Day one of the 2025 General Conference (GC) Session in St. Louis, Missouri, has concluded with the approval of the originally proposed agenda.

Sam Neves, associate director of Communications for the GC, shared a summary of this afternoon’s key moments during the evening press conference: 

• 277 names for the nominating committee have been voted and approved; they will begin meeting tomorrow, July 4, after morning worship.

• A motion to make an amendment regarding the 2015 immunization statement was brought forward but was turned down by delegates.

• A motion to add a report on public affairs and religious liberty to the agenda was also brought forward but was turned down by the delegates.

Following the highlights, the 2025 GC Session Management team joined Neves to discuss the efforts involved in organizing a large-scale event such as the GC Session.

“The first day is very critical to find out what works and what doesn’t,” said George Egwake, session manager and associate treasurer of the GC. “Our team is working very hard to address any problems that have and will arise.” 

Sabrina de Souza, associate treasurer and incoming Session Manager for 2030, cited the GC Session app as an example of a quick turnaround fix.

“The app launched approximately one month before the session, allowing us to receive feedback from delegates all over the world,” de Souza said. “This allowed us to make improvements before day one of Session.” 

Later, GC associate treasurer Richard Stephenson joined Neves to discuss the digital-first approach of this year’s session. 

“We are utilizing Jetstream Studio, a media management system, to translate session meetings in 37 languages, live,” Stephenson said.

Stephenson pointed out that this system will be available to the world church for congregations to use in their digital evangelism strategies.  

The press conference concluded with questions from the media and a reminder from Neves that GC president Ted Wilson delivers his report this evening, highlighting the global church’s ministry efforts over the past five years.

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