I’ve also heard that there was no GA-supplied letter for bishops to read to congregations. Rather, it was a top down order through stake presidents that each bishopric should prepare their own message and deliver it on the same Sunday. Cowardly area leadership.
Reports from one ward, where a friend of mine remains active, is that the second counselor read their message. One part mentioned some women may be upset about this change and he chuckled while reading it. “Minimized” was how I heard it described, and more than a few in that ward have written letters of complaint.
All the voices of dissent are being treated like their feedback is going into a suggestion box that no one in management will ever read, much less act upon.
Tribune article quotes church spokesman which makes it sound like this absolutely was sanctioned, if not ordered, by the FP.
Another of my wife’s friends, a “TBM,” messaged her after reading the SLTribune article. She is active while her husband isn’t. Said she is disgusted by and sick about the handling of this, and is going into a rabbit hole of her own. Shocking, coming from her.
I’ve written a number of times about the many signs that church leadership is following patterns of failing enterprises, based on contemporary research. This incident surely adds to the case. See
viewtopic.php?p=2840697#p2840697