LDS Sunday Meeting Schedule Change, September 2026

The New Sunday Schedule

From the Church's announcement: "Beginning the first week of September 2026, the Sunday class meeting schedule will change."

The published times are: sacrament meeting "lasts up to 60 minutes"; Sunday School "25 minutes"; elders quorum and Relief Society "25 minutes"; Aaronic Priesthood quorums and Young Women classes "25 minutes"; and Primary "55 minutes."

The announcement states the reason as well. The updates are meant to help members "focus more on the teachings of Jesus Christ," "strengthen gospel learning at home," and "increase fellowship, belonging, and community at church."

What Changes for Teacher Council Meetings

This is the part most summaries of the schedule change leave out, and it is the part that matters most if you teach.

The announcement says: "Teacher council meetings are held monthly during one of the 25-minute class times on Sunday."

Two things changed in that one sentence. The frequency moved from quarterly to monthly, so a teacher who attended four of these a year will now attend roughly twelve. And the length moved from a 50-minute class time to a 25-minute one. Four times as often, half as long.

The General Handbook Still Says Quarterly

If you go looking this up and come away confused, this is why. As of today the General Handbook has not been updated to match the announcement.

General Handbook 17.4, Teaching the Gospel, currently reads: "Teacher council meetings are held quarterly during the 50-minute class time on Sunday. Meetings for priesthood, Relief Society, and Young Women teachers can be held on a first or third Sunday."

General Handbook 13, Sunday School, says the same thing and points back to that section: "Teacher council meetings are held quarterly during the 50-minute class time on Sunday (see 17.4). Their purpose is to help improve learning and teaching. Teaching in the Savior's Way is the main resource for these meetings."

So one official source says monthly and 25 minutes, and another official source says quarterly and 50 minutes. Both are on churchofjesuschrist.org right now, and both are linked at the bottom of this page. The announcement describes what begins in September; the Handbook describes the arrangement in place until then. This page is not the authority on which governs your ward on a given Sunday, and it would be wrong of us to pretend otherwise. The Handbook is clear that "the ward council oversees and schedules teacher council meetings," so your ward council is the answer to that question.

What a 25-Minute Teacher Council Actually Means

Nothing below is Church instruction. It is what shorter and more frequent tends to mean in practice, offered as something to think about rather than something to follow.

A 50-minute meeting four times a year can afford a long discussion of one principle. A 25-minute meeting twelve times a year cannot, and does not need to. Twelve short meetings can take one principle at a time and come back to it, which is closer to how the resource is built anyway. Teaching in the Savior's Way has four principles of Christlike teaching, and twelve meetings is three passes at each.

The practical effect is that preparation matters more and material matters less. A meeting with 25 minutes in it has time for one idea, one honest conversation about how it went last month, and one thing to try next month.

What Does Not Change

Teaching in the Savior's Way is still the resource. The Handbook's line on that is unchanged: "Teaching in the Savior's Way is the main resource for these meetings."

The four principles of Christlike teaching are unchanged: love those you teach, teach by the Spirit, teach the doctrine, and invite diligent learning. So is Part 1, Focus on Jesus Christ, which comes before all four.

And the Handbook's statement that the ward council schedules these meetings is unchanged. Whatever the calendar looks like in September, it is set locally.