End of authorization to administer the sacrament at home

This message was sent to all ward members via email, 28 June 2021.

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Dear brothers and sisters,

The work of the Church of Jesus Christ is directed through the use of priesthood keys (see Matthew 16:19). The president of the church, Russell M. Nelson, holds and exercises all priesthood keys. Some of these keys are delegated to local leaders, such as stake presidents and bishops, to direct the work of the church in the geographic boundaries of their stakes and wards. (See General Handbook 3.4.1.) In my current calling as bishop, I hold the keys for directing the work of the Jamaica 1st Ward. This includes the administration of the sacrament to members of our ward (see General Handbook 18.9.1).

With these keys, at the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the suspension of in-person church meetings, I authorized households in the Jamaica 1st Ward to administer the sacrament at home.

While the coronavirus pandemic is not over yet, our ward and community are in a very different and much better position today. The Jamaica 1st Ward has been holding sacrament meetings weekly since March. This month, we began holding second-hour meetings in person weekly as well. Crucially, the vaccine is now available to anyone and everyone ages 12 and up who chooses to receive it.

Therefore, effective immediately, members of the Jamaica 1st Ward, including full-time missionaries, are no longer automatically authorized to administer the sacrament at home. We invite all ward members to join us for sacrament meeting in person each week to partake of the sacrament.

If extenuating circumstances prevent ward members from attending sacrament meeting in person and they would like to administer the sacrament at home, they should contact me directly each week for authorization to do so. As they administer the sacrament in their own or others’ homes, they should continue to adhere to the instructions given in the scriptures (see Doctrine and Covenants 20:75–79) and the church’s General Handbook (see section 18.9) as well as the guidelines I shared previously.

For households unable to join with us in person and without a member with the appropriate priesthood office, the ward can continue to arrange for priesthood holders to visit their home to administer the sacrament.

Thank you for your continued faith and patience as we have navigated this pandemic together. Now is the time for us to realize in a more complete way the instruction given by Moroni near the close of the Book of Mormon:

And after they had been received unto baptism, and were wrought upon and cleansed by the power of the Holy Ghost, they were numbered among the people of the church of Christ; and their names were taken, that they might be remembered and nourished by the good word of God, to keep them in the right way, to keep them continually watchful unto prayer, relying alone upon the merits of Christ, who was the author and the finisher of their faith.

And the church did meet together oft, to fast and to pray, and to speak one with another concerning the welfare of their souls.

And they did meet together oft to partake of bread and wine, in remembrance of the Lord Jesus.

Moroni 6:4–6

Sincerely,

Dustin Tyler Joyce
Bishop, Jamaica 1st Ward
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints