Photo: Historic LDS Architecture

[dropcap]C[/dropcap]oronavirus or the sickness caused by it, COVID-19, has officially enveloped our society, leading to drastic restrictions across everyday life, including church activity. The Church has been proactive in erring on the side of caution, resulting in a cavalcade of new practices, closures, and other measures. Jared Gillins is here, and this week is pretty much all coronavirus and the Latter-day Saint Response.

First off, if you want to bookmark a useful page, the Church produces a single portal listing all relevant articles pertaining to coronavirus restrictions and actions, along with the dates the material was last updates. Worth keeping around.

It is important that we take coronavirus seriously. Seriously! Jana Riess, no stranger to fusillades from our end, rightly calls out Latter-day Saints for inaction during this crisis. It is about all of us at this point.

Likewise, By Common Consent ran a terrific piece challenging us not to be selfish as we protect ourselves, but to think of others and to think collectively.

So here we are. All Church activity has effectively come to a screeching halt. It started a few weeks ago, as missionary activity scaled back and temples closed in Asia. Then the shoes came a-droppin'.

First, the inevitable announcement that General Conference would still take place, but that the Conference Center and other facilities would be closed to the public. What will Conference be like with speakers speaking to an empty room and choirs' singing into the empty expanse?

Of course, it gave us this great bit of the internet:

Then we learned that missionary training centers (MTC) would largely go virtual. That is, MTCs in Provo and England would stop taking in new missionaries, requiring them instead to be trained online from home. Other MTCs around the world will restrict who can arrive based on country of origin.

Eventually, the closures hit the Church Education System, with BYU canceling commencement and the Women's Conference. The Church also moved to close more temples at this time.

Finally, the big one. On Thursday evening, the First Presidency announced an end to all meetings and activities, encouraging bishops and stake presidents to work together to outline protocols for administering the sacrament while ward members were encouraged to use their skills learned from a year of Come, Follow Me to hold church at home with their families.

So how was your first week of home church?