This brief edition of General Conference by the Numbers discusses two aspects of the April 2023 general conference:
- The number of times that “Palm Sunday” was mentioned.
- An increasing trend in using the “doctrine of Christ” in general conference.
Palm Sunday
More than one fourth of the talks in the April 2023 conference mentioned “Palm Sunday”. The fact that the April 2023 conference was held on Palm Sunday weekend almost certainly increased that number. Since 1971, there have been a total of 17 conference talks that mentioned “Palm Sunday”. Of those 17 talks, more than half of them (9) were in the April 2023 conference.
Along with “Palm Sunday”, there was also discussion about the importance of Easter. For example, in his talk The Greatest Easter Story Ever Told, Elder Gary E. Stevenson quoted bible scholar N. T. Wright:
We should be taking steps to celebrate Easter in creative new ways: in art, literature, children’s games, poetry, music, dance, festivals, bells, special concerts. … This is our greatest festival. Take Christmas away, and in biblical terms you lose two chapters at the front of Matthew and Luke, nothing else. Take Easter away, and you don’t have a New Testament; you don’t have a Christianity.
Doctrine of Christ
One of my friends asked me if the “doctrine of Christ”[i] was used more frequently in the April conference. Looking at the data, I found that mentions of the “doctrine of Christ” began increasing during the Monson era and that trend has accelerated in the Nelson era as shown in the following chart:
Looking deeper at the Nelson era, I found that the “doctrine of Christ” has been consistently mentioned at every conference in the Nelson era as shown in the following chart:
An example of this trend is the talk, Trusting the Doctrine of Christ, given by Elder Evan A. Schmutz in April 2023. Here is a quote from that talk:
… brothers and sisters, if we are to accept President Nelson’s invitation to have the doctrine of Christ rooted in the marrow of our bones, we must deepen our conversion to the Lord by study, prayer, faithful living, and continual repentance. We must invite the Holy Ghost to engrave the doctrine of Christ in the “fleshy tables of [our] heart[s]”11 as deeply and as permanently as it was engraved by Nephi upon the plates of gold.
Last October, President Nelson asked, “What does it mean to overcome the world?” Among other things, he said, “It means trusting the doctrine of Christ more than the philosophies of men.”
Peace
I was also asked if “peace” was a theme of the April 2023 conference. While “peace” was mentioned in 19 of the 33 talks, “peace” is always mentioned frequently in general conference as shown in the following chart:
This chart shows a small (8%) increase in usage of the word “peace” in the Nelson era. A closer look at the Nelson era reveals that “peace” has been mentioned consistently at all conferences as shown in the following chart:
Statistics for April 2023:
- 33 talks by 32 different speakers
- First-time Speakers: none
- 1,160 scripture references – the conference average since 1971 is 742
- Since 1971, there have been 3,838 conference talks given by 517 different speakers. In those talks there are 77,924 scripture references.
- The most frequently referenced verses were: Moroni 10:32 and Matthew 11:29 – each referenced in 5 talks.
- The most frequently referenced chapter was: 3 Nephi 11 – referenced in 9 talks.
- Overall, the most frequently referenced verse continues to be Moses 1:39 (231 talks) and the most frequently referenced chapter continues to be Doctrine and Covenants 88 (431 talks).
- In the Nelson era, there have been 370 conference talks by 152 different speakers. In those talks there are 12,254 scripture references.
- The most frequently referenced verse in the Nelson era is Alma 7:12 (referenced in 32 talks)
- The most frequently referenced chapter in the Nelson era is Doctrine and Covenants 88 (referenced in 65 talks).
[i] To learn about the doctrine of Christ see 2 Nephi 31
