The communion of the Saints is a phrase nowhere found in scripture.  But the idea is found there.  Even more, it is found in the lived experience of the Saints.  We soon find a sense of kinship and fellowship with other Saints both living and dead.

This experience is probably most marked at the sacrament, where we have a vivid sense of all the Saints around the world who are also at the table with us, eating and drinking; and in General Conference.

Probably no more so than at a solemn assembly, where we vote to sustain a new prophet.  But we do not vote as small-d democrats do.  We are not atomized individuals expressing our individual will.  We are a communion, collectively acknowledging our identity, our Head, and his new anointed:

Then those opposing will be asked to bring their right arms to the square to bear witness to the Lord that they are not willing to sustain the officer whom they are called upon to sustain.

-thus N. Eldon Tanner.

The April 1974 solemn assembly at the Saturday morning session of General Conference made me strongly feel the communion of the Saints.  President Kimball, newly sustained as the prophet, named and remembered the great prophets of the ages and reminded us of our role in our fellowship.  We stand on the shoulders of giants, and share their faith, their priesthood, and their lineage.

Other Posts from this session of General Conference

• The Paths We Walk by Nathaniel Givens
• Meeting Jesus and Being Transformed by Daniel Ortner
• How We Hold On To The Standard of Truth by Jan Tolman
• To arrive where we started, and know the place for the first time by Marilyn Nielson