Baptismal parties

Dear Gramps,

Please can you advise when members were counselled that baptisms should not be celebrated with parties in chapels, as this was not appropriate for recognition of such a spiritual ordinance, and that this should be held in members homes, if they so wished? I can remember reading it in the Ensign, but cannot remember when, or in which address.

Phil

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Phil,

Not only are parties of all kinds not celebrated in chapels, but neither are civil weddings to be performed there. If you can’t hold a civil wedding in a chapel, why would we encourage a baptismal party in the chapel?

The chapel is to be a reverent place for us to come to on the Sabbath for worship services. Funerals are held in the chapel because it is a time of mourning and reverence. It is not a time for a party in such an instance.

-Gramps