souls.” It is probable that this constitutes some form of instruction or teaching. Thus we can cautiously reconstruct a Nephite “church meeting” as having public prayers, and some form of instruction. With the presence of an office labeled teacher we would suppose that such a person would be at least one of those who would instruct the congregation.

Multidimensional Commentary on the Book of Mormon

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